Nashville is an interesting city with a desire for big city credibility yet a down home Southern duplicity that is sure to confuse another generation of kids growing up around the city into whisky bottles and $300 an hour therapy sessions.  This city in the center of the state is evangelical Christian at it’s core with the conflicts that come with that sin and repentance message played out in thousands of country songs that talk about cheating, drinking, revenge, and lust which is all ok as long as you sign the national anthem, don’t disrespect your mom, and have a faithful dog. This split personality allows Nashville to have a unique perspective on Street people. In this prideful city it is ok to be poor just as long as you suffer in quite dignity and don’t tell everyone you are poor by begging for money.  

The City has been trying to pass an ordinance to curtail panhandling because it is bad for business to have smelly, dirty, unwashed people asking downtown office workers and tourist for money.  Community leaders have even gone to the extent to classify people as “professional panhandlers”, which if you read this site you will know that it is an accurate term.  Still, even though we have lost certain rights in this country I think we still have the right to free speech and unfortunately panhandling is free speech. Just as writing about the guy that panhandled you is free speech.

Passing a law to punish the people who are panhandling really is not a solution.  If these people are panhandling professionally are they really going to pay a fine? No, they are just going to take the ticket, use it to wipe their bums next time they take a dump in the alley, and keep on panhandling until the police pick them up for not paying the ticket and give them three days in jail which will be funded by our taxes dollars. The bum will get three square meals, a shower, and bed on your dime one way or another. Passing some law may make Nashville city leaders harder than Oprah is on a box of Little Debbie Snack Cakes when she is off her diet. It creates the illusion that city leaders are  working to solve the problem but it doesn’t really solve the problem as panhandlers are like cockroaches you kill them in the kitchen, and they move to the bathroom.  You squash panhandling downtown and they will just move to the suburbs which I hope they head out toward Belle Meade as it looks like those people could spare some change.

Want a little proof?  Here it is all nice and pretty. Check out the face on the nice lady in the truck as she pretends not to see the panhandler and works to avoid eye contact and distract her child so they won’t ask why mommy won’t give the man a dollar. We could not have asked for a better picture to show panhandling in action.  This “professional panhandler” has moved out of the downtown area and was hanging out a block away from a highway overpass near a really nice neighborhood with a private school whose tuition  is sure to cost as much as college. I am sure all he needed was one luxury sedan to roll down a window and his day was golden.

It appeared that he was living in a grouping of shrubbery just off the corner of the intersection as he popped out of nowhere to work the red light and by the time we circled back around to talk to him he had disappeared. We made a search around the area to try and find him only to see him pop back out to the street corner by walking in front of our car in rush hour traffic.  We tried to turn around and catch up with him to find out a little more about his story but he knew not to stand around in one place to long.

The point of all this Nashville. You can’t claim to be a good Christian city only to throw open your arms to the tax dollars generated by biggest Hustler store outside of Los Angeles within three blocks of your downtown business district, nor can you claim that you don’t have vagrants only because you passed a law that makes it illegal to be a vagrant.  You have to find a way to coordinate city and non profit services to address the problem, may I suggest that you focus more on building a coalition of service providers to maximize the dollars and resource to address this problem that is the result of drug abuse & addiction, mental heath issues, and social support. Then buy a bunch of bus tickets to Kentucky and ship the street people there.  I think you will come out cheaper in the end.