The Fine Art of the Panhandle

While other people are basting turkeys or making sure their TiVo picks up the Cowboys game tomorrow, I somehow finding myself checking email from newly re-elected City Councilman Michael Berry regarding the super-sexy issue of city ordinances on street panhandling ... and being intrigued enough to blog on the matter over what officially registers as my holiday weekend. I'll seek help for whatever personality quirk this represents later.

But as luck would have it, I go back far enough to count myself as a huge fan of former Councilwoman, Eleanor Tinsley, who tried to eliminate street panhandling from Houston altogether. Tinsley, of course, was all about improving the city and pushed the envelope on many occassions. In the big picture of things, her attempts to rid us of panhandlers went over much worse than her efforts to cut the number of billboards around town. Those of you who've driven around Houston at any point over the last 20 years might get that reference. Still, I'm not up-to-speed on my city ordinances, but if memory serves correct, I believe that the bulk of what Tinsley got out on that push was to ban either panhandlers approaching vehicles (ie - they could still stand in the intersection/median looking forlorn and/or destitute) or to ban them in a few limited circumstances. Either way, it's had limited effect, if any, over the years.

While I'm normally sympathetic to many of the causes Tinsley pushed for on council, I've also known a few folks who quite literally only keep a roof over their head due to panhandling or whatever other gray-market activities they can get by on. It's a tough neighborhood here.

A definition is in order, though. As I see it, there's a bit of difficulty in legally defining the guy with a cardboard sign asking for handouts differently from the guy willing to wash your windshield for a buck, or sell flowers to rush hour trafficers who need a last minute shot of amore in their glove compartment, or hawk newspapers for the city's "leading information source," or the local Little League team raising money to buy uniforms, or the fireman with a boot raising money for surviving families of deceased firemen. There's also a safety factor involved. Should we let kids raise money for their Little League team on the corner or Westheimer & Voss, where no sane person should be left unsupervised, for instance?

Short version for my own two cents is that I think it's worthwhile to look into some type of licensing for legal panhandling. Not a brick wall that wipes it out altogether, but a speed bump of sorts. Less certain, however, is the administration of any plan. One idea might be to have an online license application (and perhaps to have it only available online). Agree to a few stipulations of what you can and cannot do, fill in the hours and location, print, and keep it handy on the street as proof should anyone ask for it. Maybe not even have a charge for it ... just register. Maybe pay above a certain number of hours/day. Let the Chronicle get a special deal that may even pay for whatever overhead costs are associated with the administration and enforcement ... they'll likely have the homeless and underemployed hawking papers from now till eternity anyways. Let the firemen have their way with our intersections and medians. They serve and protect as it is. If they want to put a better tombstone on the grave of a fallen fireman, God bless 'em.

That takes care of the more 'innocuous' types of panhandling ... the newspaper hawkers, the Little Leagues, the Shriners and perhaps even a few enterprising folks like the guy who use to effectively operate a convenience store on the intersection of Bellaire & 59 in the summer (if he's still there, I've missed him). The aforementioned 'stipulations' can take care of things like banning good old fashioned panhandling. I'd also think it wise to require adult supervision wherever kids are present (if that's on the books, it would appear to be very lightly enforced as of last weekend).

Still - logistics, I'm happy to leave with the folks who know the ordinances presently on the books and worthwhile-ness of having cops cracking down on things like this instead of the gangs and prostitutes that still seem rather cozy in the greater Sharpstown/Gulfton area. The old man I know who occassionally rustles up a few bucks to live in a hotel nearby would definitely suffer, but I don't think it's an unrealistic burden to either move folks like that into something more productive or to whatever public assistance he may need to get back on his feet in a more substantial way.

Of course, I was totally with Eleanor in her Carrie Nation-esque approach to Houston billboards. But that's about the bulk of my sentiments on the issue of panhandling. Next up, I'll probably spend Thanksgiving proper waxing eloquent about the city's licensing process ... or not. Actually, I'm hoping to meet with Anne Clutterbuck on Friday for some Q&A, so I may as well get real comfortable with all these hot & sexy municipal issues for a while.

*sigh*