A proposed ordinance being reviewed by Burlington City Councilors could ban people from sitting on the sidewalks of five key downtown streets that feed onto the Church Street Marketplace.
The ban would also extend to sandwich board signs or other types of advertising, though it would allow any existing licensed “encumbrances” to continue until their license expires.
The Burlington City Council Monday night agreed to send the proposed ordinance to its Ordinance Committee for review. The three-member committee is chaired by Councilor Joan Shannon (D-Ward 5), and includes Councilors Sharon Bushor (I-Ward 1) and Bram Kranichfeld (D-Ward 2).
The ordinance would create a “right of way” extending six feet from the edge of buildings, and would mirror existing bans on the Church Street Marketplace. The Marketplace “right-of-way” extends nine feet from the edge of buildings.
The affected streets would be Pearl, Cherry, Bank, College and Main Streets between South Winooski Avenue and St. Paul Street.
The proposed ordinance was crafted “in response to a variety of complaints and concerns about persons seated, laying down, and in a host of other stationary positions on the sidewalks in the downtown,” wrote Police Chief Michael Schirling in a memo to councilors.
Hmm, I wonder what “other stationary positions” look like.
The proposal, according to Schirling, would be a “pilot project” to keep the sidewalks free for all pedestrians, including the elderly and disabled.
The intent of the ordinance, as drafted, reads, in part: “This section is enacted to protect the public safety and to provide for unencumbered passage for pedestrians and disabled citizens … and to promote the economic vitality of the downtown area.”
It would also likely curb the kind of panhandling downtown pedestrians pass by on several downtown routes. Seven Days staffer Andy Bromage tackled the subject in this week’s Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, asking: “Why do panhandlers hang out in that spot on Main Street?”
The answer? According to those Bromage talked to it’s either a good spot to ask for spare change or its simply the sunnier side of the street.
The ordinance is just another in a series of efforts aimed at “cleaning up” downtown Burlington. Earlier this year, the council adopted a smoking ban for the city’s parks and beaches. Church Street was spared from the ban this time, but a previous effort to ban smoking on the Marketplace failed, too. Who knows? Maybe the third time is the charm.
On Monday, too, the council voted 10-4 to oppose the issuance of an Act 250 permit to Phoenix House to operate a 20-bed transitional house on Elmwood Avenue, just a half block from the top of Church Street. The opposition to the proposal was fueled, in part, by downtown business concerns that it would add more “undesirable people” onto the Marketplace and detract shoppers from coming to the pedestrian mall.
Wonder if we’ll see a renewed interest in Westward Ho!, a privately-funded effort in the 1980s that gave certain folks a one-way bus ticket out of town. And, not just Shelburne or Charlotte out of town, but waaayyy out of town.
Photo credit: Andy Bromage.
This article appears in May 12-18, 2010.
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Reading through these comments makes me think that the public education campaigns Burlington really needs are for us to teach people about what homelessness is like, and about the First Amendment. Hardly anyone spanges for fun and profit. If they had things together at all and just wanted to make some money on the street, they’d be strumming a guitar or juggling. They’re in difficult situations– ones that would NOT be solved by selling their shoes! But regardless of whether people begging for money in public is desirable, you can’t control the content of speech in any way without plunging down the slippery slope. Once you’ve passed the Rubicon of having the government judge whether speech is legal based on its content, there’s endless potential for abuses and chilling effects. Freedom is uncomfortable, of course. It’s difficult. But the only alternative is oppression.
“If you read the original column, you’ll see that she is, indeed, a real person who was sitting on the sidewalk asking for money.”Yeah, and the very next day, I saw her again, in the same spot. She was clean and well-groomed, and she was wearing clean, laundered clothes, different than the ones she was wearing in this picture. She obviously did not sleep on the street overnight. She did not spend the night in a tent or in the woods. Why is this kid, who looks like she would easily fit in on the UVM campus, begging for money???
“Nah, dollars to donots, the whole shot was staged for the 7dvt ‘story’.”If you read the original column, you’ll see that she is, indeed, a real person who was sitting on the sidewalk asking for money. http://www.7dvt.com/2010whiskey-tango-foxtrot-why-do-panhandlers-hang-out-spot-main-street
are you saying it would be better to ban the begging itself?No, I’m saying existing laws that govern abusive or aggressive behavior generally are enough and that special laws for certain streets are a bad idea — particularly a ban on something as open to interpretation as “loitering” or as general as “sitting.” How about a ban on “being an asshole” or “smelling bad?” That would give the cops broad authority to keep out those unwanted elements too.
Bill are you saying it would be better to ban the begging itself? I guess could see that option making sense too. Or perhaps one should be required to obtain a permit before begging. You have to have a permit to play music for money, or to provide goods for money. Why not a permit to be allowed to beg? I can see it now…Panhandler: “I’d like a permit to beg on Church Street please…”City Hall: “The permit fee will be $1000.”
Jay mentioned the fact that Burlington is “struggling to be a city” and I think that’s the crux of this problem. Seriously, we don’t need to reinvent the wheel here, and we certainly don’t need to enact more dumb laws about how you can and can’t behave on a public street. This, the proposed smoking ban, the skateboard ban — Church Street treats the citizens of Burlington like children. Other, bigger cities have dealt with these issues for a long time. It’s not against the law to loiter on Market Street in San Francisco (as opposed to other SF streets). It may, however, be against the law to accost passersby for money, generally. Let’s face it, the problem is not the sitting, it’s the panhandling, it’s the unsolicited interactions. This law is like passing a law against standing and facing walls in order to limit public urination. In the 80s the targets of these sorts of maneuvers were often my friends — not panhandlers but counter culture weirdos (read: punk rockers) who the Church St. shop owners didn’t like hanging out on Church St. because they looked weird. My response now is the same as then: get over yourselves. These are the people who live in your city. Church Street is a public space with accommodations literally built for loitering (benches, street vendors, etc.). I’m sorry if you don’t like the looks or behavior of some of your neighbors. Feel free to move, but stop trying to sculpt some pristine culture on Church St. It’s a city street and public space and it’s going to reflect the culture of the city — both the parts you like and the parts you don’t.