I just caught a story on WMC, so I figured I would chime in.

For those not familiar, the gist is that the CCC is attempting to ban the sale of single beers in stores in the downtown core area in an attempt to stop panhandling. Yeah, it’s just as stupid as it sounds.

I’ll take the purely logical route here. The area of the ban would be laughably small, so that basically it would just mean a slightly longer walk. Single beer sales on Beale wouldn’t be effected, so they could always just buy a big ass beer on Beale, they could always pool money and buy a six pack, getting more beer for less money in the long run, and it wouldn’t apply to liquor, so they could still go buy a small bottle of cheap liquor for the same money, which contains a lot more alcohol.

What the fuck is the point again? It seems this would just serve to fuck over a handful of small neighborhood stores, and very little else.

I don’t understand how seemingly intelligent people keep looking for a “Silver Bullet” to rid the area of bums while making little to no effort to address the root causes and make a commitment to long term change. Want to get rid of the panhandlers? I’ll tell you how.

1. Make panhandling illegal. Across the board. And actually arrest everyone asking people for money.

But in order for that to do anything other than keep 201 full, you’re gonna have to do

2. Set up a real public shelter and rehab program. This is a pretty tall order for a city that seemingly can’t run an animal shelter, but I digress. The only way you’re going to solve the panhandling problem is to give people a real chance to do something else. Give repeat offenders a choice between rehab and prison. Make the rehab program a real fucking rehabilitation program, not a class in Crime 101. Set up vocational courses with local businesses in which people in the program can “intern” and learn a trade with a portion of their pay going to the program to cover room and board. Be proactive.

Fuck, that’s right, I’m in Memphis. What was I thinking? Yeah, just force them to drink in the entertainment district or buy liquor instead of beer. That’s clearly a better idea.