posted on May 29, 2003 03:47:06 PM newAs if the money wouldn't have been better used feeding the homeless or medical care for needy kids
City agencies in San Francisco added up the costs of the war protests that disrupted the city in March and came up with more than $3.5 million in expenses and lost revenue.
The biggest bite out of city coffers came from the Police Department, which reported spending $2 million to police the civil unrest, with most of the money paying for officer overtime.
The Sheriff's Department, which staffs the jails, reported $760,872 in extra costs. Public Works, which cleans the streets, said it had spent $194, 840 during the demonstrations that took place March 17 to 22.
The Municipal Railway, which operates the city's public transit service, lost an estimated $55,224 when the protesters and police blockades prevented drivers from making their regular runs. Almost $67,000 more was spent on overtime.
"The demonstrations impacted Muni operations significantly," Muni's executive director, Michael Burns, wrote supervisors. "Buses and electric trolleys were caught among the demonstrations in and around Market Street. Cable car service was impeded and was not able to reach Powell Street.
"In addition," Burns said, "Muni buses were commandeered by the Police Department in order to transport arrested demonstrators to the booking areas."
San Francisco police arrested about 2,300 people during the protests.
Supervisor Tony Hall, who asked the departments for the cost information, said, "I knew it would be high, but not that high. It also doesn't include any of the private-sector costs -- the people who were inconvenienced, the businesses that were shut down."
Hall, who had called for the city to collect protest-related costs from the organizations that planned the demonstrations, seems to have backed down from that notion after his colleagues on the Board of Supervisors failed to come on board and civil rights groups threatened to sue.
San Francisco became one of the most robust anti-war strongholds in the country. Thousands of demonstrators converged on downtown San Francisco and in Civic Center the day the war broke out, and smaller demonstrations continued throughout the week.
Like Hall, Mayor Willie Brown lamented publicly about the cost to the cash- strapped city, setting off a lively debate over the right to block traffic and disrupt business to voice dissent against the war in Iraq versus the public's inconvenience and taxpayers' costs.
"What price democracy?" Bobbie Stein from the National Lawyers Guild said Tuesday. "It's the cost of living in a free society."
Several smaller city departments reported demonstration-related costs. The San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center, for instance, lost $3, 200 in revenue when the San Francisco Symphony canceled four student concerts. The arts center also paid $158 in overtime for security guards.
The Department of Consumer Assurance, whose tasks include making make sure that supermarkets' produce scales are accurate, spent $145 on overtime to pay inspectors caught in a demonstration-related traffic jam.
