I was panhandled today in an unusual spot today. In front of Subway by Sizzler. The kid looked to be in his early 20's. Seems like it is becoming more aggressive lately locally. Seems to me the top five spots for Eureka are:
1. The old Gas and Go, now the Patriot station on 4th and 255. Any hour of the day.
2. Courthouse Market. Kind of Ironic that it is across the street from the courthouse.
3. Little Red Lion Bar. Mostly for smokes around here. No. I don't smoke or hang out at the bar.
4. Between Longs and Safeway on Harris. Usually with a dog.
5. Bayshore Mall. At least they are not as aggressive here.
And yes, I do often give to these people. It just is sad to me what happens to someone to stoop that low. And in Eureka I have seen the same people for years.
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I will give them food if I have any, but not money, because most of them will just spend it on drugs or booze.
My favorite was the trio of guys at the corner of Myrtle and West.
They would stand one in front of one entrance and one at the other entrance to the parking lot and yet another out by the street light. Then, at the opportune time, they would gather in the bus stop in front of Dr. Burre's old office and count their blessings. Then they would hightail it over to Longs and buy the biggest jug of cheap vodka available and disappear into the brush next to Silvercrest. I watched them work that corner with their "Will work for food" signs for nearly a year. They're gone now. Maybe they found work.
Richard, your locations for panhandling are part of the "hellhole" our former police chief was commenting about.
I would be all for paving their "paradise" and putting up a parking lot. Remember Jimmy Dunn's? When it closed, the problems moved to the gas stations. And today, many of the gas stations are some pretty creepy places to go. Strange little hang-outs.
I think it will get worse before it gets any better. And, I have no solutions. In cold weather, I will give them money.
We have panhandlers, hookers, the whole spectrum of big city problems. Aren't we special?
What a whiny little bitch you have become Richard, moaning about some panhandlers as if you have anything to be scared of. You really do belong with that clutch of incontinent old ladies on DemoCentCom.
Some of the panhandlers probably do need money, but the usual group that stand on the same street corners don't know about them.
One guy hangs around Old Town, but happens to shop for his "real" clothes at an expensive outdoor shop. Guess his take is pretty good.
The reason some of them (or most of them) have dogs is the police have to take dogs to pound if they arrest them and it makes more work for police. I think a lot of them may have warrants but then a lot of them probably don't. Police at times roust the guy by Costco who has a big pit bull. He was handcuffed one day but was there the next day so maybe they didn't take him in afterall.
I would add 4th street as you're coming into town and stopping for the traffic light just before Lion's Hotel. My five-year-old asked me what the gentleman was doing and when I told him that the guy didn't have money my son responded: "Can't he go to a machine?"
I do give them money on occasion. I don't really have a criteria. Just when it feels right.
Anonymous said...
What a whiny little bitch you have become Richard, moaning about some panhandlers as if you have anything to be scared of. You really do belong with that clutch of incontinent old ladies on DemoCentCom.
9:50 AM
That's a little harsh, but I also wonder why a burly softball player would be so easily frightened by penniless drifters.
Just don't give money to Nick Bravo when he panhandles, he'll just use the money for more videotape next time he chases Harmony Groves down the street.
Not intimidated by panhandlers. Just saddened.
I get it Richard.
I too am saddened.
The same guys who leave syringes and bottles behind my business are out there looking to 'work for food' or are 'hungry,' "need gas"
I see the same souls in my bushes early in the AM and on the streets later. I pick up their garbage and then open the office.
What bothers me is the sense of entitlement that most of them have...folk heroics. They resent me for having a few bucks in my pocket, yet there is a choice in this that reduces the likelihood that the truly needy will get a burger.
It's almost every morning now. Some body sleeping in the bushes behind my building. If they're cool I give them a cup of coffee and a buck, if not I send them away or call the cops.
It's easy to be cynical when the dirtbags cheat the truly needful from a meal.
"Got any spare change man?"
"Yep."
And I keep walking, sadder in the moment.
Rule of thumb
If they have bad teeth...their not looking for food.
ok, I guess we are sleeping and not understanding...
One point of view--hey what the heck, its ok to me.
And the other is---lets get them of the streets, I am tired of this crap.....
In other words---you get to decide the choice of the day....
Plenty of people with the same or worse problems than these beggars have pulled themselves together and made a good life for themselves. It takes work. In other words, you need to be willing to contribute more than you take from other people.
I think that was mostranski in the bushes behind your office.
The Eureka mission used to issue "meal tickets" to those who worked or lived in Old Town, to hand out to panhandlers. I miss those.
It's true. If you give them money, you are just enabling them to continue the lifestyle they have chosen, which I choose to call "slow-motion suicide."
If you want to do a homeless person a real favor, steer them to social services agencies where the workers have learned how to do good without being conned.
But don't expect gratitude. These people on the street already know where they can get such help. Thing is, they don't want it. Because it comes with strings attached. Like having to work. Or at least try to get a job. These are totally unacceptable conditions in the minds of the great majority of the habitual street-dwellers.
What a great economy! The stock market is soaring, the war is raging, and millions are homeless. Viva Bush!
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