Yesterday The Examiner reported that San Francisco’s controversial sit-lie ordinance “has been rebranded as the ‘Civil Sidewalks Ordinance,'” noting that “the new name has been popping up all over blogs and opinion posts.”
Which, really? I read a lot of blogs and this is news to me! I used a technological device called “Google” to check out this claim and came up with 3 results for the phrase “Civil Sidewalks Ordinance,” 4 if you count the Examiner article saying the phrase is “popping up all over.” (And, once if publish this piece, probably 5. I AM FEEDING THE BEAST!)
The other three results all come from the same place: the SF Chamber of Commerce. So maybe not so much with the “all over”?
But let’s not quibble — maybe my Google machine was broken or something. In any case, the Examiner suggests that since the divisive law’s probably going to end up being decided on by voters, this is a step to make it more palatable, saying “We’re guessing ‘civil sidewalks’ are probably a lot more voter friendly than ‘sit-lie.'”
Let’s test-drive that hypothesis!