Now It’s Official: “Sit/Lie” Hasn’t Changed Much in Upper Haight, According to the SFPD.

It seems that a report by the San Francisco Police Department analyzing the effects of the so-called “Sit/Lie” law indicate what those who read my blog have known all along – it’s not working. Despite the big cheers on election night by folks who sold this as a Holy Grail to make the City jerkass-free, it hasn’t worked as advertised. Nor did it get people to vote for certain candidates that year over others. In the end, whoever spent their money on this campaign got a big ol’ failwhale instead of something effective.
For fun, here’s my original article where I opposed “Sit/Lie” and its counterpart in 2010. (News flash politicos: putting ballot initiatives on the ballot to influence how people vote in Superivsor races never works, so please stop it.).
Over here, we find a post-election piece about how SFPD initially didn’t even enforce the beloved law, and here’s a more recent piece about how the law isn’t enforced anywhere else either, even as the “gutter punks” get pushed into adjoining neighborhoods.
I’m not humble enough to not say “I Told You So” once in a while. (If anything it makes me wonder why I can’t get paid more for being able to accurately predict these things as I’ve been known to do).
More to the point, I really wish we could get rid of these expensive ballot measure campaigns that generate a lot of intense emotions on all sides, but really don’t do anything at all. (throw in nonbinding “resolutions” and ballot measures too, for good measure). All political sides are guilty of this, and it needs to stop.
We could have saved ourselves a lot of nonsensical debate, and saved some trees too by not doing this, and instead having our well-paid elected officials and City Hall employees do the job they’re hired to do and keep the streets safe. That’s not too much to ask.
Until San Franciscans decide that they’d like laws enforced and for good people from all areas/income levels/etc. of the City to enjoy the many things our city has to offer, without being hurt by crime and criminal like behavior, we can pass all the silly laws we like and nothing will change.

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