Bumming Change Upgrade
There’s a new twist to bumming change in DC. Homeless are no longer content with lurking outside the CVS or overflowing McPherson Square with their demands for donations.
Now panhandlers have upgraded past pedestrians, forgoing our easy mark but quick steps for those who might have more money and definitely can’t move as fast, drivers stuck in traffic.
Penniless here wasn’t insolvent for long as she accosted driver after driver stuck in the right turn lane exiting K Street for 15th Street today. She was making a swift buck busting folks up for change who had windows down but nowhere to go.
What next? Actually following me along going “Mister, mister, give me money!” like the beggars do in Ethiopia?
This is the way it’s been done in South Asian countries since the advent of vehicles — traffic lights are prime spots.
There was a guy who did this regularly on 14th Street, across from the J. W. Marriot as people drove back southbound heading back to VA – I used to see him panhandling every night when I lived in VA.
Yeah it’s a rare downtown intersection that doesn’t have someone out on the center divider working the stopped cars. It’s bad for everyone; dangerous for the panhandler, dangerous for the people in the stopped cars with nowhere to go. While almost all street people are harmless and at worst loud and scary, the majority are mentally ill and there is an occasional violent incident. When you’re stuck in traffic that’s a scary place to be.
Whoopsie, completely screwed that up! Should have been “Yeah, in my home town of Miami it’s a rare downtown intersection that doesn’t have someone out on the center divider working the stopped cars.”