Regardless of advocates marching on San Francisco a month back to raise awareness of problems affecting the homeless, the City by the Bay is presently thinking about a measure to outlaw seated and/or lying on the famed Haight Road sidewalks. Or, possibly, any and all sidewalks citywide. In an unfortunate development, Mayor Gavin Newsom announced on Friday that he will personally introduce an ordinance to the Board of Supervisors this week.
Proponents complain about a new breed of "street punks," "thugs" or "road warriors" antagonizing citizens with especially disruptive, menacing misbehavior and unlawful acts. Unfortunately, as is as well frequently the case, they are getting equated with "the homeless" much more usually, despite reports acknowledging that there have been really handful of problems from homeless people in the past. So who are all these issue people -- and what's really the problem? Or the solution?
I know first-hand that while some of the culprits are homeless, that sure doesn't mean they all are. These are people misbehaving in particular ways at particular locations. And many are identified to become travelers and transients, not San Francisco residents. So it is a mistake to frame this as a "homeless problem" or to react with undeserved and undue regulations stripping longstanding rights and freedoms from law-abiding residents, homeless or not. Just last month, it was reported that police efforts to enforce existing laws are already getting the preferred results.
The supervisor for the Haight (district 5), Ross Mirkarimi, has so far sagely balked at a brand new rules, while continuing to push for enforcement of current codes as well as stepping up efforts with much more foot patrols. But some citizen and business groups, this kind of as the Haight Ashbury Development Association and the Building Owners and Managers Association, which lately issued an "action alert," are rallying to outlaw specific bodily postures on sidewalks. Plus, new San Francisco chief of police George Gascón is said to become "a big supporter of this type of law" and may see this being a chance to obtain some political capital and public favor.
Newsom is down-playing the homeless insinuations, but too numerous of us know from experience that as soon as the police get unleashed with laws like this, actual street-level enforcements are mostly left to them. There's a long and continuing background of these types of laws being wielded oppressively and specifically towards homeless persons.
Activity IS called for now -- activity to change the misguided initiative on its head.
