Letter to the Editor: Measure S Will Create More "Welcoming and Friendly" Commercial Districts

-By Roland Peterson, Telegraph Property and Business Improvement District

Measure S, Berkeley's Civil Sidewalks, is a modest measure that strives to make our commercial districts more welcoming and friendly and encourage street populations into services.  Simply, it forbids anyone from sitting on the sidewalks in Berkeley's commercial districts from 7 AM to 10 PM, but there are many ways that anyone can avoid being cited.

The measure has lots of reasonable exceptions, and these include public benches, sidewalk dining, medical necessities, and permitted activities, such as festivals and parades.  Additionally, police would be required to warn prior to citing.   Also, the host/ambassadors, who already work in the downtown and Telegraph, would be trained and directed to encourage sitters toward appropriate services.  These host/ambassadors have no law enforcement capacity so their outreach would be designed to be non-confrontational.
But in the case when someone, despite all these warnings, is cited, the first citation would be an infraction, which is the same level as a parking ticket.  In no way is this "criminalization" as our critics charge.  The sanctions are needed to encourage changes in behavior, one of the principal goals of this measure.  Without sanctions, the current situation of unfettered harassment of the public by street sitters would continue.

Critics erroneously claim that this would "criminalize the homeless," yet in the critical reports they often cite, no one even asks the question of who sits on the sidewalks for extended periods.  In fact, from our experience, the majority of "street sitters" are not homeless, and from time to time, they are not locals either.  Furthermore, critics allege that this would not improve services when all along the advocates of this measure argue that it is intended to provide incentives to access services, not run the services themselves.  Lastly, critics erroneously claim that Telegraph and downtown have not suffered as much as other districts despite this problem by looking only at the data from years 2008-2010, when the prior years give a stark contrast of decline while other districts improved.  Selective perceptions can be easily misleading.

We believe that Measure S will save jobs.  Just within the past few months, two businesses, Tienda Ho (a women's clothing store) on Telegraph and All-Star Deli on Shattuck closed because of sitters in front of these stores.  They did not close for any other reason, and yes, we did ask!  So, several people are now unemployed because of these sitters.  This is not good for anyone!

Ordinances of this type have been upheld in the courts in recent years.  Dozens of progressive cities have ordinances like this one.  It is time for Berkeley to compassionately make its commercial areas friendly for everyone.  Vote yes on Measure S!