Two weeks after the Tampa City Council passed on first hearing a ban on banning panhandling on major arterial roads in the city (known as a "partial" ban), they reversed themselves today, voting 5-2 to reject such a ban, and leaving everything status quo in the city for the time being on the contentious issue.
Two Council members, Gwen Miller and Curtis Stokes, changed their minds and their votes today.
Stokes told CL shortly after the vote that he had time to consider the impact on what a partial ban might do for neighborhoods. Like Charlie Miranda, who voted no both times, Stokes said the situation with panhandlers soliciting at public rights-of-ways in Tampa would only become worse by taking panhanders off those major roads, and bringing them into communities. He said it was a public safety issue that could be dangerous for women and children. He also said he wished City Attorney Chip Fletcher could show some creativity in allowing the council to allow such panhandling on certain days of the week to aid newspaper hawkers, but that advice was not forthcoming from the city's legal eagle.
The roads that would have been affected if the ordinance had passed included Dale Mabry Highway, Kennedy Boulevard, Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, Gandy Boulevard, and Florida, Fletcher and Fowler avenues.
Unlike other meetings on the subject, which has become a major focus in the city over the past couple of months, the Council's chambers on Thursday morning were filled with the more sympathetic faces of the situation – the men and women who sell the Tampa Tribune or St. Petersburg Times on Sunday mornings, many clad in green St. Pete Times t-shirts. They were joined by advocates for Muscular Dystrophy, where Tampa Firefighters will on occasion stand on those same street medians to collect for MDA research.
Members of the Council appeared pained on what to do, none more so than Council Chairman Thomas Scott and Councilwoman Mary Mulhern, both involved in tough political campaign contests for Mayor and City Council, respectively. Scott in particular appeared anguished, saying at one point, "I know what it is to be poor..I grew up to be poor…I know what it is to be hungry. I know what it is to be in an abused family… …I lived that life for year."
At one point, however Scott snapped at Mary Mulhern, who is facing two opponents in her bid for re-election, both of whom are using her previous stance against any panhandling ban against her. After seeing and hearing from dozens of people who were calling on the Council not to vote for the partial ban, which those who sell newspapers said would only make the local unemployment situation worse, Mulhern said she wondered where all the advocates for the ban were?
Scott bristled upon hearing that, asking Mulhern if she had been at any of the various candidate forums taking place throughout the city, where the question about a panhandling ban is generally the first one asked (Scott has been the only Tampa Mayoral candidate who has not supported a complete ban on the practice).
Sonya Long originally addressed the council two weeks ago, and returned back today. She says she's a college graduate who has been reduced to selling papers on Sunday, and she said the partial ban would impact people like herself severely. " It's not the best job, but it's something that can still feel dignified. Hiding the homeless isn't going to help. Please don't take the only dignity and respect that I have."
Former state legislator Sara Romeo, who had to drop out of the District 1 race for City Council when it was revealed that her organization, Tampa Crossroads, receives funding from the city, creating a conflict of interest if she was elected, criticized the recently concluded task force assembled by Hillsborough County Administrator Mike Merrill. She said she didn't see any "frontline representation" of the homeless in that study group.
An official with the St. Petersburg Times said that people selling his paper – combined with hawkers for the Tampa Tribu
This article appears in Feb 3-9, 2011.