'Sit-lie bill' sparks debate about homeless on sidewalks
PORTLAND, Ore. -- A bill that would allow cities to ban sitting or lying on sidewalks is sparking debate among Portland’s homeless and some business owners, who say the law couldn’t come fast enough.
The “sit-lie bill,” pushed by the Portland Business Alliance, would change state law to allow cities to impose the bans. The highly contested issued was ruled unconstitutional by a county judge three years ago.
Currently, Portland enforces pedestrian-use zones, which means no one can sit or lie on certain parts of the sidewalk, while allowing you to be horizontal in other spots of the sidewalk.
The bill, if passed, wouldn’t overhaul city laws. It would simply give cities the discretion and freedom to impose these sidewalk ordinances.
One homeless man, who wouldn’t give his name but said he goes by ’99,’ said Monday he wasn’t aware of the current ordinance.
“What’s the difference from me over there to over here?” he said.
The man said he already feels targeted because of how he’s dressed and because he’s homeless. So the idea of making sidewalk restrictions even stricter has him crying foul.
Some business owners, though, say the bill is much overdue. Dustin Knox, the owner of Uncle Dick’s Deep Fried Hot Dogs in downtown Portland, said folks frequently sit outside his restaurant, causing him to lose patrons.
“I’ve been spit at,” Knox said. “I’ve had blood spit in my face.”
Just a few minutes after Knox’s interview with KATU, we saw him confronting a man outside his restaurant. The man was yelling and running around the sidewalk.
Organizations against reviving the sidewalk restrictions say they’re not advocating violence or loitering. They’re proponents for people like ‘99’ who simply want to sit.
When asked about the sit-lie bill, officials with the Portland mayor’s office said it wouldn’t be a top priority to impose a ban should the state law allow them to do so.
you sit what? on the ground? in a chair? if you're sitting in a chair outside a restaurant, is that illegal? if not, it seems a little one-sided and bias.
The 24/7 Prayer Vigil that "99" helps staff has been going non-stop for over a year. Done any reports on that?
Safe sleep is a undeniable and absolute human right, just like the right to peacefully exist on public property.
Meanwhile, the PBA spends thousands upon thousands upon thousands attempting to make homelessness illegal.
@Kernel Moses Maybe if you owned a business downtown you would have a different opinion.Â
You say he was arrested three times, but fail to mention he was found NOT GUILTY in each and every case. Totally biased reporting.
Because of activity like this Portland is going the way of Detroit. Like a Donut , with all of the activity on theÂ
outside and nothing in the middle. I stay out of downtown Portland unless I am legally required to go there
say, for jury duty.
@PeterAWolf are you on drugs? portland like detroit?
Why don't they pass a law that has the same teeth as the traffic law that governs impeding traffic? Â Why not just remove or ticket people who are impeding foot traffic? It's not that hard and wont require a bunch of court wrangling to get it passed.Â
@beesknees you can impede foot traffic by standing? should standing be banned? maybe you would endorse banning sidewalks too.
Uncle Dickâs Deep Fried Hot Dogs is a Portland health restaurant
Politicians have already passed the "Just Lie Bill" to get elected
New reality series "The Panhandler Wars"
What about a overhead type of pedestrian monorail
@Bert Why so the bums can pee on the people below? Lol.
Ok. So i'm going to say it because nobody else on here obviously lives or works in downtown Portland. I live/work in downtown Portland. I try and have a good time, spend my hard earned money in downtown Portland. I pay taxes, do community service, and traveled all over this world , but i've never seen the kind of down right disgustingness as the homeless in Portland. I'm also a transplant so i might not have the love of self-'funk' eveybody is used to here. In a day and age that we live in there is absolutely no excuse for homelessness. You either 1) want to be homeless, or 2) have a mental disorder. This is a first world country with all the posibilities under the stars. There's no excuse! You wanna be a non-productive member of society? Fine, go live in the woods and take are of yourself. Stop sponging off of the rest of us.
This comment has been deleted
I hope that someday all of the homeless will be able to become productive members of society, with the mental illness and substance use though, I'm not sure that will ever happen. I don't believe that street people should be loitering directly in front of business access, where should they loiter then, the parks? If all we do is displace the homeless, they will just simply show up in another location, it's not solving the problem.
@pdxd Take one home then? Show your friends.
I don't give money directly to the homeless, but I do feel bad for them, certainly I'd never want to live that life. I have known people who were formerly homeless that told me at times that they missed the fact that while homeless, they didn't have the burdens or responsibilities of worrying about paying rent, or utilities, etc, and I suppose for some of those that are out there and homeless, the thoughts of paying bills may be overwhelming if they are trying to battle addictions or mental illnesses. I've worked downtown nearly 7 years, I've seen all types of behavior from the homeless population, and while I don't necessarily want to have to walk past or around them to get from point A to point B, I'm reminded of my days living in Salt Lake City where the police would basically corral the homeless into one section, and then stake it out like hawks for drug use, and I realized that Salt Lake City treated their homeless people like cattle, in Portland, we actually appear to treat the homeless as the humans they are.Â
Too bad the homeless don't reciprocate that treatment here.
This is what happens when a city caters to deadbeats and weirdos instead of real people. Â It's just one more reason to avoid Portland. Â It has become a cesspool which is sad, because thirty or forty years ago, it wasn't such a bad place. Â It wasn't great, but it was much better than it is now.
This has needed to happen for a long time.  Where I work the bums, get there early to claim their spot.  They negotiate and discuss where they will sit with their pathetic sign.  They regularly show up on portland  mugshots.  They are junkies, drunks, and dealing heroin.  I see it everyday! As a business we pay huge amounts of taxes.  Yet, my customers have to run the gauntlet to come to my business.  Where are our rights?  As for you idiots that feel better about giving them money.  Well, you are fools!  You are not helping anyone.  If they were truly hungry, there are places to get food. You are buying them drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes.  If you stop giving them money, they would go away.  Give your donations to someone that really needs it!
Well I for one love the smell of stale urine and body odor while walking around downtown.
Is there anywhere you can take a shower before heading out?
@Oregon7812Â Ya, your moms house.
How do we solve problems? We move them out of sight so we can ignore them. Great plan.
@Harvey 1701 Here's the plan....for every illegal alien we get, Mexico gets two of our bums. When we run out, we start sending them the politicians. The weather is better down there anyway.
Sounds good to me.
@Harvey 1701Â Many bums choose their way of life. So, it's not a problem for them. It's just a problem for everyone else. Ship 'em outta here!
get a damn job...have a record well too bad enjoy being a bum. Even the illegals can find work and support themselves and send money back home.....maybe the bums should learn or thing or two about what "hard" work actually is.
Its time to take out the trash.Most of these people are homeless because they like living on the fringes of society and many prefer drugs and alcohol to a roof over their heads. When I worked at a restaurant in old town the transients would demand money as customers as they went in. If they didn't comply the transients would urinate on our front door or drop a bowel movement on the front step. I refuse to go downtown because of this and refuse to spend any money there.
I worked downtown for over 20 years. Its so much worse now. It now has a smell of old stinky guys and urine....yuk...so glad I don't have to spend my days down there anymore.
@PeterAWolfWhere is your factual evidence to support any of this?
@Harvey 1701Â @PeterAWolf Do you mean seeing drunk bums urinating on the front door ofÂ
our pizza parlor with my own eyes? Do you mean our customers complaining about theirÂ
treatment by bums? Do you mean my co-workers complaining about the same things? What evidence do you want?
@Harvey 1701 @PeterAWolf Do you ever go downtown??  Well, you might want to and see for yourself and gather your factual evidence.  It's all over the place.
@PeterAWolf @PD1202 @Harvey 1701 Yeah...we're the same person....you got me.  Get a fricken clue!  I used his "factual evidence" sentence to prove a point.  How long have you been posting on here? and gee, what a shocker..that someone else could use the same wording...
@PD1202Â @Harvey 1701Â @PeterAWolf Its interesting that you and Harvey 1701 both use the phrase : " factual evidence". It makes me think that its the same person posting under several monikers. Busted!
Hey I pay my taxes and frequent businesses in the downtown PDX area. Â I enjoy the museums, arts, parks, and variety of great food. Â I sometimes go hit up a couple of food carts, and sometimes take the family to a nice restaurant, and sometime splurge at a great steak house. Â I work, I pay bills, I get to enjoy this stuff.
I'm not a jerk to the homeless. Â I'm not an uppidy caricature of those who you see on TV or movies. Â In fact, I neither acknowledge or contribute to their plight. Â They are just another person doing their stuff. Â What message is on their cardboard is irrelevant as those who hold a political sign. Â You do your stuff, I got my own destination. Â Leave me to enjoy mine.
So why should I have to put up with bums with attitudes? Â I've seen equal amounts of upper class bums who think that we with some money (I'm not filthy rich) owe them something and they are vocal about it. Â I had a guy who asked for money so he can get food, when I offered to buy him two McDondald's meals he ask me for money instead. Â Nearly every encounter I ran across these are delusional, or self-exiled people who refuse any help.Â
I talked once to a street kid, gave him 20 buck to look after my car so no one mess with it.  He and his cohorts did a good job.  Upon our return my friend asked why them 5 are sleeping in a crevice of the business door, and they said they were tired of their parents telling them what to do.
I didn't care for what my parents told me to do.  But I did them and it proved beneficial.  So why should a community pay for those who choose to live outside of it, drain from it, provide no nourishment back to the arts but demand all to provide for them?
If you bleeding heart liberals (the ones even liberals can't stand) want them, show me, take them in. Â I'll be they make the most ungrateful roommates. Â I just want them out of where I have fun. Â
@englishdaisy Yeah Hoses are off the mark, yet as an old man who walks with a cane being affronted by the kids (most over 25) and being shoved/jolted these by "kids" as I attempt to walk by them, Shall just say a Whack in the head is not what I would expect to be required to get them to back the **** off.
"This" again"
Just to remind us all how the Portland Business Association wags the tail of Fritz and Hale and Fish and Saltzman? Apparently.
Get over it, Portland Business Association. The CITY and its sidewalks belong to all FREE PERSONS in this city. Stop trying to TAMP DOWN AND DICTATE YOUR WILL OVER FREE PEOPLE.
@englishdaisyDo you work at a local downtown shop? Do you have to hose off your store front every morning because some "person" peed on the front door? Does your customers stop coming in because the bums are blocking the doorway and begging for money? Maybe you glove up and clean the vomit off the store windows or the crap from a bowl movement from the night before.....or are you just an opinionated 99er that believes if a house is in foreclosure it gives you the right to take ownership of it.....maybe you wrote your post at the library because you are homeless???Â
You write "The city and its sidewalks belong to all free persons" You are correct, but when one lies down on the sidewalk, they are taking ownership of the space hence not making it free for the rest of all free persons.Â
It's not just PDX. Â Stopped at Salem I5 / Hwy 20 McDonalds on a trip to Central OR. Â I stayed with the truck and our stuff. Â Wife and kids went in and hit up by a BUM for money, wife ignored him. Â Then my 13 yr old daughter decided to go in to change her order, and same BUM asked her for money.....we had words. 1. Begging is not a job, Â 2.Don't approach kids for money.
@trololol That's pretty low for a bum to try to take money from a child. The bum needs to get a job and try to enter society again, or get the hell out of the city. How about making a bum island? Oh, Hawaii already exists.
@Morticae @trololol Government island would work and some years with heavy rains and snow it would be self cleaning
@Morticae @trololol Don't send those Mother Effers here. Keep'em on the mainland, you all deserve it.
trololol - do you comprehend how intolerably bigoted and arrogant you sound? I feel very very sorry for your children, dude. Closed minded arrogant. Bitter. Â
But heck/shoot spit - it feels real good knowing you have a home and money in the bank and the ability to know you aren't about to voluntarily help out anyone else. Yes indeed. How your kids are learning a whole lot from the likes of you. Unfortunately. Ick.
@englishdaisy Actually it's the first intelligent thing that I ever read from Troll.
@englishdaisy Give a man a fish he will eat for a day....teach him to fish he will eat for the rest of his life.
Now who is bigoted and arrogant?
You make judgements of others without knowing them or without even paying attention to what they are really saying. His statement was simply that he meant to protect his children from something that he believes may be a threat to them. Believe it or not, choosing to not work for your money.... as opposed to choosing to work for it.... is a very dangerous trap to fall into. If this gentleman is trying to protect his family from that exposure, then good for him.
AND SHAME ON YOU!
@englishdaisy Â
Even most criminals, except for child molesters, know that kids are off limits. As for trololol's money or house, he probably earned those and has a choice as to whether or not he wants to share. Whenever someone asks me for money, I always point out the nearest temp labor agency. That always shuts them up..
Sit- Lie? Sounds like stuff I say to the dogs.
Like Americans in 60's tried to tamp down the civil rights of others in the south. Our sullied bitter rabid dog acting Portland Business Association just cannot embrace free persons in this city.
And our City Council spinelessly panders to them. Is Portland evolved since the 60's or is this city just like it was - way back then - when we shot water at the unsavory and carted them away - because of our BIGOTED arrogant sense that "some" people in this city don't deserve to freely sit and walk and talk in their city.
Free persons? Sorry, I tend to forget that this city is kept up by taxes that are paid into it. Bums don't pay anything, suckle from the government and social teet and then drop a big turd on it. If they want to be 'free' people, send them off to BFE and let them take care of themselves. Nobody 'deserves' anything. People have to earn their way. Enjoy the trust fund, you little example of PDX entitlement.