I guess sit-lie supporters don’t party that late. I arrived at Hobson’s Choice, the Haight Street election party central for Civil Sidewalks at 11:30 p.m. only to find the triumphant contingent long gone. “Oh yeah, the last couple guys just left,” the bartender tells me. “There was a ton of people here.”
Not heading home any time soon, however, was Scott Free, who was sitting on a chair strumming a guitar down the block from Hobson’s contemplating the downfall of Prop. 19. Free’s been living “outdoors” for the past two years and has lived in the Haight for eight. He’s pretty sure the passage of Prop L is just a sign of a change that’s been long coming in the neighborhood. “Yeah, sit-lie will change things — but then, I didn’t think they’d be giving smoking tickets in Golden Gate Park. I came to San Francisco from Santa Clara County for the music and the tolerance.”
Hard to believe that voters in SF just passed a measure that will effectively ban Free and friends’ joyful noise.
Their buddy is prone on the sidewalk besides him — drinking away the night that made homelessness illegal and made sure pot remained the same? “He’s real upset about it all,” Free tells me “he’s a big time sitter and liar.”