short north business association: “When individuals give spare change to people on the street, they may not know whether the money is buying a sandwich or feeding an addiction. The spare change may actually worsen the condition of the panhandlers by enabling them to delay seeking help. Give money where it can be used effectively – to those organizations that provide the means to help these individuals move off the street.”
I was in Columbus for 24 hours recently, and I realized that the thing that sucks about Columbus is that there never was any real arts or culture going on and the city jumped straight to the gentrified, yuppified version. While watching a movie, I saw an advertisement for some upscale, fake-ass loft apartments and realized that, besides the BLD, I had never really heard of people actually living in warehouse spaces. While I lived there I always fealt asked whether the cheesy galleries or coffee shops or Asian restaurants were a blight or at least better than the college-oriented bar and grilles that were the other development going on throughout the city. If you check out the website for the Short North Arts District, you’ll find mention of real-estate underneath the arts listings, and you’ll find the above page on panhandling. Sadly, though the photo of a fake panhandler with a cardboard sign says “Give me spare change and I may never get off these streets. Give to organizations that could really help me and you could save my life. It’s up to you.” only one such organization , the Faith Mission, is listed. This article, from last year, seems to indicate that existing services are severely lacking. I don’t know if the Short North Business Association contributes to organizations that are trying to address homelessness in Columbus, but it is frustrating to see campaigns like this ad that are clearly trying to remove homeless from areas of key development like the Short North. I can’t help but cynically think the priority is to get the homeless out of sight and out of mind rather than bolster agencies serving the homeless in Columbus.