Stop Berkeley Sit Ordinance! - Speak Out Tuesday July 10 City Council Meeting!

[[[Speak OUT at the Council Meeting on Tuesday, July 10th at 7:00pm
Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr Way Berkeley, CA 94704]]]

What is wrong with the Sit Ordinance?

Criminalizes and violates the rights of poor/homeless people

Diverts police attention from more significant crimes

ACLU opposes this and questions whether it may be unconstitutional and invites expensive litigation (Berkeley fought the ACLU in 1995 and wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars)

Costs $26,000 just to put on ballot plus hundreds of thousands of dollars to enforce including massive amounts of police overtime for the protests against this
Does not address the issue of homelessness

Clogs up courts and prisons and costs DA, Public Defender, Judge and court staff time.

Similar ordinances in San Francisco and Santa Cruz have proven to be ineffective
Costs tax payer dollars to send poor people, who can’t pay fines, to jail

It’s an Extremely Expensive Diversion from Jobs, Housing, Public Safety and fixing the Planning/Zoning process

What are the alternatives?

Help commercial activity by allowing small businesses to sell merchandise on sidewalks

Enforce existing laws

Keep YEAH (Youth Engagement Advocacy and Housing) open year round

Organizations Against Anti-Sit Measure

ACLU of Northern California

Gray Panthers

ASUC, Associated Students of University of California at Berkeley (18-1)

Peace and Justice Commission

Community Health Commission

Homeless Commission

Housing Advisory Commission

Berkeley City Council members Anderson, Arreguin and Worthington


Speak OUT at the Council Meeting on Tuesday, July 10th at 7:00pm
Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr Way Berkeley, CA 94704

To Email City Council members:
(copy and paste the string below in your “to” box)

tbates [at] cityofberkeley.info, lmaio [at] cityofberkely.info, dmoore [at] cityofberkeley.info, manderson [at] cityofberkeley.info, jarreguin [at] cityofberkeley.info lcaptelli [at] cityofberkeley.info, swengraf [at] cityofberkeley.info, kworthington [at] cityofberkeley.info, gwozniak [at] cityofberkeley.info



Kriss Worthington
Councilmember
City of Berkeley, District 7
2180 Milvia Street, 5th Floor
Berkeley, CA 94704
(510) 981-7170 phone
(510) 981-7177 fax
kworthington [at] cityofberkeley.info
http://www.cityofberkeley.info/council7/