Posted on 11/05/2006 1:11:22 PM PST by conservative in nyc
Two of their favourite targets were drivers parked at stoplights and people withdrawing cash from bank machines.
But a decade after New York introduced laws to end "aggressive'' panhandling, the streets are still worked by folks seeking free money.
Tougher policing under former mayor Rudy Giuliani and efforts to reduce homelessness under current Mayor Michael Bloomberg have yet to eradicate begging in the city.
That panhandling persists is leading an increasing number of municipalities to look to New York to see what has worked and what has not with Toronto heading a list of Canadian cities interested in the Big Apple's progress since the 1996 laws.
The question is even at the heart of the current mayoral race in Toronto, and could become an issue in other cities across the country as they grow.
"The enduring lesson of both the panhandling and the homeless question is that if you rely on just law enforcement, you will move the problem around, but you won't resolve it,'' said Richard Aborn, president of the independent advocacy group Citizens Crime Commission of New York.
"You have to be able to co-ordinate city agencies with the not-for-profit sector in developing a comprehensive plan to approach to both issues.''
While there are constitutional limits to the amount of pressure police can place on panhandlers, advocacy groups say eradicating the social problems common to many who beg should be possible in one of the richest cities in the world.
The challenge is to find the right mix that will not only house the homeless, but also tackle other problems that lead to street begging, such as drug usage or mental illness.
But there's also the question of what to do about people like Paula Hedley, 38, who has been revealed to wrap herself in filthy blankets as she begs tearfully for change along upscale Fifth Avenue all before it's time to slip behind a telephone booth to change into her clean jogging wear at the end of the day, and return to her 123rd Street home.
A similar question mark hangs over what the New York Post has called the ``New Beggars'' 18- to 28-year-olds who choose homelessnessas a lifestyle because it fits with their politics of anti-materialism and anarchism. They can typically be seen holding up cards with well-argued pleas for change, often with a bandana-adorned pet dog by their side, and cellphone in hand.
``Not all beggars are homeless,'' admitted Patrick Markee of the New York advocacy group Coalition for the Homeless.
Against a backdrop of record-level crime rates, New Yorkers in the early 1990s complained panhandling and demands for money from windshield-washing ``squeegee men'' had become a virtual epidemic.
As mayor from 1994, Giuliani pushed to impose restrictions on begging as part of his wider Quality-of-Life Enforcement Initiative.
The 1996 panhandling law targeted begging that involved threats, physical contact or blocking a person's path and specifically barred panhandling within three metres of most automatic teller machines.
While civil rights groups and other opponents argued the measure would lead to a de facto criminalization of poverty, many of the squeegee men and ``in-your-face'' panhandlers arrested under the law turned out to be wanted for other crimes.
But there were also some the courts threw out on grounds there had been no threat or criminal intent.
``The majority of the street homeless are people with mental illness,'' said Markee. ``So behaviour that could appear to be aggressive to a police officer or pedestrian might just be symptomatic of the person's serious mental illness.''
Bloomberg, who took office in 2002, appeared to be extending the Giuliani-era crackdown on so-called quality-of-life crimes as reports emerged on how police were handing out tickets for the most innocuous of ``crimes.'' An 86-year-old man got a ticket for feeding the pigeons outside his apartment, while another city resident was fined for sitting on a long-abandoned milk crate outside a beauty salon. People who placed bags on empty bus seats got tickets, as did cyclists who let their legs dangle, or weren't equipped with a bell.
But some said the push was more related to raising cash to help pay down the city deficit in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and indeed the crackdown eased as the city finances improved.
Another consequence of the downturn in the economy, however, had been a dramatic rise in homelessness, which had become so severe by the end of 2002 that Bloomberg dispatched two officials to Bermuda to investigate the possibility of renting retired cruise ships as temporary accommodation.
Amid campaigning in 2004 for re-election the next year the mayor launched a five-year plan that aimed to reduce by two-thirds the number of homeless in the city, which has a population of nine million.
The latest statistics show there are around 34,000 people in shelters each night, down from a peak of 38,300 in 2003. The administration also claims to have reduced the number of people living on the streets by 13 per cent since 2003, arguing the current total is 3,800.
Bloomberg announced a new $10-million USdrive last week to reduce the street-homeless figure.
``Humanely, respectfully, and firmly, we'll work to get these men and women to enter supportive housing, enrol in treatment programs, or go into shelters,'' he said.
Markee says advocacy groups believe the street-homeless number are under-played, explaining the city estimates a total number from counts in specific areas.
``You just need to talk to people on the front lines, and in the shelters, and they're telling us they're still seeing a lot of street people, who, by definition often sleep in places where they're not going to be seen.''
There are no estimates of the number of panhandlers, but Markee said it ``doesn't feel like there's been a reduction'' over the last years.
``Of course, I look perhaps more than most people, but when I leave in the morning, I see people out there, cups in hand,'' he said.
Large congregations of panhandlers work tourist areas, such as Times Square or the Port Authority bus station, where tourists are often more likely than locals to give change.
``They think they are helping, but 90 per cent of the money they give gets spent on drugs,'' said one outreach worker.
Markee expressed surprise Toronto feels it has a panhandling problem, explaining he recently visited the city after Toronto officials visited New York.
``In the late 1980s in New York, homelessness was a major problem and there was a feeling of disorder on the streets, and that contributed to public support for some of these more aggressive policies,'' he said.
``But Toronto didn't strike me as being much like New York was in the late '80s.''
There's a lot of liberal crap spewed by the author and the homeless advocates he interviewed in this article. The squeegee men and aggressive panhandlers are pretty much off of the streets here - and as the article said, many had criminal records to begin with. That some had cases against them thrown out doesn't mean the law was wrong - murder suspects go free every day, yet no one implies that means there should be no law against murder. Despite the protestation of homeless advocates (who get more funding if there are more homeless), there definitely are many fewer aggressive panhandlers than there were before Giuliani took office. Toronto should follow New York City's lead.
Ping.
Canada ping.
Please send me a FReepmail to get on or off this Canada ping list.
I remember in N. Houston several years back (45 & 1960 for all you H-towners), there was this one street begger who had a sign that read:
"Hell, I'm not gonna lie. Need money for beer."
And the guy was making a killing.
"Blanket in a Bottle"
He did not appear to be doing drugs, Is this man crazy?
There do seem to be more during the Bloomberg administration than there were during the Giuliani administration though.
"But there's also the question of what to do about people like Paula Hedley, 38, who has been revealed to wrap herself in filthy blankets as she begs tearfully for change along upscale Fifth Avenue all before it's time to slip behind a telephone booth to change into her clean jogging wear at the end of the day, and return to her 123rd Street home."
Remember Troonto's "shaky lady" who was in the news a few years ago?
Wasn't it only about 10 years ago when the Canadian establishment boasted that Toronto is the New York run by Swiss, a much more orderly and caring place yada yada, and that New York should "look north" for solutions?
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
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