J Magazine June 2017

DOWNTOWN DILEMMA
By Roger Brown
CURBING
PANHANDLERS
P
It is disorienting and even distressing
for the people targeted for
panhandling.
They are the citizens and visitors
who are sometimes unable to walk to
jobs, homes, appointments, restaurants,
concerts or other destinations
in Downtown Jacksonville without
having their personal space invaded
ANHANDLING.
It is a scourge of Downtown Jacksonville.
It is dehumanizing and demeaning
for the actual panhandlers: the people
who regularly roam Downtown block
after block, asking for money.
by people asking for money. Without
having their heartstrings constantly
tugged and manipulated for coins.
So when you raise the issue of
panhandling with Jake Gordon, the animated
CEO of Downtown Vision Inc.,
you understand why his first reaction
is an audible sigh.
“Panhandling may be a nuisance
crime, but it’s one we take very seriously,”
Gordon says. “It’s a bad experience
for the people who are subjected to
it. It’s not helping the people who
are doing it. And it’s not helping our
Downtown in any way.”
That stark appraisal gets no
argument from Jacksonville Sheriff’s
Office Zone 1 Chief Jackson Short, who
oversees the department’s Downtown
enforcement efforts. “It is definitely
an issue that can impact the quality of
living and working in the Downtown
area,” Short says.
“It is a criminal offense. And we
address it as such.”
THERE OUGHTA BE
A LAW – AND THERE IS
And, yes, in case you’re wondering:
FLORIDA TIMES-UNION ARCHIVE
56 J MAGAZINE | JUNE 2017