Stand Against Sit Lie

Journalist Shawn Gaynor and artist/musician/novelist Andrew Goldfarb have collaborated to create an informative, well-researched, visually brilliant, and compelling full-page comic strip about sit/lie for the debut print edition of the SF Public Press.  Find out where you can get your copy of this exciting experiment in “ad-free news in the public interest.”  (Note: the SF Public press has taken no official stance on the sit/lie issue.)

You can checkout the full comic at the SF Public Press website, but in order to see it in all its glory and to support the SF Public Press, we suggest you pick up a print copy of the newspaper for $2 at a location near you.

The comic strip is told from the perspective of a real life San Francisco day laborer named Alberto whom Gaynor interviewed for the story.

It explains some of the history of sit/lie laws in San Francisco.

. . and they use photos to report on testimony at City Hall hearings.

Haight-Ashbury neighbors — including none other than our dear friend Gabriel Haaland (!) and Sit/Lie proponent Arthur Evans — star in one of the frames. Gabriel wins, of course!

We’re super excited about this and believe it can serve as a great tool to educate the public on the sit/lie issue. Please help spread this around by emailing your friends and sharing this post on facebook, twitter, etc. by simply clicking on the icons right below this text.

Stand Against Sit/Lie found lots of supporters in the Mission this weekend.

Stand Against Sit/Lie has a fun and productive weekend of outreach in the Mission District.

It was a beautiful weekend in San Francisco, and Stand Against Sit/Lie was out in the streets of the Mission District talking with supporters, educating voters, and continuing to build the coalition that will defeat sit/lie in the November election. Check out pictures from the weekend on our Flickr page.

On Saturday we hit the Mission Community Block Party (on 22nd St. between Bartlet and Mission), which boasted outstanding performances, delicious food, a community mural project and more.  The event was a fundraiser for the Mission Community Market.  Starting soon, the Mission Community Market will happen every Thursday 4-8pm at the same location and will be a “community marketplace that celebrates the Mission’s unique identity by promoting healthy eating, emerging businesses and community programs in a safe and beautiful public space.”

Our friends at Rock the Bike delivered the volume for the performances with their pedal-powered amplified sound system.

On Sunday we hit the Mission pavement again, this time for Sunday Streets, an amazing reoccurring event where long routes of streets in different San Francisco neighborhoods are opened to people and closed to car traffic for several hours on Sunday morning/afternoons.  While talking to cyclists and pedestrians at Sunday Streets, we were able to speak with a reporter doing a segment for the public radio program, Philosophy Talk. (Be sure to listen next Sunday at 10am on KALW 91.7 FM when they will philosophize about human rights and the sit/lie ordinance).

Public space is for community and culture

Both the Mission Community Market and Sunday Streets are perfect examples of the fantastic things that can happen when public space is reclaimed and inhabited by people.  Community and culture are given room to breathe and flourish.  We should be encouraging more and more events like these and we should be fostering such positivity in our city’s public spaces on a daily basis, not just on special occasions.

Mayor Gavin Newsom has been a strong supporter of Sunday Streets. A press release from the Mayor’s Office announcing the 2010 Sunday Streets season said, “Sunday Streets events create a stronger sense of community in every neighborhood they touch and throughout the City.”  We wholeheartedly agree.  And that’s why we are so puzzled by the fact that Mayor Newsom has introduced a proposed sit-lie ordinance that would take our city in precisely the opposite direction and which would have such a negative impact on our neighborhoods by closing our public sidewalks to community and culture.

We had a great time doing community outreach this past weekend and look forward to many more such efforts over the coming months.  Please join us! Sign up for email alerts at the top right corner of this page so you can find out how you can get involved.

Passerbys at the Haight Street Fair were overwhelming supportive.

We had a wonderful day out at the Haight Street Fair on Sunday where we shared a booth with the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council.  We handed out flyers and stickers and spoke with countless voters and visitors to San Francisco.  Our interactions with folks were ovewhelmingly positive and supportive.

The San Francisco Chronicle spoke with Ann Dufrane who visited our booth to show support and get some stickers for herself and her dog Franklin.  Here’s an excerpt from the Chronicle coverage:

Local resident Ann Dufrane perused the stalls wearing a “Stand Against Sit/Lie” sticker, referring to Mayor Gavin Newsom’s efforts to make sitting or lying on sidewalks illegal during certain hours. Dufrane’s dog Franklin had a sticker too.

“I just have one word for our government wanting to pass something like this: stupid,” she said. “Ridiculous would be a good word too.”

Franklin seemed to agree with the political sentiment and sat down in the middle of Haight Street, the sticker placed prominently on his head.

See more pics at our Flickr page and as always, if you have any photos of people doing fun things on the sidewalk, please add them to our Flickr pool.

Ann Dufrane told the San Francisco Chronicle that the sit-lie law is "ridiculous."

Ann's dog, Franklin, sported a sticker and got a mention in the Chronicle as well.

Mayor Newsom puts Sit/Lie on the November ballot. Click on image to download PDF.

So on the last possible day, Mayor Newsom has introduced a sit/lie ordinance for the November ballot.  Here it is if you’d like to read it over.

It’s very similar to the ordinance he introduced to the Board of Supervisors and which was defeated 8-3 on June 8.

This version includes an exception for Pavements to Parks projects and a very vague mention of a “neighborhood outreach plan.”

“The City shall maintain a neighborhood outreach plan to provide the social services needed by those who chronically sit or lie down on a public sidewalk. The plan will include, but not be limited to, health care and social service capacity, evaluation of service delivery and identification of areas for improved service delivery.”

The San Francisco Chronicle published a story today on the mayors’ submission of the ordinance.

Here’s an excerpt:

“I know that some people don’t like to see that other people do, in fact, live on the street,” said Emily Mills, 27, a substance abuse counselor and Haight-Ashbury resident. “I don’t see this as a public safety issue. That’s a handy way to couch it and make some people feel better about their biases about street people.”

A few of us took a moment to sit against Sit/Lie with the bust of Harvey Milk outside the board chambers minutes after the board voted 8-3 to defeat the ordinance.

Even moderate Bevan Dufty says he cannot support the law.

We won big today at the Board of Supervisors! Thanks so much to everyone who helped make it possible.

Back at the beginning of March when the Mayor first introduced the sit/lie ordinance, it was not clear if we had enough votes to defeat it.  Since then we have done an outstanding job of turning the issue around.  In the end, sit/lie received a mere three out of eleven votes at the Board. This is truly a testament to the work we’ve all done to get the truth out about this ordinance. We should be proud of what we’ve accomplished.

Perhaps the biggest story of the day was moderate supervisor Bevan Dufty’s speech and vote against sit/lie.  While he was clear to acknowledge that some people in San Francisco believe the “system is failing” and that they were demanding action from the board, he said that he did not think sit/lie was the “San Francisco way” to address the problem.  He noted that the problems people were frustrated with and which they had described at hearings before the public safety committee, were already infractions and that the sit/lie ordinance would not address them.  He said he could not support something ”that on its face is going to have to be selectively enforced. … I’ve got to believe that we can do better than this law and do something that’s more meaningful for the public.”

While the mayor and columnist C.W. Nevius from the San Francisco Chronicle will try to blame the defeat of sit/lie on an out-of-touch Board of Supervisors, it was clear that sit/lie was defeated because it proponents failed to make a reasonable case for it. The fact that moderate Dufty, who usually votes with the mayor, voted against sit/lie shows that this is not an issue of a progressive board simply trying to obstruct the mayor.

David Campos noted again today that when he questioned Nicholas King from the mayor’s office of criminal justice and Deputy Police Chief David Cashman at the first hearing for the ordinance, neither could offer any evidence whatsoever that a citizen’s complaint was needed to enforce existing laws that address obstruction of sidewalks and other problem behaviors. In other words the main argument that sit/lie proponents have for their ordinance simply has no basis in fact and they admitted as much in a public hearing. Everyone who was present at that hearing — opponents and proponents alike — knew this to be true.

Rather than return to the committee to provide evidence at a second hearing, the mayor and the police department chose to avoid the embarrassing situation altogether by not showing up to the hearing at all.

So what happens next?

So first we should all take a moment to celebrate this important victory!  But as we know, the mayor is going to put a sit-lie ordinance on the November ballot and in reality, the fight to defeat sit-lie is just beginning. We’re gearing up for the big fight and we will definitely need your help.

Please stay tuned for upcoming events. On the right side of this page you can sign up for email blasts.  We’ll be announcing the next events very soon!

Supervisor David Campos has successfully demonstrated at Sit/Lie hearings that the ordinance is unnecessary and that police already posses all the legal tools they need to address problem behaviors on the city's sidewalks.

Yes, tomorrow, Tuesday, June 7 is the big day as the SF Board of Supervisors will vote on the proposed Sit/Lie ordinance.  So after you hit the voter booth for Election Day, you are invited to join us at the Board Chambers in Room 205 in City Hall.

The meeting begins at 2 pm, but we’re item 30 on the agenda. We’re told that the majority of the prior items will be quick, so it shouldn’t “be as late as #30 sounds.”

There will be no public comment on Sit/Lie so it’s not necessary for a big turnout, but it certainly will mark a significant step in this campaign and we encourage you to come through if you’re interested and available.

Of course, regardless of what happens tomorrow we know supporters of Sit/Lie have plans to put in on the ballot for November — so we’re in this for the long haul!

Don’t forget to vote tomorrow!

A big thanks to everyone who participated in Friday’s “Celebrate our Right to Exist” event at UN Plaza. We had a great turnout and an outstanding lineup of speakers and performances.  Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) organized the event in collaboration with National Heath Care for the Homeless Council which was holding it’s annual conference in San Francisco from June 3-5.

Said Paul Boden of WRAP in an SF Appeal article previewing the event: “One thing all health care providers will tell you is the proliferation of these sit/lie laws around the country have had a dramatic effect on their homeless clients, especially mentally ill clients.”

Watch KTVU-TV coverage of the event.

POOR Magazine/FAMILY project co-founder Carina Lomeli aka Jewnbug

Dan McMullan from the Disabled People Outside Project

Molotov Mouth, James Tracy

House Keys Not Handcuffs

No on Sit/Lie

Sidewalks are for People!

CELEBRATE OUR RIGHT TO EXIST

Friday, June 4
5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
UN Plaza, 7th and Market Streets

Across the country, conservative interests are privatizing public space and driving poor people, people of color, queer people, people with disabilities, and other marginalized groups out of the communities that our work has built, and that our cultures define.

In San Francisco, the Stand Against Sit/Lie Coalition has fought back with amazing success, and is on the verge of victory in the legislative process. National Health Care for the Homeless supports this fight. In fact, members of the council are engaged in identical battles in their hometowns. Together, during NHCHC’s 2010 annual conference, we will celebrate the public spaces that movements like Stand Against Sit/Lie have defended.

Join us in UN Plaza—at the site where our fundamental human rights were first recognized by international law—for music, dance, and speakers to celebrate the public spaces we are successfully struggling to sustain, and our human right to exist in public.

RSVP on Facebook