New York Mayor Bill de Blasio recently said on a radio show that he would like to ban panhandling but wouldn’t try because the courts wouldn’t allow it. Many panhandlers “are not particularly in need and just are finding a way to get some easy money, and that does frustrate me,” he said.
We—a sociologist and an economist based in New York City—have studied panhandling in downtown Manhattan for several years. We think that de Blasio and other leaders who want to root out panhandling can use smarter ways to quell local fears of being scammed while ensuring that the poor are able to solicit alms.
We have looked at where panhandlers work and how their numbers change over time. We have also talked to many panhandlers at length. This kind of scholarship is rare, so policymakers in the Big Apple and in other communities may want to check out our findings.
[For more of this story, written by Brendan O'Flaherty and Gwendolyn Dordick, go to https://www.citylab.com/equity...sio-new-york/533223/]
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