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re: Panhandling - How bad has it gotten in your city?
Posted on 6/21/17 at 7:15 pm to Numberwang
Posted on 6/21/17 at 7:15 pm to Numberwang
They're all over Little Rock. I don't care if it makes me an arsehole or not, but when they approach me I put my hand up and shooh them away like peasants. If they start talking I tell them to Frick Off. I know I should show more compassion to them, but something about beggars just piss me off.
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Posted on 6/21/17 at 8:51 pm to Maytheporkbewithyou
If you're an addict it works into your schedule:
Wake up. Fix. Go to "work" for a few hours. Get enough to fix again. Go back to "work." Get enough to fix again. Etc...
That being said: there are a lot of people in serious need that are being given a bad name by the junkies. The vast majority of homeless have a serious mental illness that is going untreated or self-medicated via drugs/booze. I'm not sure how we, as a society, address these issues... but turning a blind eye isn't really it.
Wake up. Fix. Go to "work" for a few hours. Get enough to fix again. Go back to "work." Get enough to fix again. Etc...
That being said: there are a lot of people in serious need that are being given a bad name by the junkies. The vast majority of homeless have a serious mental illness that is going untreated or self-medicated via drugs/booze. I'm not sure how we, as a society, address these issues... but turning a blind eye isn't really it.
Posted on 6/21/17 at 9:46 pm to Numberwang
It's terrible here in BR, particularly on College Drive. There's one dude in a wheelchair here who's out there everyday panhandling, and today he was vomiting all over the place and talking to himself. Really sad thing to watch.
This post was edited on 6/21/17 at 9:51 pm
Posted on 6/22/17 at 12:06 pm to lsudave1
Posted on 6/22/17 at 1:20 pm to Barneyrb
quote:
A survey conducted in 2001 on panhandlers' income and spending patterns in Toronto found that 70 percent would prefer a minimum-wage job over panhandling.
That's not Lexington's experience. A $9.00/hr job and transportation to work didn't get any takers from the city's professional beggars. I suppose they prefer "self-employment."
Posted on 6/22/17 at 4:30 pm to Numberwang
Memphis has hired something called Downtown Brigade or something... basically they are rentacops on bikes. They are doing their best to clean it up... there are a few select locations that you always see them and it is always the same people. A couple of intersection out east. In front of the Methodist hospital and on second street downtown. Maybe a couple other spots, but as whole they aren't terrible and keep them off main street which is walk only cept the trolly. Kinda surprising to be honest. Just sucks because i work on a corner where they congregate. Downtown brigade seems to have helped little in the past month
Posted on 6/23/17 at 6:52 am to yatesdog38
quote:
Memphis has hired something called Downtown Brigade or something... basically they are rentacops on bikes.
Downtown Fort Worth(Sundance Square) has been doing this for a long time. I've never been in a safer, cleaner, downtown area. I think they load up all the homeless and ship them to Dallas.
Posted on 6/23/17 at 11:18 am to Numberwang
We have a lot of homeless but not a lot of panhandling. It seems our bums have enough money to buy booze and drugs.
Posted on 6/23/17 at 11:49 am to Numberwang
quote:
They are at every major intersection, every single day. Apparently as long as they are in the public right-of-way, nothing can be done.
They're working in fricking shifts, man. The Township/College light, the offramp of MLK, the offramp of Wedington, and the garden variety street kids on Dickson are where I see them the most.
A couple of years ago, I was working at a restaurant on Dickson. I was taking out the trash after a dinner rush one night, and two homeless guys and a homeless girl were loitering around where the food trucks are. As I was taking the trash to the dumpster, one of them asked if I had anything to spare. I said I had another load of garbage to get, and I'd see what I could do when I went back. We had a bunch of fries left over from the rush under the heat lamp, so I put a big platter of them in a takeout box and gave it to them on my way back. As I was coming back from the dumpster the second time, I heard the girl turn her nose up and pass the fries off saying "these are too cold." I'm not even homeless and I'll go to town on some cold fries, where are these bourgeoisie standards from beggars coming from?
The Fayetteville homeless aren't typically the kind who need your help. They're the kind who ruin charity for other people.
Posted on 6/23/17 at 1:43 pm to Kentucker
quote:
I see this guy at the corner of S. Broadway and W. Maxwell frequently. I heard someone yell, "Hey, Paul, time to go!" at him one day. Begging is becoming an industry in Kentucky. I wish people would quit giving to them and give to homeless shelters instead.
quote:
I see this guy at the corner of S. Broadway and W. Maxwell frequently. I heard someone yell, "Hey, Paul, time to go!" at him one day. Begging is becoming an industry in Kentucky. I wish people would quit giving to them and give to homeless shelters instead.
Yep, this right here. I tell people in Mexico City to never, ever give money to people on the streets. There is still a significant amount of slave labor here and it is literally a business. I see the same people at the same places getting into the same trucks every day here.
It has completely changed my mind on giving money to people in the street.
Posted on 6/23/17 at 5:28 pm to StrawsDrawnAtRandom
quote:
There is still a significant amount of slave labor here and it is literally a business.
Damn, I hadn't considered that. I guess it's because the beggars in Lexington are grown men who don't even look homeless. Some of them even have dogs with them.
I can see people enslaving kids, maybe even old people, and putting them on a corner to beg in big cities. Is that how it's working in Mexico City?
Posted on 6/23/17 at 7:58 pm to Numberwang
quote:
Fayetteville has seen an explosion in panhandlers the past year. They are at every major intersection, every single day. Apparently as long as they are in the public right-of-way, nothing can be done.
I had this conversation last weekend at Beaver lake. Per capita, Fayetteville might have the most panhandlers I've ever seen. It's up there.
Posted on 6/23/17 at 8:30 pm to CCTider
It's a super recent phenomenon, too. I'm not sure what exactly happened.
Posted on 6/23/17 at 8:37 pm to VagueMessage
quote:
It's a super recent phenomenon, too. I'm not sure what exactly happened.
Arkansas Supreme court ruled against the previous no-begging laws that were in place in most cities.
Found those laws to be unconstitutional. Plus, Fayetteville is full of bleeding hearts.
Posted on 6/23/17 at 8:46 pm to wmr
quote:
Arkansas Supreme court ruled against the previous no-begging laws that were in place in most cities
Similar situation in Kentucky. The professional beggars seem to come out of the woodwork in the past year. They used to have little folding signs that they'd quickly tuck away when a cop approached but now they have big ones proclaiming their "pitiful lives." Ugh.
Posted on 6/23/17 at 9:14 pm to VagueMessage
quote:
It's a super recent phenomenon, too. I'm not sure what exactly happened
I'll tell you exactly why it is.
Fayetteville is known as the most progressive city in the state. It's also the big college town. With wealthy sympathetic young people. So they know they'll make more here than elsewhere.
And people travel to Fayetteville to panhandle. A lot of them are actually from southern Missouri.
Posted on 6/23/17 at 9:17 pm to wmr
quote:
Plus, Fayetteville is full of bleeding hearts.
Yep. The more liberal a city, the more panhandling. And while I'm liberal, I've lost my sympathy. I'll only offer food nowadays, like a granola or cliff bar.
Posted on 6/23/17 at 11:52 pm to The Spleen
quote:
Doesn't seem to be any worse in Birmingham than it's been since I moved here 17 years ago. They seem to only congregate in certain areas. I always give them change if I have any in my pocket.
It hasn't gotten worse because it's never really been a problem here that I remember.
Obviously it exists, but not to the point that it's a nuisance. It's not even something you see everyday.
Usually when you do see it it's harmlessly standing with a cardboard sign by a traffic light when you exit rhe interstate. And I can only think of 1, maybe 2, spots where that I would consider it common. And it's usually just 1 guy at a time, never more than 2, so I don't think that counts as "congregating"
And it's a rare thing that somebody around here physically approaches me and verbally asks for money.
I travel to other similar sized cities and you can barely get out of your car at a gas station before some crack head starts with a sob story about how they just need a few bucks to help them get home.
Some cities even the cardboard sign beggars get aggressive and pissed off.
Not sure how we got so lucky with our poors. Every time I've dealt with cardboard sign guys here they're still polite even when I reject them and very grateful anytime I see them get help.
Posted on 6/25/17 at 8:40 am to BowlJackson
Where are you living at?
This post was edited on 6/25/17 at 8:41 am
Posted on 6/26/17 at 9:12 pm to Numberwang
New Orleans and Mobile are the worst I've seen for panhandling.
Just about every gas station and intersection has somebody
asking for money. Lots of charities to take care of them but
I think it may actually make matters worse.
Just about every gas station and intersection has somebody
asking for money. Lots of charities to take care of them but
I think it may actually make matters worse.
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