On Monday night the Spokane City Council voted to ban panhandlers from the streets of downtown.
The ordinance will also prohibit Spokane's Guilds' School from its annual penny drive and Muscular Dystrophy’s Fill the Boot campaign.
The council said the ordinance was put in place because of safety issues.
Some community members, however, said the issue was “about putting a new face on Spokane.”
Do you agree with this vote?
I sent an email out to our City Council (one of our bloggers provided the info) and this is a response I received.
Dear fellow citizen,
Thank you for your email concerning the “vehicle interference ordinance.” As you know, earlier in July, Council Member Allen drafted this ordinance with the intent of improving public safety by prohibiting panhandlers from reaching into the street. This action would also limit non-profit fundraising activities like the Guild School’s “Penny Drive” and Muscular Dystrophy’s “Fill the Boot” because you cannot limit one group from engaging in free speech and allow another.
I listened to the concerns you shared with me and, over the last week, me and my fellow Councilmembers have been actively engaging with multiple community groups in order to find a compromise that would increase safety, maintain the constitutionality of the measure, with minimal impact to charitable giving.
I am happy to report that yesterday a compromise was reached between Council Members and community group stakeholders that will limit the scope of the ordinance only to the Downtown Spokane core area and the I-90 on-ramps and off-ramps – some of the most congested areas for both vehicles and pedestrians in the city. Although this will likely not satisfy everyone, (compromises rarely do!), I support this path forward.
We all know that panhandling exists and will continue to exist for many reasons. I hope we do not stop at this ordinance on Monday – I hope that as a City we work with local social service agencies to engage more closely with our neighbors on the street. I hope we provide public education to citizens about where donations can most effective. I hope we identify resources for our police officers to not just say “move it along”, but build relationships with folks and direct them to resources for housing, food, substance abuse or mental health treatment, counseling, job training, whatever the need may be. There are some good examples of other cities that have reduced panhandling through these types of activities and if we are serious about making a change stick, we will need to investigate them.
Thank you again for contacting me and engaging in this public dialogue! Feel free to share more of your thoughts with me via email or to come down to City Hall on Monday evening for our 6pm legislative session.
Respectfully,
Amber Waldref
Spokane City Council
District 1, Position 2
808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd | Spokane, WA 99201
509-625-6255 | f: 509-625-6550
awaldref@spokanecity.org | http://www.amberwaldref.org
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