A rally was held at the steps of Upper Sproul Plaza on Friday to protest and raise awareness of the controversial Measure S that will be voted on by Berkeley residents on Tuesday.
The “Students Against Measure S” rally was organized by UC Berkeley organizations the Suitcase Clinic and CalPIRG in conjunction with the city’s Peace and Justice Commission. About 30 UC Berkeley students and members of the community showed up to the event in protest of the measure, which would prohibit sitting on sidewalks in the city’s commercial district from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Protesters at the rally, which lasted for about an hour, sat down for its duration to mock the ballot measure.
Proponents of Measure S say the law will help improve business in the Downtown Berkeley and Telegraph Avenue area by punishing aggressive panhandlers and large encampments of transients with a fine. Opponents of the measure, however, say it will criminalize homelessness in the city and further target an already marginalized group of people without having any tangible effects on improving business or the homeless situation.
“The measure has been on the ballot for a couple of months now, and it’s our job at the Suitcase Clinic to advocate for our clients whenever they are unable to advocate for themselves,” said Tom McClure, a third-year student and an officer within the clinic.
McClure said the rally came about at the urging of the No On S Campaign, which is made up of a group of Berkeley citizens who want to raise awareness for the measure among students.
The rally featured various guest speakers, including Councilmember Kriss Worthington and ASUC Senator Sadia Saifuddin, who all stressed the measure would not bring an improvement to the city’s business districts and violates the rights of the homeless.
“That’s just ridiculous — it’s not criminalizing homelessness at all,” said Craig Becker, owner of Caffe Mediterraneum and president of the Telegraph Business Improvement District Board. “Every progressive city in California but Berkeley has a similar law.”
Becker said cities such as San Francisco have enacted successful legislation that is much stricter than the proposed measure.
However, Worthington said there are practical solutions the city can implement as an alternative — including having a police officer dedicated to walking up and down streets and increasing pedestrian lighting on streets to make people feel safer at night — that will cost the city less money to implement.
“Those are practical solutions, rather than creating a high cost to the city for police overtime and legal fees and a high cost to the county for incarcerating,” he said.
Protester Erica Thomas, a fourth-year student and member of the Suitcase Clinic, said the city should also expand homeless shelter hours during the day. By being open in the day, shelters would offer a safe place for homeless people to get medical services and to build their resumes and job hunt, she said.
“We do not have enough daytime drop-in centers where people can be safe and don’t have to sit on the sidewalks,” Thomas said.
Contact Andy Nguyen at [email protected].
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Students against Measure S should not mind homeless bums camped out in front of their dorm rooms and apartment buildings. After all, Cal is a public school and dorms were built with public money, right? Why should Berkeley merchants put up with all the itinerant panhandlers if there are perfectly safe and comfortable spaces available in dorm hallways and lounge areas?
Becker said cities such as San Francisco have enacted success legislation that are much more strict than the proposed measure.
That should be “Becker said cities such as San Francisco have enacted successful legislation…” Are The Daily Cal editors on break?
Bullshit legislation. Local government is going to punish me now for using public space? WTF is this?
It’s basically just private business interests trying to privatize public space. No one likes having lots of homeless people around, but unless you’re going to send them to a concentration camp (or better yet, a place where they can live and work) you’re not going to get rid of them by telling them where they can or can’t sit during the day.
The usual hyperbole from those who don’t pay taxes.
The usual hyperbole from those who exploit others for their own benefit.
You mean like the lefties who exploit the productive people of Berkeley by creating a bum-friendly environment and giving the homeless rights that others do not have, correct?
As far as I know, anyone who wants to can sit on the sidewalk.
At this time, in Berkeley, you can sit on the sidewalk if you are not intentionally or significantly blocking the sidewalk.
You can get rid of them by passing Measure S. They will self-deport to more lenient cities where panhandling is tolerated. Or they can just go home and finish their GED and get a job.
Especially if AC Transit keeps being late, I’d like to still be able to sit on the sidewalk and read a book.
IIRC AC Transit’s Line 1 (Telegraph Avenue) only runs northbound on Telegraph between Dwight and Bancroft, as it turns left on Bancroft, heads to Berkeley BART, then comes back east on Durant to Dana. Who in their right mind is going to sit down and WAIT on that part of Telegraph for a bus? if you’re heading to BART, you’re probably going to walk there. If you’re heading south towards Oaktown, why are you going to be waiting for a northbound bus instead of either walking over one block to the west or south on Telegraph past Dwight? Some of the manufactured stories you people make up to oppose Prop S are clearly ludicrous.
This applies to every commercial street (Shattuck, University, College, etc.) not only Telegraph.
The problem is with gutter-punk squatters on Telegraph, not students or little old ladies waiting for a bus on Shattuck. If you think that BPD is going to drive around town looking for people to cite, then you’re being hysterical. You people apparently don’t understand the concept of selective enforcement, which is not always necessarily bad.
I agree with you on this one.
You’re probably new around here. Most students learn not to sit on the sidewalks near bus stops because of the layers of unidentified bodily fluids decorating the concrete.