Neighborhood activist Spencer Kass says that one reason he’s trying to get signatures on a petition to get put a referendum on banning panhandling in Tampa is because the city council has refused to act on the matter when the issue came before them back in October.
But Mary Mulhern thinks that’s an unfair charge. The District 2 citywide council member says that just because the council failed to agree to Joseph Caetano’s request to ask the city’s legal department to come up with a proposed ordinance banning solicitation on the city’s right-of-ways, that doesn’t mean that the council won’t act on the issue.
City officials have met twice with their counterparts at Hillsborough County about a potential ordinance. Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio has wanted the city to crack down harder on people who are soliciting at street medians, but wants it countywide, and not just in Tampa.
“I’m not interested in pretending to solve a problem, Im interested in solutions. Were going to look at it,” Mulhern told CL Monday night at a fundraiser for her reelection campaign in South Tampa.
Mulhern says the issue of homelessness is a big problem, much bigger than simply passing an ordinance that bans people from soliciting money at street corners.
Recently city council candidate in District 4, Tony DeSisto, co-wrote an op-ed with Hillsborough County Commissioner Mark Sharpe, arguing that instead of going after the panhandlers, an ordinance should be passed banning the transfer of money from an automobile to an individual while on a roadway. The two wrote:
If the supply of money is removed from the roadways, it won’t matter how high the demand is, the panhandlers will be forced to utilize the food banks and shelters. This policy will help the homeless seek the assistance they need while keeping our roadways and intersections safe for drivers.
The obvious criticism to this type of policy is that it is too broad in affecting non-panhandling activities. There are two responses to that criticism. First, this policy would not include existing commercial transactions such as drive-through windows and roadside food trucks. Second, while the ban is broad enough that it would extend to fundraising collections, it will also encapsulate transactions for drugs and prostitution and would help enforcement against these crimes.
Our city streets were built for travel and not commerce. It is not safe to be collecting money from the median, for any purpose, and this ban would curb, if not eliminate, the practice.
This article appears in Dec 9-15, 2010.
