 
Davetroit
Member
Username: Davetroit
Post Number: 16
Registered: 03-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 12:29 am: |    |
The funniest routine I've ever seen was a few weeks ago near Greektown:
"Can I just ask you a question?" I say sure, what's up? "Do you know what the best nation in the world is?" What is it? "Donation!!!" We start laughing. "Wait, but do you know the best city in the world?" What city? "Generosity!!!" We all start cracking up. He stops walking along with us and says "Wait, wait stop - I'll bet you that I can knock down this wall!!" Pointing to the brick wall of a large building. He knocks on the wall repeatedly from waist level until he's at the side walk, and triumphantly goes "Awwww..." and starts laughing. Hilarious. I thought that his creativity and comedy routine was worth $2. He never asked for money or held his hand out.
Maybe you had to be there. |
Charlottepaul
Member
Username: Charlottepaul
Post Number: 1494
Registered: 10-2006
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 7:21 am: | |
Just pepper spray or mace them (or at least threaten to) if they approach too closely. |
Screamingfit
Member
Username: Screamingfit
Post Number: 20
Registered: 03-2006
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 7:32 am: | |
The best way I've found to not be begged on - play the same part as they do. Figured that out while trapsing around southern California/LA area. Now, there's some bum action Detroit has nothing on.
I decided to be as inconspicuous as possible. I didn't shave, my clothes were beyond thrift store throwaways and I kept that "far away" look on my face. Viola - I stopped getting hassled. But, I did get kicked out of a restaurant and people seemed to shy away from me a great deal. Guess now I know how the down-trodden feel.
Though, I don't take it to the extremes I do in California, I do play myself down when downtown and have never been hit on. |
Craig
Member
Username: Craig
Post Number: 275
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 8:12 am: | |
Rog said...
"Some of you here are truly unbelievable. Maybe they should also pull themselves up by their bootstraps too, yea the economies great Craig, now tell me who's deranged? Do some of you think it's a fun thing to do, panhandling that is. Some of these folk are truly just hard up, and no more crazy than that lawyer that ran over the pedestrians today. Don't give if you don't want to, but for God sake see if you can find it within your heart to approach being a human being, and no I don't feel bad for your rich suburban azz that you have to be bothered, poor things just politely say I don't have anything."
And Craig says...
My God, Roger: use some of your pan-handled change and buy a copy of Strunk & White.
The ONLY bum to get money from me was outside of the Third Street Saloon. Me and my buddies were just brushing past when this ragamuffin said "aw fellas, I'm just trying to get a little drink." That, my friends, was all of the honesty that I needed to hear. I shook my own pockets and then my friends for the $1.75 for a pint of Popov (bum told us that it was his brand). In retrospect I/we did the man no good, but for a moment there was solidarity among the City's inebriates. |
Danny
Member
Username: Danny
Post Number: 6388
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 10:08 am: | |
Here are some panhandlers that I have recognized while is was walking through the ghettos of Detroit.
1. Mr. Whinebeggar. He is a middle age white male, a leftover from the Coleman Young Era. He goes around Downtown Detroit area on the corners of Woodward Ave from Congress to Larned Street's asking folks for some money so that he could get him something to eat. He's not asking money so that he could get some drugs and alcohol. I've seen him in action when he stops a downtown restaurant for a quick bite. He's not aggressive just a patient guy. |
Oakmangirl
Member
Username: Oakmangirl
Post Number: 150
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 10:20 am: | |
"Me and my buddies were just brushing past when this ragamuffin said..."
Ummm...Craig, shouldn't that read "My buddies and I"? we all need a little Strunk & White from time to time, apparently.
Here's an idea: why don't we start a catalog of homeless people in Detroit. Think of how many would be indexed under "bearded" and cross-referenced under "aggressive". |
Vas
Member
Username: Vas
Post Number: 777
Registered: 01-2004
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 10:23 am: | |
EAT 'EM UP TIGERS! EAT 'EM UP!
on serious rotation. I give that guy money for enthusiasm. |
Detroitnerd
Member
Username: Detroitnerd
Post Number: 1309
Registered: 07-2004
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 11:14 am: | |
Oakmangirl: Strunk & White? Carole Lombard? Empathy for homeless people? You rule... |
Oakmangirl
Member
Username: Oakmangirl
Post Number: 151
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 11:43 am: | |
Detroitnerd,
<blush> Thanks...it's not easy being me. ha. |
Pffft
Member
Username: Pffft
Post Number: 1364
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 11:49 am: | |
Ditto Oakmangirl, Carole Lombard is the draw in that film. "Nothing Sacred" is another Lombard classic ...but she definitely had chemistry with ex-husband Powell. Sorry to threadjack!
The link to this thread: Powell plays a panhandler in "My Man Godfrey," one of the "forgotten men" who lost their shirts during the Depression... |
Oakmangirl
Member
Username: Oakmangirl
Post Number: 152
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 11:57 am: | |
We need to start a movie nerd offshoot. We could always start a new thread of filmed in Detroit? I can't think of any older b/w movies filmed here.
I love Carole in "No Man of Her Own". It was racy because Clark Gable (her future hubby) was leering at her legs. I think she played a librarian? |
Detroitnerd
Member
Username: Detroitnerd
Post Number: 1313
Registered: 07-2004
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 12:26 pm: | |
The Black Legion, starring Humphrey Bogart, was set in Detroit. |
Craig
Member
Username: Craig
Post Number: 284
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 12:32 pm: | |
Hi OG - "me and my buddies," "my buddies & I" confuses me. My copy of S&W is just out of arms' reach, so I went with the revisionist version that my last English prof piled on.
My point was that Roger's comment was all but indecipherable. Aside from the fact that he's not happy with my POV what did he say?
Re: bum typologies, here are some variables...
-drunk right now vs. soon to be drunk
-cock 'n bull story vs. "gimme some change"
-regular location vs. roaming
-bland vs. aggressive
-long-term vs. just getting started
Don't get me wrong: I feel some pity for the sorry state of these people, but I am beyond enabling the lifestyle. Damnit, I'd like to sit around getting ripped at mid-day, watching freighters chug by, but duty calls. |
Oakmangirl
Member
Username: Oakmangirl
Post Number: 153
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 12:40 pm: | |
"Damnit, I'd like to sit around getting ripped at mid-day, watching freighters chug by, but duty calls."
Don't forget your Strunk & White! Ha. Wouldn't we all like to check out and be off the grid for a spell.... |
Pffft
Member
Username: Pffft
Post Number: 1365
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 12:52 pm: | |
Great idea, a movie nerd thread related to Detroit. There was a Purple Gang film that starred Robert Blake, of all people, came out in about'60 but don't think it was filmed here. |
Hauntedbeat
Member
Username: Hauntedbeat
Post Number: 2
Registered: 07-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 1:00 pm: | |
Craig, I think I love you. |
Detroitnerd
Member
Username: Detroitnerd
Post Number: 1314
Registered: 07-2004
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 1:07 pm: | |
Haunted: Is that a reference to the Go? |
Craig
Member
Username: Craig
Post Number: 287
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 1:09 pm: | |
Always room on the bench for another or two. Gotta bring something in a brown paper bag, though. |
Sstashmoo
Member
Username: Sstashmoo
Post Number: 299
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 1:23 pm: | |
Panhandlers are going to ruin any hopes of revitalization on any scale. When folks with kids come to the D and try to walk the sidewalks this is a big turn off to them.
The bad thing is most people don't know how to react and feel intimidated by them. So what do they do they give them a few dollars just to make them go away. And more than likely many of them give them money in the hopes that will be in lieu of getting mugged. Sound like a place to take the kids? Not to me.
Detroit needs to do something about this.. |
Detroitnerd
Member
Username: Detroitnerd
Post Number: 1316
Registered: 07-2004
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 1:31 pm: | |
Well, failing massive social programs, education, job training, and New Deal-type projects, the only thing you can do is pay thugs to punch 'em in the face until they go away. That's what Greektown started doing. Maybe that's why they moved uptown a few blocks? |
Sstashmoo
Member
Username: Sstashmoo
Post Number: 300
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 2:14 pm: | |
Even as bad as things are around here, there is no reason for any of these folks on the street begging and pestering pedestrians. Period. I have a small business, not one has ever came to my door looking for work. Feeling sorry for them is part of their scam. They are cons and swindlers, they live that way by choice. And many wouldn't live any other way. When was the last time one of them while asking for a handout, asked if you know of any jobs available? They don't want a job. They have one.
See the confusion comes in because people dont understand them. There scam is "down on their luck and they need help". The fact is many of them were afforded the same opportunities as the rest of us. We go to work everyday, pay our bills and sustain some semblence of a western culture lifestyle. Panhandlers think we're suckers and morons for doing it. |
Benjo
Member
Username: Benjo
Post Number: 30
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 2:28 pm: | |
I had an incident last month that really bothered me. I went to the CVS at Gratiot and McDougall to get some baby formula. After I got out of my car, a man asked me for some spare change. I told him I was sorry, I had to get some formula for my daughter. When I left the store, he asked me again and I told him I still didn't have any spare change. He then asked me if he could get a whole dollar! |
Oakmangirl
Member
Username: Oakmangirl
Post Number: 154
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 5:55 pm: | |
"When folks with kids come to the D and try to walk the sidewalks this is a big turn off to them."
Actually, I'm more turned off by visiting a city that calls itself "The D"; sorry, but that's ridiculous.
As for being turned off by homeless people or panhandlers, then some folks need to stay in their suburban enclave. Why are people so frightened by others who do not fit into the social norm? Frankly, I think it healthy for kids to see we have societal problems and to learn that disenfranchising people, dehumanizing, is a nasty byproduct of capitalism.
Do we want The D instead to be a sanitized, planned community much like Celebration, FL or a Stepford Village? We have Plymouth and Northville for that, I thought. |
Danny
Member
Username: Danny
Post Number: 6390
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 6:03 pm: | |
Here are some panhandlers that I have recognized while is was walking through the ghettos of Detroit.
2. Mrs. Fear! She's black female currently homeless in her late 50s. A po'folk who has a very aggressive attitude. She whines as she begs for money. You might see her roaming around Woodward Ave. from midtown to downtown.
3. Mrs. O' Hagganhan She's a po'folk; in her early 50s. She wears stinky torn up winter coat and carries her dark past in the buggy. She doesn't normally beg for money, but she hangs around somewhere in the WSU campus area. |
Oakmangirl
Member
Username: Oakmangirl
Post Number: 155
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 6:09 pm: | |
What the fuck's a po'folk? I thought we were North of the Mason-Dixon line? |
Sstashmoo
Member
Username: Sstashmoo
Post Number: 305
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 6:32 pm: | |
Quote "As for being turned off by homeless people or panhandlers, then some folks need to stay in their suburban enclave"
And they will, along with the revenue to support retail and other businesses.
Quote: "Frankly, I think it healthy for kids to see"
Healthy to take your kids around bums that are ill-mannered, vulgar and could be packing some sort of disease?
So, you're saying Panhandlers and homeless are good for Detroit? You may find some romance with them and they add some sort of charm, but believe me, you are in a very small minority.
And further, It's not fear alone or even fear at all for most, it's the fact that people are being harassed just trying to walk down the sidewalk. |
Oakmangirl
Member
Username: Oakmangirl
Post Number: 156
Registered: 08-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 6:51 pm: | |
Yeah, I think they add charm and romance to the city; being panhandled is like a gondola ride on the river. If you caught inferences, you'd see I meant that you're going to encounter homeless in any major urban area, so if you can't handle it, stay home where it's disease-free, but certainly still vulgar.
Detroit's woes go way beyond panhandlers: DC, NYC, LA, etc. have their share and then some, but you don't see people avoiding those cities because they anticipate harassment by people who are different than they are.
The timid folk who avoid the city for fear of panhandling are hardly going to make or break the city...they may break Hard Rock Café, but in my book, that's an improvement. |
Sstashmoo
Member
Username: Sstashmoo
Post Number: 306
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 7:17 pm: | |
Being panhandled is like a gondola ride?? LOL
Why would you say my home is "vulgar"? Unless you're just trying to insult me in some adolescent way..
Breaking a business in the D is an improvement? Arent you the one that was looking for sandwich the other day and complaining because you couldn't find one in the city?
Downtown needs the revenue from suburbs for revitalization. Even Northville  |
Ravine
Member
Username: Ravine
Post Number: 1229
Registered: 01-2006
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 8:31 pm: | |
You wanna know what I think is ignorant and obnoxious? The fact that, if one expresses a strong negative reaction to the legion of panhandlers who crawl around the city pestering everybody they see, one is characterized as being a scaredy-cat phobic who should stay in, or move to, the suburbs, or a heartless, soulless person who lacks even the smallest bit of compassion. I am fucking sick of being unable to even stop at a gas station for three minutes without having some asshole try to extract some of the money which I work my ass off to earn in support of my family and myself. If some of you judgmental, holier-than-thou, self-righteous pains in the ass want to feel as though you are doing your small part to save the world by willingly playing sucker to the panhandling street people, be my guest, but take your snotty little judgments and ram them directly, and forcefully, up your ass. |
Plymouthres
Member
Username: Plymouthres
Post Number: 157
Registered: 02-2007
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2007 - 8:56 pm: | |
Oakmangirl-
You shouldn't bash on Plymouth or Northville. It shows YOUR bias as you don't have a clue to the diversity here. We have some of every type, thank you. You just don't hear about those types shooting each other and themselves every day here like you do in Detroit. And before you rip on me for my "sanitized choice of place to live", understand that I spent the first thirty five years living in, visiting, or serving people that lived in Detroit. My grandparents both lived in Detroit and my dad worked at Woodward and the Boulevard for forty years. My wife and I have donated over 100 hours each at Fort Wayne in an attempt to help restore this City's history. You paint us all with a very, very wide brush.
While at a recent FSC at the Well in Detroit, we were harassed at least twice by panhandlers. They may not bother you, but they would certainly bother most people I know. Having one walk up to you on the street is no picnic, either. They are, indeed, aggressive to say the least. They did have the same opportunities that I had, and they chose to be beggars. Period.
Also, without the suburbs, Detroit would have NEVER survived to this point. The revitalization that is going on today is proof of suburban involvement and investment. The City itself is bankrupt, both spiritually and financially, devoid of any ability to even provide basic services such as "street beat cops" to thwart the beggars. Ravine, sstash, Benjo, and others are correct, I'm afraid. |