Due to downtown businessmen insisting something be done, Mayor Datolli announced today that she will be introducing a new panhandling ordinance to the city council. Seemingly the primary reason for wanting immediate action is the businessmen find the vagrants bad for business and they create a seedy image for the downtown area. The ordinance calls for the establishment of a program to offer homeless people one-way bus tickets to a town where they have family. Downtown businessmen have promised to raise all the money needed for bus tickets.
Businessmen say they approach the passerby for money and business leaders don’t approve of them being in front of their stores scaring away good customers. The vagrants eat, urinate, and sleep in parks, parking lots, doorsteps, unlocked vehicles and elsewhere. Some people are in disagreement with the ordinance like Sandra Gandolf who believes the ordinance to be heartless, since many of the homeless have long-lasting problems including mental illness and/or drug or alcohol addiction and need real help. She proposes that instead, the city should provide programs to feed and house the homeless, guiding them toward mental health treatment, substance abuse counseling, and job assistance.
In opposition to citizens like Gandolf the mayor announced today that the city’s police currently charge vagrants with minor crimes such as indecent exposure and shoplifting. Datolli says the vagrants clog the jails and the court systems while eventually ending up back on the streets. Introduction of the new ordinance is scheduled to take place at the councils approaching Tuesday night meeting at 8pm.
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