Opinion

As Berkeley merchants, we want our businesses to be financially successful, but we also care about the city around us — keeping our communities safe, thriving and diverse and maintaining the values that make Berkeley a uniquely wonderful place. That is why we oppose Measure S as the wrong approach to fixing our struggling business corridors and homelessness.

In 2010, we watched some of our business colleagues in San Francisco pass a law making it illegal for people to sit or lie on the sidewalk. We read the news stories that painted small-business owners — especially those in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood — as the major proponents and expected beneficiaries of the law.

But now that San Francisco’s law has been in place for more than a year and a half, we’ve seen that it’s been a failure that hasn’t helped city merchants or anyone else. According to an independent study by the San Francisco City Hall Fellows commissioned by the city controller, San Francisco’s equivalent of Measure S did not always help homeless people obtain services, did not completely reduce the number of homeless people on the street and did not necessarily increase public safety. And it hasn’t provided much boost to merchant corridors.

The failure to improve life for businesses is not the only reason we oppose Measure S. The fact is, the law is unnecessary and wasteful. There are already laws on the books that prevent camping on the street — with or without dogs — or disorderly behavior. We don’t need Measure S. We need serious solutions that engage our communities in common civic purpose, rather than blaming and dividing people.

As Berkeley merchants and members of the community, we are also concerned about serious crimes in our city. We don’t want to see police resources, already stretched thin, taken away from those crimes and squandered on policing homeless people who are doing nothing but sitting or lying on the sidewalk. Sitting on the sidewalk clearly does not take on the importance of crimes like theft, break-ins and assault.

There is a bigger picture to look at when considering Measure S. Many of us located our families and businesses in Berkeley because we share its historic values of embracing diversity, civil liberties and free speech. We want to create a better world and are trying to do that in our own small corner of the planet. Measure S runs counter to these great traditions, and we believe it will in fact increase tension and conflict in Berkeley, which is the last thing we need.

There’s no question our Downtown business corridors need help. But instead of blaming homeless people for much larger economic problems, let’s work together to beautify our streets, create new job and business opportunities, and get homeless people the services and shelter they need.

Please join us in voting No on Measure S, and let’s show the world that Berkeley has the smarts and the care to come up with better solutions.

Contact the opinion desk at [email protected]

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