anti:freeze

Last year, Mayor Vera Katz created new enforcement guidelines for the "obstruction as nuisance" ordinance, which prohibits citizens from blocking pedestrian traffic on downtown sidewalks - only downtown sidewalks, in fact. We all knew which populations would be targeted: the homeless, the mentally ill, people of color, and other "untouchables." Perhaps coincidentally, these guidelines went into effect just a few shorts weeks before President Bush made a fundraising visit . . .

One year later, the mayor has strengthened enforcement again. Where before there were broad allowances for people attending events, there are now limitations. You may occupy a downtown sidewalk only for an event that lasts eight hours or less. While this might sound generous, it is actually a covert attempt to "clean up" the city's least favorite expression of free speech - the Portland Peace Encampment, a nonstop peace vigil that - until it was dismantled earlier in the week - has held strong since the first bombs were dropped in Iraq.

And just in time for Bush to visit again . . .

The major problem here - besides the obvious constitutional issues - is that Mayor Vera Katz seems to think a city is the sum total of its streets and businesses, the cleanliness and order of its grid, the sidewalks and storefronts and skyscrapers. But a city is not just a place. If that were true, then any collection of buildings and streets could rightly be called urban. Imagine you walk onto a movie set - all skyscrapers and apartment buildings, restaurants and public squares, but no people. You wouldn't call it a city, and you certainly wouldn't call it urban.

In the Winter 2003 issue of Places magazine, Nico Larco defined the major characteristics of urbanity: interaction, density, public space, variation, memory and the stranger, to name a few. The Stranger represents the experience of interacting with something or someone new - someone that might even make you uncomfortable. Or even frighten you. Can you imagine downtown Portland without the dreadlocks, the panhandlers, the punks, the protestors, the preachers and screamers and drummers? Mayor Katz, if you can't stand the noises, smells, touches and vocabularies of the stranger, then why are you here?
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*There is some confusion about the ordinance that was used to dismantle the Peace Camp. KBOO reports that the peace encampment was raided as a result of strict enforcement of the obstructions-as-nuisance ordinance, and the editor at Portland Communique reports the same. I believe they are correct. Now the task is to figure out whether new, tighter restrictions were invoked.

Note: Some people seem to use the term "obstruction as nuisance" and "sit-lie" interchangeably, and in my original post I used the term "sit-lie ordinance." These are not interchangeable, and in fact, there is no official "sit-lie" ordinance - only tougher enforcement of "obstruction as nuisance." I have since corrected my post. See the comments section for more.

Special thanks to Portland Communique, for thoughtful comments and good information. Check there for more.

And here is a link to Portland City Code. Go to Title 14, and you will find the Obstructions as Nuisances ordinance.

UPDATE: There is a sit-in at Portland City Hall on Friday, August 15th, at 12:00 noon. This sit-in will protest the new enforcement guidelines for the obstruction-as-nuisance ordinance. The new guidelines went into effect August 12, 2003, and were used to dismantle the Portland Peace Encampment. The new guidelines were made by the mayor, the police bureau, and the city attorneys. (And if I weren't home sick with a massive ear infection that refuses to go away - making me dizzy and sleepy and almost completely deaf - I would attending the sit-in myself).