Panhandler ban should be rejected

Roadside fruit and vegetable stands stocked with plump, juicy tomatoes? Check.

Cornfields, horse farms and rural vistas? Check.

Panhandlers standing in medians? Not exactly what comes to mind when you think of Han over County.

"I've lived out here all my life, and I've never seen anything like that," said Scott Miller, who operates Computer M.D. with his wife, Becky, near the intersection of Atlee Road and Mechanicsville Turnpike.

I'm not a lifetime Hanover resident like Miller. But I've lived in the county 14 years, covering thousands of miles behind the wheel or on my bicycle, and I've never seen anyone on the roads who looked like a panhandler.

But Hanover's Board of Supervisors has proposed an ordinance prohibiting individuals on public roads and highways from soliciting, selling goods or distributing handbills.

It has modeled its ordinance after a ban approved in Henrico in August 2008. Robert Reynolds, a local homeless man, has challenged that law during sit-ins at the intersection of Mechanicsville Turnpike and Laburnum Avenue.

Hanover officials, as in Henrico, cite traffic disruption and potential safety issues for drivers and solicitors. The board says it also was told that business owners are afraid panhandlers will scare away their customers.

Under the proposed ordinance, individuals still would be allowed to stand in a median with a sign, as long as they don't approach vehicles.

Richmond considered a no-panhandling ordinance but dropped the idea in April.

"I can't quite figure out what they're up to in Hanover," said Kent Willis, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia.

"In Richmond, the proposed ordinance was clearly about making panhandlers disappear from sight and had nothing to do with traffic problems, as some claimed," he said. "But I have never seen a street-side panhandler in Hanover or Henrico, just the usual charities that stand at intersections and enter traffic with a boot or bucket when the light turns red. That or the car-washers soliciting for a club or charity."

Chickahominy District Supervisor Robert R. Setliff said he doesn't think panhandling is "a huge problem" in Hanover, adding that the roadway solicitation issues pop up twice a year on Meadowbridge Road during NASCAR races.

Setliff said he thinks Hanover's proposal could be more finely tailored to have less impact, particularly on people seeking charitable donations.

But, as Willis points out, "a homeless person has the same right as charitable organization to ask for help. So the government can either prevent both from walking into traffic or allow both, but they can't treat one differently from the other."

It's not as if rural Hanover, great for tomato growing, is fertile ground for panhandlers.

"I don't think there are too many panhandlers in Hanover," said Becky Miller. "People in Hanover like to hang on to their money. There are too many bleeding hearts in Henrico." But she wouldn't favor laws banning panhandling. "If he wants to stand out there all day, God bless'em."

Amendments such as this one invariably come off as either heavy-handed or mean-spirited. Hanover should not go down the road taken by Henrico.

Contact Michael Paul Williams at (804) 649-6815 or .