Tuesday, February 23, 2010
City Council Committee Passes Two Anti-Panhandling Ordinances
Posted by Bianca Phillips on Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 10:59 AM
Tuesday morning, the Memphis City Council’s public safety committee passed a pair of CCC-proposed ordinances aimed at curbing panhandling. One ordinance establishes restrictions on how close panhandlers can come to ATMs, hospital entrances, banks, trolley stops, and other public areas. That ordinance allows some zones downtown where passive panhandling (the panhandler doesn’t touch or follow the person they’re asking for money) is allowed.
The other ordinance would ban the sale of single beers in most downtown convenience stores. There are eight stores in the area that would be affected. It's bordered by Mill on the north, Fourth Street in most areas of the east (the border extends to Lauderdale at one point), Vance on the south, and Riverside on the west.
The small committee meeting room at City Hall was standing-room-only, as people on both sides of the issue packed the space. Many downtown business proprietors, including The Peabody Hotel's Doug Brown, spoke up in support of the ordinances. The owner of Jack’s Food Store took the other side, saying the beer ban would severely hurt his business. He claimed customers from all walks of life purchase single beers and should continue to have the right to do so.
Midtown resident Ceylon Mooney expressed concerns that the anti-panhandling ordinance would push panhandlers into his neighborhood. Councilwoman Wanda Halbert, the only committee member to vote against the no-panhandling zone ordinance, agreed.
“I’ve experienced panhandling at grocery stores and Wal-Mart in Whitehaven. I’m not sure how this ordinance is fair for people in other parts of the city,” Halbert said.
The council will further discuss the beer ban ordinance at its next committee meeting on Tuesday, March 9th. Both ordinances will be discussed in a first reading in city council on March 9th, as well.
Comments (7)
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I like Jack's, but they are one of the main sources of booze for the court square panhandling federation.
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I was in Nashville this weekend... Down on broadway, went to a lot of the bars and no one bothered me for money... the only panhandlers at least were trying to sing for their money... Came back to Memphis and was hit up three times just walking past the Fedex center...
I think this is a terrible disservice to the Memphis homeless population. Let's really think about what these ordinances say. Our institutions have failed to protect people against sleeping in the cold and on the streets. So, we are now going to limit the ways that they can come by any sort of money, as most day labor facilities have stopped offering their services because of the current economic state. Keep in mind, we don't offer any free housing in Memphis, save for four free nights per month at the Union Mission. Are we in America? Have we faced a problem similar to this before? The Great Depression left scores of the American mid-west's families homeless, and at that time we criminalized being poor. Now it seems a crime not to have a home once again. Do we as a nation really want to protect the unalienable rights of everyone, or are we not all equal citizens. It seems to me that we are beginning to trek down a slippery slope towards a two-tiered society, if we don't already have one. Maybe we should be more concerned with protecting the dignity of all those who live within our borders rather than being so deeply concerned with the minor discomforts that we feel because of those unfortunate members of our society. I've never been homeless, that's true, and I may only be an idealistic college student, but even I can see that this is an infringement on the rights of our nation. It makes me afraid of the society we are seeking to build.
If we're going to treat the homeless like sub-human animals, which is really how most people view them: annoyances, things we sort of feel sorry for, but still want to have to deal with - like stray dogs - we might as well behave accordingly. Round up all the homeless and the panhandlers, put them in a special "jail," make sure they're not too sick, give them some food and water for a few days, then if no one comes buy to hire them for a job or offers them a place to live, euthanize them. It's more humane than saying "We really don't care if you freeze or starve to death, just please don't do it around these places where people are spending money."
You know, other cities don't put with this crap, why should we? Most of these people are not homeless, and there is no reason why anyone, visitor or resident should have to put up with profane, belligerent harassment from anyone else for any reason. If someone maintains a respectful distance, and doesn't take "no" as an excuse to threaten or curse someone, I have no problem with them. But if I'm going to take my wife, family or friends downtown and be subjected to ridiculous displays of harassment, then I'm not going downtown anymore.
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