What irks me is that referral to a social service organization is the response to the SECOND offense. Shouldn’t that be the response to EVERY offense? Wouldn’t that actually accomplish more, getting people help before they’re one step away from being arrested? Once you arrest someone, they essentially have to start over when they get out, meaning they’re even worse off than they were before they got arrested in the first place.

And Joseph G. - that may be true of some people asking for money, but the way to get around that is to offer them food instead of cash. If they are hungry, they’ll take it. If they’re not hungry? Good riddance. I usually carry around a few fruit & cereal bars for that purpose. I think if more people did that rather than handing out cash, we might have fewer aggressive panhandlers. After all, people adopt behaviors because they get what they want from those behaviors. Take away the reward, and the behavior will eventually stop.

I don’t give money to panhandlers, and I am in favor of being aggressive in enforcing a panhandling ban.

Will this really help? I think “not” as now the panhandlers will just move and stop you at red lights on the way to the sites.

If you are hungry you will find a way to get feed. We are for sell in one or another. Everyone begs… To be loved, feed, have a home, and a job.

If I’m a miser, it affects me when others occupying the same space are not misers — there’s an externality of sorts at play here. It’s not as though if I choose to be a miser, I’m going to chase away panhandlers — other people will choose not to be misers and I will still be bothered by panhandlers.

The situation affects the place and the people who occupy that place, whether they are misers or not. The “voting with your dollars” idea is wishful thinking.