Detroit Tries Again To Get Serious With Panhandlers

An ordinance passed July 31 by the Detroit City Council will make begging inside the city's restaurants and near ATMs, gas stations and drive-through windows a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail. 

When it becomes effective, as early as next month, the city will join communities including Royal Oak, Birmingham and Ann Arbor with similar ordinances.

Panhandlers can be so intrusive that council President Charles Pugh said he sometimes avoids certain places.

"There have been times when I purposely drove away from a gas station after seeing people loitering because I didn't feel like dealing with it," Pugh, who supported the measure, told Melanie Scott Dorsey of the Free Press.