The city of Tampa's ordinance enforcing a partial ban on panhandling taxes begins Tuesday.
The new law bans panhandling in the city Monday thru Saturday, with the exception of those selling newspapers or distributing political literature. But the city's 10 most dangerous intersections, like Dale Mabry Blvd. and Columbus Dr., will be closed to panhandling for good.
TPD say they will issue warnings for first time offenders, and then issue citations for those individuals after that.
Meanwhile, the push to try to find a facility for the homeless in Tampa continues, while concerns grow about what those homeless will now do to try to collect money to survive in a still moribund economy.
There is one group of folks who have been working on a way to help the homeless immediately - and that's by published a street newspaper that focuses on homelessness and poverty and is distributed by homeless and formerly homeless vendors who keep the profit from the papers they sell.
It's done all over the country, and it's about to happen here.
The name of the paper is Tampa Epoch, and among those leading the effort to publish such a paper is Bill Sharpe, whose company (Tampa Marketing Company) is involved in publishing the South Tampa Community News.
