This is another chapter in the continuing defense of downtown. I know, I probably write about this too much, but it is something that concerns me and I will neither suspend nor end my quest to help revive a part of Tulsa that I believe to be the heart of the city.
I read, probably too often, the complaints and the dire predictions about going downtown. Among them are: no parking; bad traffic; danger; nothing to do, and panhandlers.
I've discussed most of these alleged problems in previous blogs and columns. But, I want to return to the frequent charge that panhandlers are rampant downtown.
I've been working downtown for more than 37 years. I have been panhandled my share of times. Although it is annoying, I have never felt threatened. Sometimes I give them money (especially if they have a really good story, true or not) and sometimes I don't.
I also enjoy trips to Cherry Street (that area on 15th Street between Utica and Peoria avenues) and Brookside. I have bars and restaurants that I like in both areas.
I have been keeping unofficial track of panhandlers for about six months. And here are the unofficial results:
I have been asked for money on Cherry Street four times. It would have been more but on several occasions I was maybe a half-block or so away from what looked to be someone with a particularly sorrowful story. In fact, last night (Sept. 30) I was asked for money. The requests have been far less in Brookside, maybe once or twice. Downtown? Not once between Denver and Elgin and between First and Sixth streets. Downtown, of course, covers more area than that but that is my general walking range. I neither heard of nor read any great complaints from recent concertgoers around the BOK Center.
I have been asked once or twice in the Blue Dome and Brady districts but, again, no real problems.
So, if there is anyone out there who has been frightened by the torchbearers and pitchfork-carriers who want to burn downtown and destroy all the monsters therein, proclaiming that downtown is a dirty, dangerous place, don't listen to them. I doubt that most of them ever even come downtown and that is fine with me.
The fact is, there are a lot of poor people who are down on their luck. And they are everywhere. They might not look like us - and that obviously offends a certain segment - but most of them don't bite.
Downtown is not free of panhandlers. But neither is any other commercial part of the city.
