Panel to examine mayor's proposed sidewalk-sitting ban

The Assembly on Tuesday voted 9-1 to postpone indefinitely consideration of the administration's sitting-on-sidewalks law, effectively killing it.

Sullivan had wanted the Assembly to postpone action just until September so his administration could work on it further. But a move to do that failed 5-5.

Some Assembly opponents said they thought this version just needed to go away.

The proposed law would ban sitting on sidewalks downtown with exceptions for things like bus stops, medical emergencies, parades or demonstrations that have special permits.

The proposal also would make blocking pedestrians in certain circumstances a crime and expand rules against panhandling by prohibiting it downtown or after dark.

Sullivan said he will ask the city's Public Safety Advisory Commission to review the proposed law that was before the Assembly and variations of it. That's what he had intended to do anyway.

The commission members are appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the Assembly.

He'd like them to look into expanding sidewalk-sitting restrictions to other parts of town like Eagle River and Midtown, as some Assembly members have suggested, Sullivan said.

He also wants to explore tying sidewalk restrictions to certain zoning districts, as Seattle does, Sullivan said.

Seattle's 1993 law is the go-to version for West Coast cities wanting to restrict sidewalk activities because its law has been upheld as constitutional by the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Seattle's prohibition on sitting or lying down on sidewalks is limited to a downtown zone and several other commercial zones, like a Pioneer Square zone, according to analysis by the Anchorage city legal department.

Sullivan said he's not sure whether Anchorage is big enough to have sidewalk-sitting restrictions outside of downtown.

"The courts have kept this fairly narrowly defined to usually the central business district where most of your pedestrian traffic exists," the mayor said.

"You go downtown (in Anchorage) on any given day and there are literally hundreds and hundreds of people walking the sidewalks. You just don't see that in other parts of town."

Seattle has several areas with a lot of pedestrian traffic, he said.

"We're just not quite that mature a city yet."

Sullivan said the Public Safety Advisory Commission will likely consider the sidewalk issue at its September meeting. The mayor will be out of town for the commission's scheduled August meeting, and he wants to participate, he said.

Reach Rosemary Shinohara at rshinohara@adn.com or 257-4340.