Sarasota to criminalize sitting or sleeping on sidewalks

In Sarasota, once dubbed by homeless advocates the meanest city in America, it could soon be illegal to sit or lie on some downtown sidewalks.

Driving the news: After downtown business owners complained about aggressive begging, Sarasota city commissioners voted unanimously Monday night to pass an ordinance that would criminalize sitting or lying down in certain areas.

• The ordinance applies to Main Street from west of Washington Boulevard to U.S. 41, and along Palm Avenue, between Ringling Boulevard and Cocoanut Avenue, between 10am and midnight.
• Commissioners must approve it once more after a public hearing for it to take effect, per the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

Yes, but: The ordinance exempts sitting for permitted events like parades, sitting and lying down for medical emergencies, sitting to eat at sidewalk cafés, waiting for a bus and sitting in a wheelchair or motorized vehicle.

• Also exempt: babies in baby strollers, thank goodness.

Of note: One exemption and possible loophole is for "expressive activity," interpreted as: "A person sitting or lying down while engaged in expressive activity protected by the First Amendment when accompanied by incidents of speech such as signs or literature explaining expressive activity."

• "The vagrants may well learn you just put up a little sign saying 'Vagrancy is free speech' and they find the loophole," one citizen told the commission.

What they're saying: "It's not asking for spare change or a dollar," Mark Zemil, the president of Zemil Jewelers on Main Street said, per the Herald-Tribune. "These people are getting very aggressive, and the time to take care of this is right now."

The other side: The ordinance is "clearly another effort to attack the homeless," Michael Barfield, the now-former president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, told the Herald-Tribune in October.

• Similar so-called "sit-lie" ordinances have been challenged in the courts.

Flashback: The Supreme Court in 2019 passed on a closely watched case that would have offered clarity.

• It challenged a Boise, Idaho law that prohibited "camping" on public property and "lodging or sleeping" in any place, whether public or private, without the owner's permission.

The big picture: Clearwater, Orlando and St. Petersburg have similar ordinances, according to Sarasota city attorney Robert Fournier, who warned commissioners that the ordinances are frequently challenged.

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to note that Michael Banfield is the former president of the ACLU of Florida (not the current president).