"Quality of life" laws establish control over shopping and business districts and push the collateral human damage out of sight. The aggressiveness by which these laws are enforced varies from place to place depending on local politics, police departments and community opposition, but three things are consistent across the country: downtown business alliances and chambers of commerce wield too much power over the process, urban public space is being privatized and poor and homeless people are being stripped of basic citizenship rights. Furthermore, chambers of commerce, business alliances, city officials and consulting groups meet to share expertise and troubleshoot obstacles.
Resisting A Filthy, Rotten System
Local social justice groups like Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN), San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness (the coalition), Sisters Of The Road (Sisters), Street Roots and Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS) are at the center of opposing what Dorothy Day once described as "our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system." They are forceful and often successful in confronting restrictions and criminalization in individual cities, but they also recognize that as long as this work remains isolated by geography and jurisdictional limitations, it is no match for the formidable wave of power and money that is sweeping the country.
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