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I visited Santa Fe in August. I took the train up from ABQ and walked from the station to the Plaza area. I did not see one panhandler and I'm thankful for that. Where Santa Fe is small and compact. Panhandlers especially in large amounts would be in ones face so much, it most definitely would have a bearing on ones visit. There would be people that would say, I don't really need to visit again if thats what we get there.
My view is this. If the city officials, shop keepers, and general populace of Santa Fe have allowed it. Then it continues. Evidently they don't see the seriousness of it. Or that its enough of a problem to cause tourist to go elsewhere.
I enjoyed my visit to the city and the train ride up and back to ABQ. If I had been pestered by one panhander after another, especially agressive and verbal ones. I can guarantee my impression of Santa Fe would be different, and who could blame me. I'm there to visit not be mouthed off to by panhandlers and the city allows it.
All cities have homeless but some have a much more noticeable population of them. I believe from what I have seen after spending some years in Portland, Or and visiting the West. Live and let live cities have high populations of homeless and panhanders. Its allowed, its politics, its tolerated by those city officials and some of the residents themself. So it continues and the problem grows. I will tell you I tolerated the verbal filthy mouthed panhandlers that I had to deal with living in Portland. I will never tolerate it again. So again if a visit to Santa Fe would have become what has been described on this forum. I would have left Santa Fe on the very next train and never return. So thankfully I didn't have a visit like that and enjoyed the afternoon there.
My view is this. If the city officials, shop keepers, and general populace of Santa Fe have allowed it. Then it continues. Evidently they don't see the seriousness of it. Or that its enough of a problem to cause tourist to go elsewhere.
But you and others forgot one of the issues. Legality... It is not an easy issue to fix.
Santa Fe May Restrict ‘Passive’ Panhandling; ACLU Concerned
Journal North, Jul 19, 2012
SANTA FE — Santa Fe officials are considering new restrictions on “passive” forms of panhandling. The American Civil Liberties Union, which has played a role in the formation of various New Mexico panhandling laws, is already raising questions. Santa Fe may face legal challenges if it adopts an expanded definition of panhandling. “Courts have said, if the government is going to put restrictions on free speech or another right, it has to tailor the restrictions and allow for alternative channels of communication,”. “Just because the City Council doesn’t like the content of panhandling speech doesn’t mean it’s not protected under the constitution,”. An ordinance approved by the City Council in December 2010 was said to be unconstitutional. In spring 2011, Santa Fe’s downtown business community said in a letter to city officials that the new controls weren’t working and called on city leaders to crack down on aggressive panhandling and vagrancy around the Plaza.
And the issue is still being discussed at recent council meetings.
I've come down to Santa Fe a lot over the years & the panhandlers around the plaza have always appeared fairly benign to me. Some have their instruments & are playing, actually adding a sort of charm in a way LOL. I've never had anyone in my face or threatening.
In the spring I spent a week in a casita by the plaza and spent my time walking the plaza without a vehicle. Nobody ever hassled me and as a woman alone, since my husband stayed up at our cabin with the animals, I felt perfectly safe, even walking at night.
I've come down to Santa Fe a lot over the years & the panhandlers around the plaza have always appeared fairly benign to me. Some have their instruments & are playing, actually adding a sort of charm in a way LOL. I've never had anyone in my face or threatening.
In the spring I spent a week in a casita by the plaza and spent my time walking the plaza without a vehicle. Nobody ever hassled me and as a woman alone, since my husband stayed up at our cabin with the animals, I felt perfectly safe, even walking at night.
Buskers are different than panhandlers. They have to get a license to play music and ask for tips. They're working for the money and do add charm. I heard a classical group down on the plaza that was awesome.
I rented a room with a musician when I first moved back to SF. He rented a house and practiced all the time. He would play on the plaza and anywhere else he could get gigs. I wouldn't put him in the same class as a panhandler. It's a different life choice and like many artists, they put in more hours working than the 9-5ers. Naturally there are others who aren't as good or work as hard and I assume don't get as many tips.
I walk around the plaza and do get asked for money sometimes but have never felt threatened when I say no.
Buskers are different than panhandlers. They have to get a license to play music and ask for tips. They're working for the money and do add charm. I heard a classical group down on the plaza that was awesome.
I rented a room with a musician when I first moved back to SF. He rented a house and practiced all the time. He would play on the plaza and anywhere else he could get gigs. I wouldn't put him in the same class as a panhandler. It's a different life choice and like many artists, they put in more hours working than the 9-5ers. Naturally there are others who aren't as good or work as hard and I assume don't get as many tips.
I walk around the plaza and do get asked for money sometimes but have never felt threatened when I say no.
Thanks for helping me with that distinction, dancingearth. Buskers, learned a new term for street musicians!
There are also genuine panhandlers around the plaza too without instruments, but I have never been hassled by them.
I agree, bongo, always good to learn new words and terms. Thanks, dancingearth.
Since I love word origins, I did some googling for busking. Wikipedia has a pretty good article about this - see Street performance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Check out the notes toward the bottom about some of the celebraties who have busked, often incognito.
Found the following defintiion on another website. I particularly like the "cruise as a pirate" one:
Earlier, to be an itinerant performer, probably from busk, to go about seeking, cruise as a pirate, perhaps from obsolete French busquer, to prowl, from Italian buscare, to prowl, or Spanish buscar, to seek, from Old Spanish boscar.]
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