News & Blogs business owners say aggressive panhandling hurts their bottom line

[wizehop]

Video in link..What do you think?

http://www.wpxi.com/news/south-side...panhandling-hurts-their-bottom-line/375048914


PITTSBURGH —
Business owners tell Channel 11 News that aggressive panhandling is an issue year-round on Pittsburgh’s South Side, but it becomes worse in the summer because of train hoppers. They said the problem isn’t that they’re asking for handouts, but the way they go about it.

Channel 11’s Renee Kaminski found a few dozen people who hop on trains across the country and ride from city to city, panhandling and lounging on sidewalks along East Carson Street.

While some on South Side said the train hoppers don’t bother them, others, especially business owners, call them vagrants and want them to leave.

“This is my third summer here on the South Side, and it’s definitely the worst ever,” Scott Johnson, the owner of Three Rivers Vintage, said.

Johnson told Kaminski that he’s lost customers because of the aggressive panhandling.

“As somebody walks by, they will walk right behind them, asking them for money, as opposed to saying, ‘Hey, give me a quarter,’” Johnson said. “They will get up and follow them.”

Some residents told Kaminski that the train hoppers are committing thefts, assaults and worse, and they’re getting away with it.

One train hopper agreed that some are committing crimes, showing Kaminski a wound that he suffered during a recent assault.

"He picked up a hatchet and knocked me in the back of the head with it. That didn't knock me out, but the bricks knocked me out,” he said.

Pittsburgh police are wrestling with how to crack down on aggressive panhandlers. A Pittsburgh police spokeswoman said the city is reviewing Pittsburgh’s panhandling ordinance to determine when and how to enforce the law.

She said the bottom line is that holding a sign is OK, but following someone and demanding money is not.

© 2016 Cox Media Group.

 

[Kim Chee]

Some people have no manners.

Might as well just poop your pants, dipshits.

(Not that everybody there is misbehaving).

 

[Deleted member 20]

I love the vibe on the South Side, just the right mix of hippies,punks, travelers and them your students, yuppie yransplants and locals. Without such a healthy mix of evlectic types that place would be just as dead and lacking culture as other places.

See kids hatchets are bad and following people and demanding moneny is bad too. These fuckers need a lesson on homebums and crackspanging which prob isnt trvelers.

 

[Tony Pro]

Some trainhoppers rolled through my little town last summer and were panhandling; I figured I'd sit down with them just to chat and make them feel welcome. Seemed like nice kids. Then I saw the way they were going about getting people's attention was by making belligerent, obnoxious comments made to every passer-by. They genuinely thought they were presenting themselves as fun and devil-may-care, in reality what they were doing was horrible. And I know we New Englanders tend to be grumpy and intolerant, but "Hey man, is that your wife? She is smokin'!" and then before the couple were out of earshot, "Ooh, I don't think she liked hearing that one! Hawhawhaw" -- that kind of thing is straight up sexual harassment.
When the owner of the small, independent shop they were blocking access to asked them politely to leave they started shouting about society keeping them down and how she was disrespecting them. I got up to leave and didn't say goodbye.
II haven't experienced much of American vagrant culture, but the confidence with which they were being such dicks made it clear that they had picked up these habits from others.
If they had just flown a sign and been polite, they would have cleaned up.

 

[Matt Derrick]

i've been saying for a while now that this is becoming a serious problem for the travel community in the sense that it's making us look bad and hurting (homeless/poor) people that actually need that money to survive.

i honestly think there needs to be some kind of (modern) hobo code established and not 'enforced' per se, but just made known that it's there and it's for all our own good...

 

[Deleted member 20]

Then I saw the way they were going about getting people's attention was by making belligerent, obnoxious comments made to every passer-by. They genuinely thought they were presenting themselves as fun and devil-may-care, in reality what they were doing was horrible.

I have been in groups where people are fucking around with people. Usually I find that it just another thing to kill the boredom, not really malicious. I have been posted up places & the longer & more comfortable kids get the more at home they are, spinning bottles of booze in fats food cups. I dont think anyone really has more of a right to spange or not spange. Some crackspange everyone who passes by despite also having a sign; some place are ripe for the picking or theres a real need to get up money for something important (boots, pack, hotey, bus ticket etc).

I have no love for homebums, drug addicts or daily drinkers at all they seem to get up plenty of cash yet cant out of their own way to do basic things to improve their lot. Homebums dont tell jokes, their stick is to look pathetic & incapable while appealing to the sympathy of others; day after day after day. Some of these towns that dont have many travelers view all travelers as homeless anyway. I figure some fresh faces is good & it may be some young locals first glimpse at traveling folk. Travelers who are free & happy & some who apparently dont give a fuck! I have been plenty of places that I didnt like the air of superiority & nimby vibe that I get. I have been run out of towns before for no reason & sometimes gave a little lip on the way out. Maybe there was a wise ass traveler who came before me who was crackspanging locals & telling juvenile jokes. I say fuck em all, its a free country. The up tight locals & the belligerent travelers. I personally think its bad form & not something I do often. Im sure that my frustration has come across as sarcasm & viewed as harassing. This was about a specific area & street in the southside of Pittsburgh where there seems to be a year round rowdy crowd anyhow. Most business owners would want all travelers & homebums & any non purchasing poor people to be out of sight somewhere else. I witnessed it myself, the problem is that Pittsburgh & much of America are former blue collar towns with white collar customer aspirations.

They just want paying customers to keep ringing them cash registers but I think their is an intrinsic value to a urban area that has nightlife, streetart, local street performers busking, food trucks, travelers spanging & busking, cafes & a vibrant walking traffic with window shopping. The people watching of interesting & eclectic individuals adds interest.

It sure aint Rodeo drive but I like this area a lot, i even have it on my short list of urban neighborhoods for relocation! I think what is acceptable there may not be appropriate in small town suburban/rural Mayberry but humor no matter how crude is still legal under the 1st amendment. Maybe soliciting is illegal & if done so in this fashion; most likely the perpetrators will learn quickly that you get more flies with honey.

 

[Coywolf]

i honestly think there needs to be some kind of (modern) hobo code established and not 'enforced' per se, but just made known that it's there and it's for all our own good...

I dont see what is wrong with the old hobo code. Id be happy to start enforcing that one, some of the "travelers" i have met recently almost seem like they are entitled to everyone elses money, and make it hell for everyone else. These said people are ruining Oregon, and everywhere else for that matter.

 

[Deleted member 20]

I spange up about $10 a day while traveling, maybe a bit more when its laundry day unless something rare if I gotta buy a bus ticket or something. I think addictions to alcohol/drugs and even tobacco require much more effort to maintain habits.

Spanging to me when on the road is a neccesity and I am grateful and humble that strangers help me out. I dont lie or seek sympathy, i just need to eat daily. Its not like a job where I need to put hours & hours in. I get what i need then i leave the rest.

It would be nice if every traveler was sober, well behaved and well adjusted but doubtful that enforcing the code would do much more than create conflict and drama. Now wed would have travelers fighting in the street; probably not good for business or for the image of us travelers.

Most people cant tell the difference between homebums and travelers. Many humbums have no limits, make no sense and are mentally ill & or have dual diagnoses. Many do more daily and repetitive outrageous psychotic repetitive shit than any travelers. I do think that the state of young travelers can be occasionally deplorable but nothing compared to local homeless populations.

 

[Deleted member 20]

I think that most places can only tolerate and handle so many homeless and travelers competing for the same resources. Too many beggars will be unbalanced with the population of working people.

 

[wizehop]

Interested to hear what @Permafrost has to say on this.

 

[Deleted member 125]

ide say a healthy line between flying a sign and not bothering anyone and chasing down some people who are just trying to go about their day is pretty common sense to anybody i would even consider spending any time traveling or not with. i dont have any problem with anybody flying a sign as long as they arnt being a fucking idiot about it, standing or sitting in front of a business and crack spanging people is bad form plus is just plain disrespectful to the locals not to mention the business owner/employees whos boss might tell them to go out and tell you to leave (basically making them seem like a asshole to you so then you give them shit and blah blah blah weve all seen it go down).

i think alot of younger folks these days do have drug/alcohol problems that cause them to act like morons and make everybody look bad because of it. all it takes is one group of people to come through and bum out a town and next thing ya know yer rolling through and the locals have just fucking had it with kicking down because they see you the same as the people who fucked it up in the first place.

nothings gonna change unless people get called out on doing this and actually listen that its a huge problem because they next person that comes through town might actually need a few bucks for food so they can get outta town and instead of getting what they need and being able to get out they could be stuck there a damn week because somebody and their crew of 6 plus 14 dogs had to have 20 side walk slammies a day.

 

[Coywolf]

@cantcureherpes I think you have said it best. Its the "I dont give a fuck about anyone else but myself" attitude that is going to ruin spots for everyone. Well said.