Panhandling: Coming to a town near you?

CornField

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Tue Dec-13-05 10:07 AM
Original message

Panhandling: Coming to a town near you?

Yesterday I was running errands in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It's the second largest city in the state, but still small by large city standards. I believe the population is roughly 150,000 - not including suburbs. I've rarely seen anyone panhandling on street corners or whatnot. There was one fellow who set up shop by the mall. It was such a unique thing that the newspaper interviewed him to get his story.

This changed yesterday. I saw five individuals panhandling -- two on the northeast side, two downtown and one on the southwest side of town. Highly unusual...

Have you noticed more of this activity in your town?

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Viva_La_Revolution

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Tue Dec-13-05 10:08 AM
Response to Original message

1. Less here in Portland actually...

But that's only because the Mayor is crackin down. Doesn't mean there are any less homeless out there. :(

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CornField

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Tue Dec-13-05 10:11 AM
Response to Reply #1

3. I was amazed when we visited Portland at the amount of panhandlers

At every exit and entrance ramp there was at least one on each side. It didn't seem to be a wise spot to me... until we hit rush hour. Then I understood that the cars had to stop for several minutes.

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ayeshahaqqiqa

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Tue Dec-13-05 10:11 AM
Response to Original message

2. Yes

For the first time since I've lived in Arkansas (14 years) I saw a man with a sign that said, basically, will work for food. I had the feeling he had come up from LA after the hurricane, and had been unable to find work.

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SmokingJacket

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Tue Dec-13-05 10:12 AM
Response to Original message

4. I've actually noticed less... but that's because this is an area

Edited on Tue Dec-13-05 10:14 AM by SmokingJacket

that's doing very poorly under Bush. If I were homeless, this is the last place I'd want to be. I think panhandlers tend to gather where there's money to give out.

Plus it's so damn cold.

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