Remember that expanded panhandling law the St. Pete City Council passed back in January? You know, the one that was supposed to rid our streets of those (gasp!) beggars?
It didn’t work so well.
Since the ordinance took effect eight months ago, police have made 27 arrests, but the crackdowns hardly solved the problem. Panhandlers are still asking people for money in downtown; the smarter ones are just moving beyond the anti-panhandling zone, which currently encompasses First Avenue South to Fifth Avenue North from the waterfront to Sixth Street.
Plus, the ordinance has had another unintended consequence: beggars have moved toward other parts of the city, especially the Tyrone Mall area and U.S. 19. And now, instead of sitting in front of businesses asking for money — an offense that can be settled by business owners or police — panhandlers just stand on the medians with a sign. And that’s not illegal.
“Merely standing in the intersection holding a sign is not a violation in itself,” Sgt. Joe Collins told an exasperated City Councilman Herb Polson during a council meeting last month. Polson, upset over the panhandlers that swarmed his district after the January ordinance took effect, asked the city’s legal team to figure something out.
So last week, they came back to City Council with a new ordinance. This one would ban panhandlers, and anyone else, from standing in the median. That includes charities, firefighters, political sign wavers and, yes, those St. Petersburg Times hawkers.
“When you see guys on crutches, or wheelchairs that barely fit in the median … it truly is a safety issue,” Polson said before joining the rest of his colleagues to pass the ordinance’s first reading.
However, the City Council’s crocodile tears aren’t fooling everyone, especially not the beggars themselves.
“If they cared about our safety, they’d pass a law to give us jobs,” says “Art,” a grizzled 45-year-old who stands on the center median at U.S. 19 and 54th Avenue South a few hours each day. (He’s the guy with a cardboard sign that reads: “Homeless for now. Anything will help.”)
The California native came to St. Pete a few months ago after divorcing his crack-addled wife and losing his home. Art used to work on boats and with construction crews, but the economic downturn has forced him to panhandle, he says.
“Every time I see a construction crew I say, ‘Hey, you got any work for me?'” he says, stopping for a minute to take a dollar from the driver of a station wagon. “You know how dehumanizing it is standing out here? It’s not the funnest thing in the world to stand out here. I actually hate it, but it’s either that or you starve to death.”
Art says he makes about $40 a day and spends his money on food, clothes, the occasional motel room and beer. He could make more if he stayed on the median all day, but other homeless have to make money, too, so they take three- or four-hour shifts at certain high-traffic intersections.
Art says the new ordinance will have little effect on him or his brethren. If he can’t find a good corner to continue his day job, he’ll figure out another way.
“I’d probably go walking through parking lots and panhandle,” he says.
After picking up a few more bucks, Art decides to call it quits for the day. Dusk is settling in and the city doesn’t allow panhandling anywhere at night. He’ll leave with $20 in his pocket.
St. Petersburg might finally get curbside recycling. Just don’t hold your breath.
Last week, after another round of news reports criticizing Mayor Rick Baker’s dismissal of Pinellas County’s offer of a countywide curbside recycling program, the city was inundated with calls and e-mails from angry residents. In response, Baker wrote an op-ed for the St. Petersburg Times that, at least in part, gives the go-ahead to City Council to implement some type of curbside recycling: “If the City Council elected to go forward with a program that has no cost to St. Petersburg, I would not block it.”
On Thursday, City Council brought an item forward to discuss curbside recycling further — something they haven’t done since 2005. For years, City Council has declined to discuss the issue, arguing the mayor would veto any decision they made (see “Trash Talking,” July 9, 2008).
“I read the mayor’s article and I think he said, ‘Yes,’ so I’ll stop selling,” Councilman Karl Nurse said.
But don’t cheer just yet. Baker is still adamant about his “environmental concerns” over curbside recycling. Mike Connors, the city’s internal services administrator, has told City Council and the Pinellas County Commission that the mayor would rather the county’s curbside recycling money be used to reduce tipping fees. (Tipping fees are charged to municipalities by the county to take in trash at the ever-expanding Pinellas County landfill.) And Baker also continues to parrot the same “curbside recycling is bad for the environment” line that he has repeated since taking office in 2001. His chief complaint? The emissions from recycling trucks would cancel out any carbon benefits from recycling.
Pinellas County solid waste officials dispute that claim, contending curbside recycling would save 4.8 million gallons of gas and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20,900 metric tons compared to drop-off recycling. (Read the county’s recycling plan and responses to city officials here, here and here.)
But perhaps more importantly, they say, St. Pete contributes far more to the landfill than any other city, and once the landfill reaches capacity and garbage trucks have to truck the trash hundreds of miles to the center of the state, all of Pinellas County will pay higher trash fees. (St. Petersburg residents already pay the highest sanitation fees in the county.)
The mayor’s position on curbside recycling also contrasts sharply with state officials’. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection maintains curbside recycling is more effective than drop-off centers. And earlier this year, Gov. Charlie Crist signed into the law the state’s 2008 energy plan, which calls for a 75 percent recycling rate for municipalities, up from 30 percent.
St. Petersburg is the state’s first “Green City” and Mayor Baker is vice chair of the Energy Action Team, a task force appointed by Crist to lower greenhouse gas emissions in the state. The irony is not lost on county officials.
Says Pinellas County Commission Chairman Robert Stewart, a St. Pete resident himself: “I can’t for the life of me figure out the rationale the mayor is buying into for him not to accept this kind of offer.”
This article appears in Sep 24-30, 2008.
