The Sharing Public Sidewalks Advisory Committee meets every first Monday from 3:30 - 5 p.m., in Room C on the second floor of the Portland Building, 1120 SW 5th Avenue.  Everyone is welcome to participate - there is no set membership to the committee.

One of the functions of the committee is to review data from police reports documented in connection with enforcing the Sidewalk Obstructions ordinance.  In the three month period, June through August 2010, 55 verbal warnings, 7 written warnings, and 8 citations were issued in relation to the Sidewalk Obstructions ordinance. Of the 8 citations issued, 5 were to the same individual and 2 were to another individual. There were 8 unrelated arrests made for warrants (6), drug possession (1) and failure to obey a peace officer (1). The warnings/citations were issued by the same few officers, which is expected and desired as these are the officers regularly working downtown who have received detailed training on sidewalk management. 47% of the individuals that received warnings/citations were in the 18-30 age group. 81% of individuals receiving warnings/citations were male.

More details and analysis of the data posted here.  At the September meeting, it was decided to ask police officers to track the weather at the time of the incident more closely.

Data from September will be reviewed at our next meeting on Monday, along with input from the Human Rights Commission whose members are also monitoring the data.  Please join us if you are interested and able.