My hubby was amused by the Vancouver panhandlers who would climb trees or do press-ups for a dollar. I don’t think he noticed any particular aggression, but then I married the kind of Irishman who will chat to anyone and offers cigarettes to strangers, so I’d imagine he and his friends were probably the biggest stroke of luck the panhandlers had seen in a while.
India will give you a taste of really aggressive and persistent beggars, often leprosy sufferers, disabled people or children. It’s pretty scary when 4 or 5 of them surround your little tuktuk while it’s stuck in traffic, all shouting and grabbing.
Maybe there’s more than one. But the first time I was at the Blarney Stone (last Spring) there was a guy offering to climb a tree, set his beard afire, or some other stunt in exchange for a handout.
Hmmm, I’m not sure guys who offer street amusments are really panhandling. If you’ve got an act, even a really dumb act, that’s busking not panhandling.
I’m from the Chicago area and I’ve never seen aggressive panhandling such as what is described here. I always give panhandlers money, regardless of what kind of bullshit story they lay on me. But the aggressives? I’d be a little scared, being a bit on the small side.
Someone ought to try saying “Beat it, buddy! This is MY corner!”
I will third (“nth”) this too. Though I didn’t find them so much aggressive and abusive as expecting you to have all the answers. This happened to me while waiting for a bus at Haight and, I think, Masonic–it was wherever Achilles Heel is or used to be.
Panhandler (older middle aged guy, looked like he’d been a factory worker, very sad): Can you spare some change
(I had a handful of quarters in my fist for the bus).
Me: No, sorry
PH: I lost my job. What am I supposed to do?
(I hand the guy my bus money, and miss the bus because the bartender at the Heel won’t give me change unless I buy something).
As someone who’s lived in Vancouver, and who visits San Francisco at least a couple of times a year, i can’t say i;ve ever noticed the panhandlers to be especially aggressive in either city.
Sure, there are always some people asking for change at the Powell Street BART station, and on Market Street, and in the Mission too, but i’ve always found that a firm “Sorry” is sufficient. I give when i can, but not all the time by any means, partly because, with my tendency to use credit cards, i often don’t have any change on me.
When i lived in Vancouver, my room-mate and i noticed that the number of panhandlers used to increase markedly in the summer, and that the new faces were often teenagers who appears to be in from the suburbs on some sort of “life experience” kick. Some of them had more expensive shoes and clothes than we were wearing.
I realize that some of these could well have been genuine street-dwellers, and/or had been kicked out of their parents’ homes, but some of them definitely seemed to be there more to hang out than anything else.
The sad cases were generally down around Hastings and Main, where lots of the addicts hung out, and when i went back a few years ago i was amazed at how many more there were. Still, when you’ve lived in Baltimore a while, even East Van seems pretty damn tame.
I’ve lived in downtown Vancouver for over two years, and the beggars are easy to deal with. I don’t know how it works in other cities, but in Vancouver you don’t even have to acknowledge them. You can say “No” or “Sorry” in a monotone, but giving excuses or making apologies will mark you as an out-of-towner and earn you extra attention. If you ignore them, they will save their breath and bother someone else. If you give them a little bit of money, they will ask for more.
It may seem callous, but I can get asked for change over a dozen times each day. I can’t afford to both live downtown and give money to beggars.
