What do you think about panhandling on the mall?

There are panhandlers because they profit by it. Begging is a time-honored occupation.

Here's an idea - and a revenue raiser - panhandlers must obtain a permit to panhandle. The cost of the permit - maybe start at $1000 per month and it must be renewed monthly. Since many panhandlers prefer not to work in the traditional sense and reportedly make over $30K annually - they can afford it.

One guy that plays sometimes on the mall work nights at a local hospital.

Why are we conflating buskers and panhandlers here? Admittedly some of the buskers are a bit scruffy but that's not panhandling. Some of the buskers are a nice addition. Most of the panhandlers are an eyesore at worst (in my experience). If they actively request money just inform them that it's illegal (some may not know) and offer to get a cop to help explain it to them.

In NC, the panhandlers have to have a permit in order to "beg" for money. They have to comply with the panhandlers laws or be arrested. I'm not sure how much the permit costs but it seems to be working down here. Perhaps Cville should look into that option. I grew up in VA and I didn't know that the panhandling situation had gotten that bad.

@Wog...cute bit of comedy. Perhaps you were subconsciously thinking of the old Monty Python interview bit where the asked chartered accountants on the street (you know, typical grey-clad, hat-wearing Londoner businessmen): "Sir, exactly where do you stand on the homeless?" Answer: "Right here, at the nape of their necks."

Actually, I like the buskers but loathe the nonproductive, begging bums. Why don't the police just give them field sobriety tests and arrest them for loitering and/or public intoxication?

Just as homeless advocates don't want people "stereotyping" the homeless as lazy bums, those same advocates should not stereotype the anti-bum coalition as snooty, crepe-eating, money-spending, heartless Thurston Howells. Many of us are locals who bring out kids just to walk on the mall, stop in some of the stores and, perhaps, by an overpriced toy for my son.
The first problem on the mall is that idiotic chalkboard. It cost seven figures...how much could that have helped the homeless? We could have hired twenty police officers to shoo the vermin off the mall.
Is there a way to make The Crossroads a high rise? Maybe we could allocate two floors of the new hotel on the mall to the homeless. You know, redistribution of wealth.

R.I.P.: Frank Rizzo

@Bill, that article has not a thing to do with homelessness or panhandling.

Typical Bill Marshall stuff. In a story about oranges he offers "Here, let me give you this stuff about apples [so I can use the term "liberal choices" in a denigrating way]."

One wonders if Bill knows anything about the actual meaning of the term "liberal" or "liberalism."

It is handy though, isn't it, to have the single causal explanation for anything one doesn't like. "See how bad that is? Its obviously because of the damn liberals."

Love the Buskers. There's someone down there playing Cello quite often, and I honestly think that adds some character to the mall. I wish there were more people playing music and bringing their tricks and talents. I am happy to throw a couple bucks at those people trying to make a little extra cash for their entertainment.

I could do without the people just sitting down on the ground with a cardboard sign though. Although, I'd rather there be a cardboard sign than them accosting everyone asking for money.

All in all, its not as bad here as it is in other towns.

JS

Your inability to understand and comprehend does not make you right.

In Amsterdam, the most liberal of the liberals they have sqyuatters laws where people can just get a free home. Now that they have done that they are faced with the cretins who abused that expensive giveaway and are having to banish them to "scum cities" because of the problems they cause. Charlottesvilles tactic of seeing every bum as a "victim" and building them free housing to live in is simply their version of the same thing. These bums get free housing, soup kitchens, and panhandle for drug or booze money and many of them are aggresive in doing so. We WILL come to a point where they are dealt with, the question is how bad it has to get before the taxpayers and non liberal voters have had enough.

Maybe when the taxes skyrocket for these stupid non solutions and busnesses have all fled the mall the Council will get the message.

Give panhandlers a free license with an id badge and make them follow protcols like anyone else with a business and when they violate those rules take thier license away for a week month year or forever depending on thier behavior. This is a legal, constitutional and moralway of handling the situation. With every "right" comes a responsibility.

I'd rather give out a dollar (to someone downtown) than to hear Honey Boo Boo hollar. I'd rather give away dollars than put another one to Justin Beiber's collar. (or any celebrity fragrance sprayed on the collar). I keep a couple of dollars its just part of the tip you pay downtown.

"Many of us are only one really bad day away from having to beg on the streets."

True but the difference being (I hope) is that you would look for work and not choose to live off the gullibility of others.

not herman brood

here is some more.. I guess these people are lying also?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/magazine/03european-t.html?pagewanted=all

@JS

Precisely.

A (not-elected but instead appointed) mayor (from a party that took a drubbing at the last elections, and who needs to move towards the middle) made a proposal (not an actual action) to remove repeat offenders (not panhandlers, but instead more like the ASBOs of Britain) from government-owned or -backed rental housing (no ownership is given to squatters, and there are laws and police to evict them). The proposal struck some as something akin to that previously mouthed by a peroxide-fueled political parody (Geert Wilders), who coined a phrase so clever and unintentionally comedic ("tuigdorpen") that it demanded attention (think "voluntary deportation" or "legitimate rape") by the overwhelming majority of people -- who, like 'Mericans, whether watching Faux News or MSNBC -- consider their national representative bodies to be increasingly dysfunctional.

Perhaps you want to believe that there is some place or some people who are your antithesis, and that they have failed, and that they now realize it, and that they are actually building concentration camps for the people you think might be proxies for people in your own community whom you despise.

Or maybe you just don't how to think critically.

Need a "county work farm" where vagrants can be sent to work off their sentences, after which they can be given Greyhound tickets for the out-of-state destinations of their choice. That there are people like this in the world and in the country is a given. For the sake of our community, a public policy incentivizing their speedy departure and non-return is essential. Every community should follow a policy that encourages such people to feel very unwelcome here. Would you have such people as guests in your home or have me host them in mine? I don't think so, and why have any policy that does anything other than encourage their moving on?
Sorry about this, but folks like this are a distinct negative and we don't need them here. I never go to the mall and the major reason is not wanting to run the gauntlet of these offensive and scary people...

The panhandlers don't bother me. Most of them don't even speak to strangers. If you can't walk past someone without the sight of them infuriating you then stay home.