Downtown Council kills panhandling with kindness

​Freeway approaches are popular places from which panhandlers solicit money for gauze, chewing gum and pints of booze. The Downtown Council has decided to make some of these access points less conducive to begging.

Two Downtown Community Improvement District team members held “Have a Great Day” signs near the Broadway Bridge this morning. Motorists who made contact with the yellow jackets received pamphlets instructing them not to give money to scruffians with cardboard signs. 

“Aggressive panhandling will stop will when people stop rewarding such behavior — it’s that simple,” the pamphlet says.

The response has been positive. “People honk and wave at me all the time,” yellow jacket Alex Ingram (pictured) said as a light mist fell on the Garment District.”They’ve all been good. I haven’t had any negative.”

Surely somewhere a homeless war veteran (real or advertised) was grumbling about the incursion.