PORTLAND, Ore. -- Portland Mayor Sam Adams is proposing new sidewalk rules. He hopes his plan to regulate sidewalk behavior will stay on the books.
Judges have ruled previous sidewalk laws in Portland unconstitutional, most recently that happened because of conflicts with Oregon State law.
So now, the Mayor is piggybacking on Federal law to help bring order to local sidewalks.
While the city has gone months without a sidewalk plan, homeless advocate organization Sisters of the Road has used chalk to create a pedestrian zone outside on its sidewalk.
"I think we support the idea that the sidewalk needs to be a through-way or we wouldn't be out here marking up our sidewalks," said Community Organizer Brendan Phillips.
Similarly, Mayor Adams suggests a new set of rules for keeping Portland's sidewalks safe and passable for everyone.
"We're adhering to the concepts of the Americans with Disabilities Act that says you've got to provide access," said Adams.
His new plan doesn't mention panhandling or homelessness by name.
Instead, it addresses only the need to clear a 6-8 foot pedestrian zone next to all properties. Anyone in that zone, must be able to move instantly out of someone's way. So Adams says they should be standing up.
"You don't even have to necessarily have your tape measurer out. It's just -you've got to keep part of the sidewalk closest to the building free and clear."
Andrea Meyer with the ACLU of Oregon questions why businesses -with their cafe tables and sidewalk signs- are getting a pass under the mayor's new proposal.
She also says the $250 fine for sidewalk violations could put the poor in further debt or in criminal court.
"Most of the folks who receive violations don't have that kind of money," she said.
Sisters of the Road likes the Mayor's plan in principal but wonders what authority private security officers would have, for example.
"How is this going to be enforced?" asked Phillips.
A public hearing and vote on the plan is scheduled early next month.
Adams promises future revisions to the plan to regulate cafe tables and a business's sidewalk signage. As for crimes committed on sidewalks -littering, drug dealing etc.- the Mayor says police will crack down. That includes intimidation and harassment, he says.
