on the cover / By Heidi Walters

Cold Shoulders

As winter freeze sets in, Arcata debates limits on begging

(Dec. 10, 2009)  Last Friday night, Santa Claus rode into the Arcata Plaza in a firetruck and whipped the throng of squealing tots — “Santa! Santa!” — and their parents into a swirling frenzy as the truck slowly promenaded twice around the glittering square behind a marching band slinging brassy Christmas jingles. In the center of the storm several young panhandlers joined the crowd by the McKinley statue, absently clutching their forgotten cardboard signs — “Just want smokes,” said one — at their sides.

In front of bar row, the scraggly pack of lurching, cackling roughs and their dogs who usually commandeered the sidewalk all day and all night was obscured by the Christmas revelery. On the other side of the plaza, a young woman with a tattooed forehead and dressed in hip girl-rebel attire stood in front of Libation sipping from a small cup. As people walked by her, she quietly asked, “Spare some change?” But she didn’t persist if someone said no.

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On a couple of dark streets spurring away from the center of the hubbub, scruffy, apparently homeless people sat alongside frozen curbs, huddled together for warmth and chatting, their breath puffing white around them. It was supposed to get down near freezing that night, and even colder over the next few days. When someone walked by, one of them said hello, but that was all.

Back in the glittering plaza, the frenzy hadn’t let up. Aside from the subdued pockets of obvious misery in the city, it was one of those moments when the incredibly festive, joyous side of Arcata took over, when everyone flocked to the plaza and celebrated and everything was all warm wishes and gentle cheer, all sparkle and laughter.

A visitor might not have guessed that, a couple of days before, residents and city councilmembers had sat late into the night debating the merits of a proposed anti-panhandling ordinance aimed at cleaning up these mean streets.

In October, the Arcata City Council had asked its staff to draft a panhandling ordinance. City staff, the police and council members had been plagued, in letters, phone calls and in meetings, with complaints from residents and business owners. Panhandlers were lurking by ATMs. They were harassing bank employees. They were intimidating people trying to use the footbridge over Highway 101 at 17th Street. They were scaring shoppers from coming to the Arcata Plaza and the Uniontown and Valley West shopping centers. They were distracting motorists with their cardboard signs. They were getting right in people’s faces, sometimes, following them around, knocking on car windows, demanding money and then cussing out folks who refused to cough up.

Last Wednesday, City Attorney Nancy Diamond presented the first draft of proposed Ordinance No. 1399: “An ordinance of the city council of the city of Arcata prohibiting panhandling.” It would, if eventually passed, fall within Chapter 2 (“Other Violations”) of Title IV (“Public welfare, morals and conduct”) of the Arcata Municipal Code.

The draft ordinance defines panhandling as “asking for money or objects of value, with the intention that the money or object be transferred at that time, and at that place,” and as “using the spoken, written, or printed word, bodily gestures, signs, or other means with the purpose of obtaining an immediate donation of money or others thing of value.” Its prohibitions fall into two basic categories: aggressive panhandling, in which an intimidating manner is used “before, during or after panhandling”; and site-specific panhandling whether aggressive or not, including within a certain radius of intersections, in parking lots, in public transportation vehicles and on footbridges, and within 20 feet of ATMs or any check-cashing business, supermarket or retail store.

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