Posted on 05/03/2011 4:05:02 PM PDT by CedarDave
Santa Fe’s downtown business community says new panhandling controls aren’t working and is calling on city leaders to crack down on aggressive panhandling and vagrancy around the Plaza.
In an April 22 letter to the mayor and City Council, the Santa Fe Gallery Association said there are an “overwhelming number of vagrants in the downtown Plaza area,” with “aggressive panhandling, public urination, threatening comments and cases of assault.” The situation “is instilling fear in local residents and tourists,” the gallery owners’ letter said.
Elizabeth Pettus, of the Things Finer shop in La Fonda, wrote a similar letter on behalf of the Downtown Merchants Association. It begins: “Downtown Santa Fe, the heart of our city, and its economic engine, is under siege.”
“This year, the situation seems to have become more problematic,” wrote Pettus. "We do not believe that assault, public urination and harassment of the public are protected First Amendment expressions.”
The ordinance the City Council approved in December replaced a panhandling ban that had been on the books but wasn’t uniformly enforced. Police now can issue citations to panhandlers who follow people, block their path or use threatening language. The new measure also bans panhandling at bus stops, on buses, near automatic teller machines and banks, on medians and at schools.
The council made some changes to the ordinance to deal with free-speech issues raised by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Deborah Tang, executive director of St. Elizabeth Shelter near the downtown Railyard, said she hadn’t heard of any problems with the new ordinance from the shelter’s clients. She added, “Many of the people who are standing on corners panhandling are not homeless. This is their way of making a living.
(Excerpt) Read more at abqjournal.com ...
Santa Fe continues to emulate San Francisco with all the worst of the latter being practiced in the former.
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But,but,they have the right of freedom of assembly.
(Sarcasm)
Who gives money to bums? And why?
Two types: Those that believe they’re truly helping poor, underprivileged, down-on-their-luck unemployed homeless types. Or those who are afraid and give extortion money in hopes of not being physically assaulted.
John Huston. Because it was in the script (see post above).
The homeless know where to sleep and where to get food. I advise everyone not to give them a dime, maybe food or a blanket but no money.
It goes for heroin, crack or booze. Or some people make their mortgage payments with it. You never know.
Doing things halfway isn’t going to work. This business of establishing a lot of small, isolated no-panhandling zones in a larger, bustling city is for the birds, though even that would prolly work better if they’d put up “NO PANHANDLING HERE” notices.
Unlike San Francisco, Santa Fe is a tourist trap. Even a little panhandling in the bait makes it much less attractive.
Haven’t been to the Plaza in two years-has it changed since then? I didn’t see a single panhandler then...
Got into an argument with a bookstore owner there over the execrable Joe Wilson and his equally execrable wife, Valerie Plame-the idiot actually believed their side of the story.
(Yes! Hobos are on the Internet! http://www.hobo.com)
I could get behind a “right to panhandle” zone directly in front of leftist bookstores.
I think it was Fred C. Dobbs winning smile.
The ACLU complained about the former total ban so the city’s libs who control the city council and the mayor said “On no, we can’t have the ACLU against us,” so they adopted this new ban that likely has all sorts of ambiguity (like how far from the bus stop or ATM if far enough).
“Two types: Those that believe they’re truly helping poor, underprivileged, down-on-their-luck unemployed homeless types. Or those who are afraid and give extortion money in hopes of not being physically assaulted.”
Exactly. Also known as stupid libs and people who won’t be coming back...
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