Morning Brew: May 28th, 2007

Two panhandling trends I've noticed lately:

First - up here in Weston, there's plenty of people in need of money, but it's unusual to find them actually asking for it (or, at least, asking politely) but recently I've found more people seem to be doing it... and people are approaching me asking for like toonies, like explicity toonies. I don't even like to ask my friends to lend me $2, and I'm expected to be handing them out like sticks of gum? Some of the poor people up here seem pretty spoiled...

Two - downtown, like Queen W and the Annex, I've been finding less and less standard panhandlers with simple requests and more and more people working some kind of a shtick. The "spare change for weed" signs are old news, but some people actually have fairly elaborate street characters and stories that they continually use, and others really ham up the street comedian routine. I suspect that, if one guy on the block decides to go the acting route and starts netting all the cash, everyone else pretty much has to get on the bandwagon or move to a less-desirable area.

When you work or live in an area for an extended period of time, you begin to notice patterns with homelessness/pandhandling in the area. Firstly, you begin to notice who uses the money for food and necessities and conversely the ones using it for liquor and drugs. Secondly, you notice a huge influx of pandhandlers on weekends. Those that are never seen during the week.

Some patterns I've noticed. The passive pandhandlers rarely seem to get involved with alcohol or drugs, while the aggressive ones are often seen with LCBO bags or asking for cigarettes. I suppose the aggressive nature is necessary to support their habits.

Now when it comes to the weekend homeless, there seems to be a portion that aren't homeless at all. Often well groomed and clothed. Teenagers wearing brand name sneakers and jeans.

I had one guy ask me for change on a subway platform. He was dressed in clothes that probably cost more than mine. I told him sorry as I took out my cellphone to start up a game to play for the ride home.

"Oh, you get a signal in here?" He says as he pulls out his own (RAZR) cellphone to check his bars. "What provider do you have?"

Yeah, panhandlers in this city have gotten very strange as of late. Once, while walking down Bloor St. in the Annex, a man walking in the opposing direction, unwrapping a new pack of cigarettes, wearing nice and clean clothes, looking well-fed and overall in good health, looks up sees me and asks me if I can spare any change!

Also there is one panhandler who normally works Spadina from the Gardiner to Queen St. who I once saw later in the day on Bathurst wearing a new set of clothes that were clean and didn't look all that cheap. That said, however, I'm pretty sure he's now using some very hard drugs like Meth, his face looks like one of those public service ads showing meth use over time.

Recently on the subway there was a woman who just shuffled up and down the car asking for money, it was very painful. I appreciate the theatrics; in the New York and Paris subways I've seen mariachi bands, rappers and even comedy acts! That sort of thing I don't mind giving money to, even if all they do is use it to buy booze or drugs, but at least I got something out of it. Perhaps a selfish way to look at it but in this city I wonder how many panhandlers honestly really need my money and how many are just on the streets by choice, because surprisingly there are a lot who choose to do that.

That's the CN Rail sorting "hump" yard in Concord. It's on the west side of Keele St. The hump is the highest point in the yard and all cars pass over it and go by gravity to the proper track for sorting.

Well done, David!

That rail facility is so big that you can see it on the map above (right where it Concord is labeled).