Is it legal to put a free couch on the sidewalk? in downtown san francisco?

It's not strictly legal to leave big stuff on the sidewalk, especially in a busy city with lots of sidewalk traffic. In my neighborhood, in the 'burbs, I see it all the time, but the stuff is on the lawn or parking strip, not on the sidewalk.

But these days the SF police are overworked and underfunded, like every govt. agency in the US, so I doubt they would make any trouble for you, especially if it disappears in a day or two.

Not a good idea. Even though it's been pretty warm & sunny lately in Northern California, there's still a lot of moisture in the air. My car is parked out, & every morning it's covered with what looks like rain even though it was a heavy fog & sometimes a light frost. To bring in such a sofa that's been out would be inviting in a bad case of mildew for the taker.

If you can't get rid of it on Craig's List, etc. see if you can make an appointment with a thrift shop for them to pick it up. If you're going to try to get rid of it yourself, it may be easier to sell it at a very low price like $15-$20 than to give it away, which might give the impression that it's worthless. Also, try posting flyers around here & there on posts & even on bulletin boards at laundromats.

Rereading your description of the cat's damage, it might be best to start with the donation to Goodwill. Sometimes they recover those things.

If you still have a cat, check into training it. A nationally syndicated radio program called The Pet Show with Warren Eckstein on Sunday afternoons (was 3 pm on KSRO online) talks about this stuff & suggests using double sided sticky tape + scratching posts. In my experience, a clap of the hands keeps a cat off kitchen table & counters. Might work with a love seat or sofa, too, just in case you're thinking about getting another love seat. Warren Eckstein has books out, too, like How to Get Your Cat to Do What You Want. See his website via The Pet Show, which I found in 2 seconds using Bing search engine for all your cat care book needs.

Quickest and legal way to get rid of decent furniture is to offer it FREE on craigslist and include a picture of the couch. It isn't legal to dump a couch on the street but it is legal to offer it free and then put it outside for the stranger to pick up at a set time of day.

Not necessarily *legal*, but it's done all the time and no big. I've never heard of anyone getting in trouble for it, and I've done it myself a few times. There's always something left out on the street for others - always. You won't get in trouble unless you happen to live in the Financial District or something (which you don't, obviously) and dump it there lengthwise blocking the sidewalk at noon.

You can take a BART train from SFO to the Powell street station. You will then have a 1.5 block walk to Moscone Center

Technically it's illegal (littering/obstructing).

Two options:

1. List it on Freecycle.

http://groups.freecycle.org/SFFN/description

2. Contact Recology (your trash collector); they have a twice-yearly free program where they'll haul away up to ten items of big stuff for free. Here's info:

http://www.recyclemyjunk.com/

It's legal. Go for it.