Bangor has banned people from occupying certain median strips within the city.
The city council amended its ordinance yesterday to prohibit loitering on medians less than six feet wide in busy or high-speed areas.
An initial review identified nine intersections that will be affected by the ban. City officials cited safety concerns for pedestrians and drivers.
But Carol Garvan, with the ACLU of Maine, said the combination of the city's loitering and anti-solicitation ordinances amount to a ban on free speech.
"This third ordinance broadly bans people existing on medians in the city," she said. "So at some point when you take all of these separate laws together it starts to look like an outright ban on free speech in public places."
Garvan said the ordinance unfairly targets people experiencing homelessness.
"What this ordinance will actually do is disproportionally silence people who exist in public spaces, it will disproportionally silence unhoused residents, and it will push them out of public view," she said. "But that, pushing them out of public view does not address the root causes of homelessness, addressing the root causes of homelessness is what will actually make our communities safer."
Garvan said that similar restrictions in other cities have been struck down by the courts.
