By Steve Levy
I don’t know about you, but I’m sick and tired of being stuck at a red light and having someone come up to my window with a sign asking me to buy their flowers or to give them a donation.
There are plenty of ways for people of goodwill to give to charity and those in need, but allowing panhandlers to be confronting people when they’re stuck in an intersection is eerily similar to the problem with the squeegee man that would approach your car coming out of the Midtown Tunnel in the early 90s. Of course, the squeegee men were more of a problem because they were placing their squeegees on your windows whether you liked it or not, and then tried to guilt you into giving them money.
It was intimidating and gave the impression that the city was lawless.
One of the first things that Mayor Rudy Giuliani did upon taking office was to crack down on these squeegee men. It shifted in a renaissance in New York, where the average, defenseless, innocent resident could go on with their lives without being placed in this predicament.
Over the last five years, we have seen more and more panhandlers waiting at busy intersections for a red light and then putting their signs right up to the window of a driver. It places the drivers in a very uncomfortable position.
The police should crack down on this, not by arresting these folks, but by giving them a warning and the phone numbers for various charities and government social services systems that can lend them assistance.
There’s a way to get help in this country and this county, but it shouldn’t be by panhandling in the middle of busy streets.
Let’s stop it now.