MAYOR SAM ADAMS has tried to pretend that his latest version of the sit-lie law is a way of “managing competing uses of the sidewalk.” Specifically, he has brought up the Americans with Disabilities Act to say we need to keep Portland’s sidewalks clear for those in wheelchairs. But I agree with the city’s Human Rights Commission, which last week said that the law is instead designed to pit two disadvantaged groups against each other—the disabled vs. the homeless.
I can stomach Adams’ barefaced lies on pretty much any other subject. But when it comes to looking Portland in the eye and saying a law—which has been exclusively lobbied for by the business community to harass the homeless—is in fact intended to protect the disabled, well… we have reached a new low.
City Commissioner Amanda Fritz sided with the mayor on the new ordinance, but only after he agreed to drop an exception for free speech assembly. The problem now is that as soon as somebody sits down in the middle of the sidewalk with a sign saying, “I’m protesting the new sit-lie ordinance,” they’re going to be arrested. And then a judge is going to find that the new law is unconstitutional. And does Adams care? Not if the streets can be swept before the Rose Festival, he doesn’t.
City Commissioner Nick Fish, at least, had the good grace to accept my $10 bet that this ordinance will be declared unconstitutional before long. But Adams spent most of last week’s session telling homeless advocates how little credit he has gotten for using city money to support homeless services. As Dan Handelman from Portland Copwatch pointed out, Adams’ argument was reminiscent of a parent who says how hard they work to earn money, cook, and clean—but that doesn’t mean they get to abuse their kids.
Adams also said the advocates weren’t looking at the “big picture.” But I think he’s the one who’s lost sight of it.
“We find many places in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that we felt were violated by this ordinance,” said Arwen Bird from the Human Rights Commission—who happens to be a wheelchair user.
Adams responded to Bird with a galloping non sequitur, “Did you look at the budget?”
“You’re kicking people to the curb,” said Joe Walsh, who attended the council meeting. “So when you go home tonight don’t look in the mirror and say you did the best you could. Because you didn’t. This is wrong.”
Hear hear.
A sit-lie law is an invaluable tool to address health and safety concerns created by intoxicated, yelling, borderline disorderly, or passed out individuals on the sidewalks and streets. Disturbing the peaceful enjoyment of the majority of society is not a right, it’s usually a symptom of a disorder or an addiction. Laying sprawled out on a sidewalk is a call for help and should be treated as such by public employees like the police.
It is a clear indicator of our society’s moral degradation and lack of concern when people are literally falling to the curb. Laying on a sidewalk is not a right that should be supported, encouraged, and is certainly not comparable to the brave actions of protesting individuals exercising free speech. Citizens should always have a right to peaceful protest, sit-ins, etc., but that’s not what the sit-lie law aims at preventing and it would be insulting to compare the two as one and the same.
It’s time for us to focus our attention on the root of the issue of why we have people on the streets. We need to invest more money into public health care to help those with illnesses and addictions, raise minimum wages to livable wages, and encourage healthy living and environments.
Timothy I’m with you on the ones you speak of.
I wonder what the cure for the gutter punks is, though? As a Downtown resident, they are the ones who are truly a problem in terms of harassing others and breaking laws. I have spoken with a few on what they’re trying to do to better themselves, and hardly any give a shit. They simply ask for change for beer or cigarettes or the like, even when having questions directed toward them from someone in a place of care (I honestly want to help).
I have asked myself a lot of times what it takes to get to that place in life, and I’ve asked the same of the gutter punks.
I can tell you that the few I’ve spoken to don’t give a shit about really anything at all except their next fix. And pocket change.
Apparently the Mayor is fighting failure with failure. All that leaves is burnt ground.
Without trying to be too broad or general, I would assume most “gutter punks” (I know the type, I live and work downtown too), still fall in one of the categories I mentioned. Either they have an illness, an addiction, or they’re unable to find a job that pays enough to live on. Often all of the above is ticked and of course each keeps the others rolling down hill until something intervenes. If it’s a cop picking them up off the street, getting them into detox, and then the detox staff helping them into a shelter and counseling, that just might be the best thing for them.
As for the pocket change. I always say “I don’t give my money away”. I work full time helping people in these types of situations. I’m not about to be an enabler.