It’s not often that Tampa has to reference Hillsborough County for an enlightened approach to problem-solving. But when it comes to dealing with street solicitors, most notably panhandlers, the city needs help. And a role model.
The county has a law that makes it a misdemeanor to solicit donations — whether the charitable or the panhandling variety — on road medians and street corners. It’s a common-sense approach to a public-safety issue. But the county’s three cities — Tampa, Temple Terrace and Plant City — have no such law. And just across the bay, St. Petersburg recently banned the same sort of solicitations along its major roadways. Something about traffic hazards and public safety. Can’t always synchronize solicitations and inevitable green lights, you know.
But Tampa has stayed tethered to a skewed, First Amendment rationale. How do you allow charity groups to solicit donations while preventing panhandlers from asking for spare change? Well, you just can’t. But you can make everybody wear a brightly-colored Home Depot safety vest.
County Commissioner Mark Sharpe, again proving that a common-sense, progressive Republican doesn’t have to be a political oxymoron, is trying to find a way to bring Tampa, among others, into uniform compliance.
He wants a meeting of county and city officials to address the apparent increase in roadside solicitors in Tampa and the safety issues — Day-Glo vests notwithstanding — inherent wherever intersection- and traffic-median solicitors hit up motorists for money. He’s also willing to brainstorm about alternate ways to help charities and those down on their luck.
“I think everyone agrees, including the ACLU, that a street corner is not the proper place for those services to be provided,” underscored Sharpe.