Panhandling, homelessness, and the Ped Mall
To curb what many say is a growing problem of aggressive panhandling, fights, vulgar language, and loitering on the Ped Mall, the Iowa City City Council approved the first of three readings needed to adopt new panhandling regulations on Tuesday. According to the CRG, the new ordinance would ban:
A violation of the ordinance would be a simple misdemeanor that carries a $65 fine.
This is a very complicated issue, especially when one takes into account the myriad causes of vagrancy and the fact the downtown business authority, which has members sitting on the council, is the driving force behind the new restrictions. Vocal opponents are accusing the city council of targeting the homeless and object to restrictions on the use of public space, which I tend to agree with. However, I can empathize with the concerns of the council, the business association, and the citizens who are apparently complaining (though I have yet to read any citizen complaints in the local media).
The Ped Mall is not a bad place. There have always been a handful of grungy Ped Rats hanging around the Tobacco Bowl and the intersection of Washington and Dubuque. There are more panhandlers and vagrants than there used to be, and they have all been pushed out into the open due to the construction happening at the old Wells Fargo bank location; the Black Hawk mini-park, where many Ped Rats would lounge, has been fenced off so they have moved out to the street-side benches where they are much more visible. Panhandlers now stand at the corners of Washington and Clinton outside Pancheros and the MidWestOne Bank, but the stretch of brick wall along the Cold Stone Creamy location is not as popular as it was when I was in college (it always seemed to be where the young, white, hippies set up shop, usually accompanied by a dog and a guitar). And though the situation along the downtown portion of Washington Street is starting to remind me of Pacific Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz, there is nowhere near the number of aggressive panhandlers, junkies, and cart-pushers. Sure, there are a couple loud, disrespectful assholes (most notably the guy who started shooting people with a BB gun), and some may loudly and physically disagree with each other (I remember seeing two, grungy winos pushing each other around over a cigarette on Linn Street), but the majority of the beggars and vagrants do not bother anybody. Personally, they have never bothered me. But apparently enough of a problem has developed that the council thinks a new ordinance is necessary.
Frankly, I do not see any problem with the rules outlined by the ordinance. It seems sensible that people should not sleep in the planters (duh!), lie on benches during the day, store their belongings in public, use the outlets to charge their cell phones and power portable TVs, and solicit people with their wallets out to pay for parking. But one must consider that there are those among us who do not have homes and need to beg to survive. How does one reconcile that reality with laws meant to deter aggressive and antisocial behavior, especially when it is extremely difficult to differentiate between those who beg for sustenance and those who do it for extra cash or a fix. (There are also people who want to be homeless, but that seems to be a whole different issue.)
Today on Iowa Public Radio’s River to River, one of the guests said that “nineteen out of twenty times” panhandlers will use handouts to feed a drug addiction — which is exactly why I never give beggars any money. I am way too skeptical and mistrusting; I do not want to subsidize someone’s problem, perhaps the very reason they are begging on the street. But the reason Iowa City has attracted so many vagrants and homeless recently is, in my opinion, because there are so many people who hand out five and ten bucks, no questions asked, to anybody who says they are down on their luck. (I am always reminded of one woman who stood along Van Buren near the Co-op to beg. It was, I have to admit, not a bad location; the people who shop at the Co-op tend to be caring and generous with their money. Every time I passed her she would wring her hands and tell me how she had three kids and one of their birthdays was coming up. She would even flag down cars to ask for money, which is how I first encountered her; I assumed she was asking for directions.) I see it a lot. Last Friday, the man driving the car behind me gave $5 to a panhandler at the corner of Boyrum and Highway 6. Co-op customers cheerfully gave money to the woman standing along Van Buren. And people downtown are always giving out cash to vagrants. What happens to that money? I have no clue, but it does not seem to be helping a handful of characters who have been begging for years. Their lives are not improving (or so it seems), or they are not trying to improve their lives.
(The beggars who stand along Highway 6 are an interesting bunch and there seems to be a lot of rumors about them. One of the River to River guests said that begging has become a “cottage industry,” where groups of people — who have apartments, cars, and cell phones — will travel to different cities to beg. It is apparently a very lucrative way to make money. I heard (an unsubstantiated rumor, of course) that the man who stands at Highway 6 and Rocky Shore makes $50,000 a year — all of which is completely tax free. (Which is one reason why I don’t hand $5 out my car window.) Another rumor is that many of the beggars in Iowa City will refuse offers of food. They do not want you to buy them lunch or dinner. They want cash.)
But as I said, there are vagrants who are genuinely needy and there are reasons for that. One cause of homelessness is mental illness and its effects. Someone I know from high school has (I believe) schizophrenia and he would be homeless if he did not live with his mom. In a guest column printed in yesterday’s CRG, Kurt Michael Friese, the owner of Devotay and the executive chef at the Shelter House, wrote, “When we hear a person has cancer we are very sympathetic, but when we hear a person has schizophrenia, our collective lack of understanding leads to fear, which leads to anger, hatred and resentment.” Having come to know many of the area’s homeless, Friese added, “What’s needed, more than anything, is for all of us to wake up to the realities of mental illness and its all-too-frequent partner, substance abuse.” “Out of sight, out of mind” is how Americans like to deal with mental illness and homelessness, and instead of proactively addressing the causes of both we are futilely fighting the negative consequences.
But while there is no lack of dissent against the ordinance in front of the city council, nobody is offering any solutions. While everybody is talking about what we should not do, nobody is offering ideas and saying what we should do. Even Friese does not offer any suggestions. (I would post a link to his column but cannot find it on the CRG website.) Kind of ironic for a city that prides itself on being creative and progressive, no? (It seems that those who vehemently oppose everything the council does for the sake of it are plagued by a dearth of constructive comments and ideas in general.)
I expect the council to pass the ordinance but think it would be better served suggesting that citizens not give panhandlers money.
- “Being in and lying on planters and sitting on those not designed for that purpose.
- Lying on a bench between 5 a.m. and 10 p.m.
- The storage of personal items in public spaces and large shopping carts, with some exceptions.
- The use of public electrical outlets.
- Soliciting money on sidewalks where parking meters are present. Panhandling also would be banned at the three public entrances to the Ped Mall at Linn, Clinton and Dubuque streets.”
A violation of the ordinance would be a simple misdemeanor that carries a $65 fine.
This is a very complicated issue, especially when one takes into account the myriad causes of vagrancy and the fact the downtown business authority, which has members sitting on the council, is the driving force behind the new restrictions. Vocal opponents are accusing the city council of targeting the homeless and object to restrictions on the use of public space, which I tend to agree with. However, I can empathize with the concerns of the council, the business association, and the citizens who are apparently complaining (though I have yet to read any citizen complaints in the local media).
The Ped Mall is not a bad place. There have always been a handful of grungy Ped Rats hanging around the Tobacco Bowl and the intersection of Washington and Dubuque. There are more panhandlers and vagrants than there used to be, and they have all been pushed out into the open due to the construction happening at the old Wells Fargo bank location; the Black Hawk mini-park, where many Ped Rats would lounge, has been fenced off so they have moved out to the street-side benches where they are much more visible. Panhandlers now stand at the corners of Washington and Clinton outside Pancheros and the MidWestOne Bank, but the stretch of brick wall along the Cold Stone Creamy location is not as popular as it was when I was in college (it always seemed to be where the young, white, hippies set up shop, usually accompanied by a dog and a guitar). And though the situation along the downtown portion of Washington Street is starting to remind me of Pacific Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz, there is nowhere near the number of aggressive panhandlers, junkies, and cart-pushers. Sure, there are a couple loud, disrespectful assholes (most notably the guy who started shooting people with a BB gun), and some may loudly and physically disagree with each other (I remember seeing two, grungy winos pushing each other around over a cigarette on Linn Street), but the majority of the beggars and vagrants do not bother anybody. Personally, they have never bothered me. But apparently enough of a problem has developed that the council thinks a new ordinance is necessary.
Frankly, I do not see any problem with the rules outlined by the ordinance. It seems sensible that people should not sleep in the planters (duh!), lie on benches during the day, store their belongings in public, use the outlets to charge their cell phones and power portable TVs, and solicit people with their wallets out to pay for parking. But one must consider that there are those among us who do not have homes and need to beg to survive. How does one reconcile that reality with laws meant to deter aggressive and antisocial behavior, especially when it is extremely difficult to differentiate between those who beg for sustenance and those who do it for extra cash or a fix. (There are also people who want to be homeless, but that seems to be a whole different issue.)
Today on Iowa Public Radio’s River to River, one of the guests said that “nineteen out of twenty times” panhandlers will use handouts to feed a drug addiction — which is exactly why I never give beggars any money. I am way too skeptical and mistrusting; I do not want to subsidize someone’s problem, perhaps the very reason they are begging on the street. But the reason Iowa City has attracted so many vagrants and homeless recently is, in my opinion, because there are so many people who hand out five and ten bucks, no questions asked, to anybody who says they are down on their luck. (I am always reminded of one woman who stood along Van Buren near the Co-op to beg. It was, I have to admit, not a bad location; the people who shop at the Co-op tend to be caring and generous with their money. Every time I passed her she would wring her hands and tell me how she had three kids and one of their birthdays was coming up. She would even flag down cars to ask for money, which is how I first encountered her; I assumed she was asking for directions.) I see it a lot. Last Friday, the man driving the car behind me gave $5 to a panhandler at the corner of Boyrum and Highway 6. Co-op customers cheerfully gave money to the woman standing along Van Buren. And people downtown are always giving out cash to vagrants. What happens to that money? I have no clue, but it does not seem to be helping a handful of characters who have been begging for years. Their lives are not improving (or so it seems), or they are not trying to improve their lives.
(The beggars who stand along Highway 6 are an interesting bunch and there seems to be a lot of rumors about them. One of the River to River guests said that begging has become a “cottage industry,” where groups of people — who have apartments, cars, and cell phones — will travel to different cities to beg. It is apparently a very lucrative way to make money. I heard (an unsubstantiated rumor, of course) that the man who stands at Highway 6 and Rocky Shore makes $50,000 a year — all of which is completely tax free. (Which is one reason why I don’t hand $5 out my car window.) Another rumor is that many of the beggars in Iowa City will refuse offers of food. They do not want you to buy them lunch or dinner. They want cash.)
But as I said, there are vagrants who are genuinely needy and there are reasons for that. One cause of homelessness is mental illness and its effects. Someone I know from high school has (I believe) schizophrenia and he would be homeless if he did not live with his mom. In a guest column printed in yesterday’s CRG, Kurt Michael Friese, the owner of Devotay and the executive chef at the Shelter House, wrote, “When we hear a person has cancer we are very sympathetic, but when we hear a person has schizophrenia, our collective lack of understanding leads to fear, which leads to anger, hatred and resentment.” Having come to know many of the area’s homeless, Friese added, “What’s needed, more than anything, is for all of us to wake up to the realities of mental illness and its all-too-frequent partner, substance abuse.” “Out of sight, out of mind” is how Americans like to deal with mental illness and homelessness, and instead of proactively addressing the causes of both we are futilely fighting the negative consequences.
But while there is no lack of dissent against the ordinance in front of the city council, nobody is offering any solutions. While everybody is talking about what we should not do, nobody is offering ideas and saying what we should do. Even Friese does not offer any suggestions. (I would post a link to his column but cannot find it on the CRG website.) Kind of ironic for a city that prides itself on being creative and progressive, no? (It seems that those who vehemently oppose everything the council does for the sake of it are plagued by a dearth of constructive comments and ideas in general.)
I expect the council to pass the ordinance but think it would be better served suggesting that citizens not give panhandlers money.
