If you live in or around Denver, you’ve noticed that in the past year and a half the proliferation of squeegee kids (young men mainly, that hang around major intersections and when cars are stopped at the lights they approach with a bottle of sudsy water and a squeegee wanting to clean your windshield, and then receive a tip for their “work”).
This began right after several thousand Venezualen refugees came to Denver in late 2023 and early 2024. I know they have been a mainstay in the Baltimore area for decades and used to be prevalent in other major cities, New York, Toronto, etc.
Denver passed an ordinance making their activity illegal punishable my fines up to $300, but police aren’t really enforcing the ordinance but primarily trying to make the kids aware that the practice is unsafe to walk into traffic.
Over the past several months I have noticed that the kids demographics have shifted from Latino young men to mainly African American young men. Don’t know if the black kids ran off the Venezualen kids to take over their territories.
Normally you’ll see about 6-8 kids working an intersection together. I’ve found if you just shake your head “no” they’ll go onto the next cars. Not a big deal, but I guess some drivers might find them intimidating. When I do see them and when I’m stopped I normally only see them clean one windshield each time the light stays red. And the tips appear to be about $1-2 bucks.
They can’t be making that much money at this type of venture. So why continue doing it?
If the light takes, say, 3 minutes to cycle, that’s at least 20 windshields and about $20-$40/hr (and no taxes). That’s, honestly, not a bad haul. Plus, even if they’re getting about $1-$2 each time, there’s probably people that will give them $5 or $10 as well (and some that won’t give them anything).
I think a lot of teens would be happy to clean windshields for a few hours if it meant putting fifty bucks in their pocket.
Or put $40 of that $50 (or all) into their handlers or a dealers pocket. It’s a definite possibility. The fact that locals took over the practice just makes it more seem like a gang activity turf battle.
I think you are overestimating the number of people that will actually pay, plus it needs to be divided by the 8 people.
I read a year or so ago, that panhandlers at intersections are lucky to make $10 an hour, based upon some guy that did a study across three major metropolitan cities.
If you don’t have employable skills, then I guess its better than nothing.
If you don’t pay them to do your windshield they may splash some dirty water on your car. Then you’ll realize you should just pay them $1 to go away instead of paying them $2 to clean your windshield with that dirty water.
Throwing dirty water on your car? I don’t think you can assault a car if you aren’t causing harm to it. It’s just dirty water, something that gets on your car all the time driving in a city.
I think an assault charge can follow destruction of property that constitutes a threat to a person. It’s not battery, but you can be assaulted by threatening actions.
There is a certain amount of industry to it. What they are doing is basically work and I wish they could find real work. I assume they are in a desperate personal situation and are not easily employable. I would not encourage it, as it is not safe and is verging on harassment, but I do understand it.
I haven’t seen squeegee kids in Calgary for quite some time. They were a thing for a while but that was at least 15 years ago. I assume they were cracked down on. You do see pan handlers working some intersections. I don’t want to encourage them, but I do give them money sometimes.
Around here they seem to be more of the homeless guys rather than kids. I see them sitting on their buckets waiting for the lights to change and think, gee I wonder where they pee? Nope don’t want my windows washed.
I have never seen a “gang” of young guys at this, but there are a number of squeegee dudes in my local area and generally they seem to work it like a proper job. There’s one at an intersection I pass regularly who’s extremely fast and efficient - and $2 is not much to pay for a sparkling clean windscreen. The result is he never has to walk more than a few cars back to get a customer.
I used not to pay squeegee dudes because I thought it was unsafe and didn’t want to encourage it, but I’ve changed my mind over the years. That’s because the local guys all seem to be polite and safety-conscious though. I expect I’d rapidly change back if “throwing dirty water over your car if you say no” became a thing here.