Police Chief George Gascon and Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier are expected to attend a community meeting downtown today that will seek to inform San Francisco voters about the proposed sit-lie ordinance.
Although the Board of Supervisors snubbed the measure at last week’s meeting, Mayor Gavin Newsom made it clear that he intends to take his proposed sit-lie ordinance to the ballot to let voters decide its fate.
At its meeting at the Hotel Mark Twain near Union Square, the Civil Sidewalks Coalition will discuss what the group says is the chronic problem of people sitting and lying on public sidewalks.
The ordinance, which is supported by Gascon, would make it unlawful to sit or lie on a public sidewalk between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m.
Newsom introduced the ordinance in March, after he said he witnessed someone smoking crack while he was walking with his 8-month-old daughter Montana through the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood.
Speakers include neighbor Justin Buell and merchant Kent Uyehara, the owner of a Haight Street skateboard shop who hosted a similar event for the merchant-neighbor coalition in May.
The citywide debate has revolved around the Haight-Ashbury, where neighbors and merchants have complained of increasingly aggressive behavior by migratory street youth.
The meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m. at the Hotel Mark Twain, located at 345 Taylor St.
