In the days of Guiliani, those bums were constantly picked up and taken to a homeless shelter. That discouraged most of the panhandlers (a homeless shelter is the last place they typically want to go).
It's a shame because Grand Central is such a majestic place. Even if my train comes in on an outer track, I go out of my way to walk through the lobby before I start my workday. I feel like the master of the universe walking through that place. Sometimes you have a classical quartet playing in the Lexington Street passage and I always make it a point to drop a few coins in their plate, while ignoring the panhandlers who only want the coins for their next 40-ounce can of booze.
Yep....very wrong train station, indeed !
I have always loved Grand Central; it's beautiful ( especially since its renovation/cleanup ), but it sickens me that Penn Station ( this was way before your time ) wasn't saved. That too was majestic and should have been made an historic building !
Those damned bums are really just crooks and should be swept away, as Rudy did !
From the time I was a bitty child, until I was a young adult, there was a supposed beggar at the front of Bloomies. When he died, the paper wrote him up and it came to light that he wasn't REALLY bum, owned several condos or co-ops, had a large bank account, and this was all an act!