Last night I spent most of the evening on Barton Flats’ rooftop. Got a video of some of the fireworks, which I’ll post later on. After the fireworks, one of my fellow Downtowners came up with a very interesting idea.
“How about a march against panhandling?” he said. He was upset about constantly being panhandled on Beale, and about being swindled by a vagrant posing as a parking attendant. “Everyone down here is sick of it. Let’s have a march along the parade route where they do their begging. It would have to include Beale Street.”
“And it would have to pass by Jack’s Food Store and Easy Way on the Main Street Mall,” I added. “There are always five or six of them out there.”
“And the liquor store at Main and Madison,” said another rooftop attendee. “They hang out there, or in front of the Walgreens across the street.”
Hmmm…. if it got widespread support, a march against panhandling might be a good way to show government leaders how fed up we are all with the problem Downtown.