The trouble with panhandlers

Salt Lake Mayor Ralph Becker certainly is not the first leader to be vexed with the question of what to do about panhandlers who prey on people downtown.

Twenty years ago, then-Mayor Palmer Depaulis killed a plan to outlaw aggressive begging on the streets, saying there had to be more positive ways to handle the problem. In the early 1990s, then-Mayor Deedee Corradini joined with downtown businesses to launch an effort to discourage panhandling. Businesses were to post signs in their windows encouraging people to reject the panhandlers and instead give to legitimate charities. Some businesses put drop boxes next to their cash registers that were then turned over to the operator of Utah's largest homeless shelter network.

But that program never really caught on. Business owners didn't like the idea of having signs in their windows that either antagonized people or indirectly hinted that the area might be unsafe.

Six years ago, a city councilwoman suggested an ordinance that would ban begging from certain parts of the city and require panhandlers to obtain business licenses. That one didn't go anywhere, either.

All of these efforts ran smack into a couple of realities. One is that speech, in this country, is free. A request for money, unless it is made in a threatening way, is as protected as a request for the time or for directions. The other is that, while many panhandlers are professionals who invent sob stories and live comfortably off their daily take, there may indeed be some people on the street in need of legitimate help. Sweeping panhandlers away doesn't solve their problem. It does, however, send the message the city doesn't care.

The city's newest ordinance has far to go before it will be presented to the City Council. In its present form, it would prohibit begging within 20 feet of sidewalk cafes, lines waiting for buses or events, street vendors or ATMs. Walking "behind, ahead of, or alongside" someone while asking for money would be illegal. So would blocking traffic or a pedestrian's path.

And making false claims while panhandling also would become illegal.

We could make a joke here about whether this would extend to politicians campaigning on street corners, but that would be too easy. Clearly it would be difficult to determine whether someone claiming to be a disabled veteran was, in fact, a veteran — just as it would be impossible to really know whether someone just needs another dollar to buy a TRAX ticket home.

Yes, Salt Lake City has a panhandling problem. But it also has a homeless problem, and that deserves the most attention.

Despite the unease it gave some merchants, Corradini probably had the best idea. The best help for a panhandler is to point him or her toward services that can provide real help. Then go donate generously to a charity.