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The police presence will take care of the panhandling problem.

But seriously, have the campus police patrol Franklin Street and kick the bums out of there.

Charles.

When my 4-year old daughter and I walk downtown for ice cream or to hit the Kidzu musuem, we have been approached by both white and black men for money. It's not a race issue. Do NOT make it one.

The problem downtown is not with panhandling or the race of the people involved, but rather the issue is safety.   I've lived in CH for over 30 years  and worked downtown, and we've always had people downtown asking for money be they hippies, Hare Krishna followers, musicians, artists or the poor.  It's very different now than it was even 10 years ago.  The people living on our streets downtown now are most often substance (alcohol and/or drug) abusers, people with serious mental health issues or often both.  These are also the people not allowed to stay in the homeless shelter because of these problems, so they end up roaming the streets downtown, begging for money and acting inappropriately and aggressively when turned down.  As a community, we need to allocate resources to deal with the underlying problems of the homeless rather than dealing with panhandling which is just a symptom of the problem.

Chapel Hill government continues to enable and keep the homeless down. They will not face up the any truths in life which are simply not rewarding behavior to continue because of the privledged man's guilty conscious. I'm middle class and don't feel guilty about it. Rules are rules and I didnt get where I am by not following rules. Some message to our children to let these nuisances follow patrons around franklin street bumming money and blurting out threatening remarks. How inconsiderate of local government to allow this threatening behavior on a main street of a state college campus where our children walk at night. How inconsiderate that we planted the homeless shelter on a street where our children should feel safe and those same children pay the tuition to keep our community in such a healthy economic state. The truth is there have been TWO incidents in the past 4 years where my daughter's friends have been physically assaulted by these local patrons of the rosemary street homeless shelter with NO help from the police. I have lived her for 12 years from NY and am ashamed at our local governement. We need to take a lesson from Mayor Guiliani in NYC. He knew this city would suffer if it continued the way it was so he took action and now you can walk down the streets of NYC any time of day or night without worry. Cant say that about Franklin Street.....

Posted for Lisa Daley

We have side skirted this issue long enough. While I have the utmost respect for Fred Black, and was his neighbor for seven years, it really isn't about color. I'm affraid of panhandlers no matter what color or gender. The reason being, people with nothing to lose have little incentive to obey the law - jail would give them food and shelter. And then there's the whole issure of what untreated illnesses they are suffering from. 
I was recently in Suttons with my kids and they gave another free meal to a sweet, but homeless shriveled up woman with mental illness who wouldn't eat if the nice folks at Sutton's counter didn't agree to let her pay tomorrow. In fact, as I've explored the issue more, there are quite a number of homeless people with mental illness that the state just doesn't or can't care for in institutions. 
It's true about the New York comment in Wednesday's Chapel Hill News story. While in Manhattan last summer I encountered one panhandler, only one the whole weekend and we walked everywhere at all hours. He pestered tourists claiming to be Muslim and trying to frighten them into donating money to his cause. The owner of the cafe chased him out threating to call the police.  The woman I was having coffee with, a lovely Muslem woman from Turkey, just shook her head. 
Returning to Franklin Street the week after my visit to NYC, I encountered no less than eight panhandlers just walking from my car in the corner Rosemary lot to Sutton's. On man was passed out on newspapers in the alleyway. The nurse in me wanted to check his pulse and see if he need CPR but what was I supposed to do with my small children? 
After several incidents like this, I decided it wasn't worth it to go down there with my family.  I really don't see how it benefits the homeless and mentally ill to be left on the street and it certainly hurts the local businesses and sours the atmosphere downtown. If we really want to do something for these folks, why not sell the downtown building and use the money to start a little farm where they can help grow some veggies, look after unwanted/rescued animals, something useful to help them regain their dignity and give them something more to live for than a few bucks and the usually unhealthy stuff they buy with it. The busses are free afterall!

Posted for Meade Arble
Let me see if I have this right. If my kids want to go to a movie downtown, they have to pass a gauntlet of lice infested drunken panhandlers because a Community Activist says there's race involved? I don't get the reference to code words for "looking different." Of course they look different. They're drunk street bums. When is the last time you read the police blotter without at least one address cited as "the streets"? I pay for this environment. It's why I live here. If Mr. Black has his own racial agenda, that's his problem. If he can shove it down the community's throat, that's everybody's problem.

It's interesting how many comments here address something that I didn't say and make all sorts of assumptions about me having an agenda.  For those who really care, let me say that the mayor said that we should have a conversation about panhandling.  I then said that we really should also address the perception problem facing us.  Everyone who is labeled a panhandler isn't one and the label has become a code word for "being different."  Note that race is not part of that statement. My agenda is to work with others to do what we can to improve our downtown.  People do feel threatened, but not only by people asking for money.  If we limit our conservation to just those asking for money, we will not solve our problem. If you don't think that race plays a ROLE in this issue of people downtown, well, you're entitled to that opinion but I would strongly urge you to gather some more data.  It's discouraging that people can jump to conclusions as they do, portray me as agenda-driven, and place race cards in my hand to play.  I don't know all who have posted here and clearly you don't know me, but thanks for demonstrating so beautifully the problem that we have.

Fred Black