Thursday, May 18, 2006
Keep Austin Weird
Austin has its fair share of panhandlers. They are all interesting characters, with their own styles and creativity. Most of them have signs with various versions of a similar sad story. Most of them smoke. Some of them have tried to come up some unique gimmick--jokes or music or something. But I saw a guy today that may be the most unique of the bunch...and probably the least prosperous. He was sitting on the corner, smoking up a storm, and instead of following proper panhandler protocol, which states that when the light turns red you hop up with your sign and pace back about six cars holding up your sign and trying to get people to feel sorry for you before the light turns green, he just sat there. I mean, he couldn't really hop up and leave the conversation he was so engrossed in...with no one. Whatever he was talking about had him had him very animated. He did have his sign there handy in case anyone should glance his way. Unfortunately, he forgot to write anything on it. This, folks, is what makes Austin special (read: weird).
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That's sad; he most likely has mental problems and has been admitted to the hospital, put on meds, discharged and stopped taking meds. That said--I really dislike the panhandling and friendliness of Austin toward it. I see the donated food left at the corner of Braker and 35 Access all the time. You drive a little further and there is the camp--littered with alcohol. Trey's cousin, Kory, was manager of a bank in S Austin. One of his clients deposited $3K in his bank account for a total of $13K in savings; When Kory went to lunch that day the same guy was begging at the corner of Riverside and 35 Access. Drives me nuts--it's a con game. People that are truly trying to turn their life around--going to the Salvation Army, learning new skills, etc--that's fine. Mental problems? That's sad. If less of the con were out there, then the mental problems could be easily I.D.ed by police and helped.
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