Sarcasm off
Posted on 12/07/2005 12:00:11 PM PST by Behind Liberal Lines
City of Ithaca Mayor Carolyn Peterson has received a substantial increase in panhandling complaints from downtown shoppers this year. "People who contacted my office were genuinely concerned and genuinely afraid," Peterson said. It is for this reason that Peterson supports an ordinance prohibiting aggressive panhandling, made by the Commons Advisory Board (CAB).
But last week, the ordinance for the City of Ithaca had much of its language stripped away by the governance committee, before getting sent to Common Council's meeting tonight (Dec. 7) for likely approval.
The committee cut the 15-foot clauses in the ordinance, which stated all panhandling was prohibited 15 feet from stores, ATMs and financial institutions, among other locations. Alderman Michael Taylor (D-4th Ward) said the 15-foot stipulation would make all panhandling virtually impossible in areas like Collegetown. Panhandling in a respectful, unobtrusive way has been widely accepted as a First Amendment right. Thus, Taylor said, that right is violated if panhandlers are pushed off every locale but The Commons.
As defined in the ordinance, aggressive panhandling includes mainly the following: requesting money, being denied and asking again; touching or blocking a person upon monetary request; speaking unreasonably loud or using inappropriate gestures or language. Some cities' codes state that aggressive panhandling violates a person's right of privacy.
The governance committee passed the revised ordinance, with Pamela Mackesey (D-1st Ward) casting the lone dissenting vote, claiming the ordinance violated the First Amendment, and explaining that she believes many panhandlers have mental or substance abuse problems.
"You take care of their problem not by trying to fine them - they don't have money anyway - but by helping them with their problems and giving them a place to go," Mackesey said. Some studies support her point - according to a Chicago Tribune article last week, Chicago's anti-panhandling law has been a widespread failure.
Ithaca's panhandling ordinance is based upon one that originated in Burlington, Vt. Burlington has a long history of being compared to Ithaca, though Burlington has roughly 10,000 more people than Ithaca, and a larger metropolitan area. But, Mackesey noted, Burlington has a full-time social service worker on its pedestrian mall, and said if Ithaca had a social worker on its downtown - fulfilling the human services side as well as the enforcement side - she would feel more comfortable with the aggressive panhandling ordinance. The American Red Cross does have a street outreach worker in Tompkins County, who works in Ithaca as well as other municipalities.
Burlington has three full-time and one part-time social workers on its downtown, most focusing on the pedestrian mall at Church Street. The program is called the Community Street Outreach Project (CSOP), and the city, downtown business groups and United Way fund its $182,000 budget for employees and a downtown office.
"If you have a guy that's talking to a stop sign, who do the merchants call about that?" said Burlington's downtown lieutenant Scott Davidson. "We're responding to a problem we're completely ineffective at serving."
Davidson explained he cannot even call social services and get information on people with mental illnesses. If people are off their medication, for example, he will not spot the signs. Davidson explained the street outreach programs work within social services, and can spot and neutralize trouble signs immediately.
Davidson believes people with mental illnesses respond poorly to the police. "You wake up sleeping on a park bench next to a guy with a gun and badge, and that's instant intimidation," Davidson said. "Going through jail and law enforcement is a very scary thing for someone with mental disabilities."
Davidson claimed CSOP is "one of the most beneficial services I've seen social services perform" - Times Square just invited CSOP to New York City to present their success. Davidson added that police, shoppers and merchants all agree downtown Burlington is a safer more welcoming downtown since the program began five years ago, and a United Way study agrees with Davidson, finding "the levels of behavior/symptoms decreased after Year 1 and remained steady for the last several years."
Davidson said people with mental illnesses and transient residents are mixed together evenly to form Burlington's panhandling population. The strict panhandling ordinance in Burlington has been a major success, Davidson said.
In Ithaca, Commons Unit Officer Robert Brotherton said people with mental illnesses hardly ever panhandle. "The problem we have is in the summer time, when people are briefly coming in and leaving," Brotherton said, estimating 50 people often panhandle on populated summer nights.
Brotherton said police perform many of the duties of a social service worker. "I'm talking to people like a social worker," Brotherton said. "I direct them to the Department of Social Services and the shelters." He said that if people with mental illnesses are on The Commons, they are usually sitting at the pavilions, not panhandling.
Brotherton is slightly frustrated at the governance committee's removal of the 15-feet rule because of Collegetown - "you can count the number of panhandling complaints we have in Collegetown on one hand" - and other areas. But Brotherton said the legislation, particularly with its stipulation that "no person shall solicit while under the influence of alcohol...," will give the police more leverage.
The CAB is currently writing a proposed amendment to The Commons section in the City Code, which will reach the governance committee in December or January. This proposal will recommend 15-feet stipulations panhandling for The Commons.
Sarcasm off
Um...isn't that the whole point?
"Going through jail and law enforcement is a very scary thing for someone with mental disabilities."
Yeah, the rest of us do it for fun. ;)
I nominate Councilwoman Pamela Mackesey's home.
...took me less than 30 seconds to find her personal data on the web, including her address to give out to the panhandlers.
There goes the bar scene...
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Pamela Mackesey (D-1st Ward). |
ROFLMAO!! The panhandlers oughta concentrate in C-Town, dontcha know? All those rich students will gladly hand over their spare change to those poor, society-trodden individuals ...
There is a law of nature that says if you are known for being sympathetic to people with social dependency issues, you will attract more bums than places that enforce vagrancy laws.
Those of us out here in the Red states find it hard to sympathize with your plight, and would far prefer to have our enemployables and moochers to live close to you. After all, you are so caring and all... I've personally stopped giving money to bums, but I may consider offering them a one way bus ticket to Ithaca.
I think the mayor encapsulated the 'progressive' view of life fairly well:
"People who contacted my office were genuinely concerned and genuinely afraid," Peterson said.
brought to you by the Peoples DemocRATic Panhandling Republic of i just GROWL at them and they usually get the hint...
Hey buddy, can you spare a dime?
They used to call the lunatic asylum, but the "compassionate" liberals closed many of those after the making of "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" -- so now they have noplace to go.
Bums on the streets of Ithaca in the dead of winter? They've gotta be crazy. At least the ones out here (Cali) are smart enough to have moved to a warm climate.
Yeah, it's hard to believe that a car like this:
Isn't striking fear into the hearts of panhandlers everywhere.
Leftism in America is all about panhandling, from the lowest bum to the richest corporation they all have their hands out for someone else's money
The stop sign is probably a better conversationalist than the liberals spouting claptrap.
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