While Haight residents rejected Measure L -- election 2010's divisive sit/lie law that, after passing, will now keep city sidewalks sparkling clean, or whatever -- loads of cash and plenty of votes from San Francisco's richest neighborhoods helped edge the anti-street urchin law into victory. SF Appeal's Chris Roberts looked at precinct results, basically showing sit-lie snatched vote in rich person places -- i.e., Pacific Heights, Seacliff, and West of Twin Peaks.
Roberts, who describes Measure L as being "reminiscent of anti-gay statutes" or other group-specific laws, notes:
The measure's margin of victory citywide was 23,000 votes, which is exactly the sum total of the winning margins Measure L enjoyed in supervisorial Districts 2 (Marina/Cow Hollow, Pacific Heights, Seacliff), 4 (Sunset/Parkside) and 7 (West of Twin Peaks, Ingleside Terrace, St. Francis Wood). In other words, in the San Francisco neighborhoods with a dearth of people using the sidewalks as a futon, Sit/Lie killed.
That is to say, Seacliff and St. Francis Wood can now rest easy knowing that area hobos will no longer rule their emerald-encrusted streets.
Roberts goes on to point out that "sit/lie's biggest win, an astonishing 5-to-1 pummeling, came in Senator Dianne Feinstein's Pacific Heights voting precinct, where 249 voters -- including, presumably, the former mayor and her husband, Richard Blum -- voted in favor of Sit/Lie, to 53 bum-loving rich folk against."
