Third in a series
Re “What Happens When Beggars Organize?”
There are more beggars in diverse stations on North Michigan Avenue in Chicago than I saw in Paris a few weeks ago on a late-summer trip. Still, there were more beggars present this time than during my last visit.
There was a man with a five-year-old boy. A young couple was sitting with two children in another location.
Some beggars had gained so much weight that they were not even able to walk out to their chairs. Others suffered different health issues. Day after day, they were at the same spot. I wondered if there was a location occupation law.
The most familiar beggar also present on her usual spot was a young woman, who covered her head and face. Well organized, a nice clean cardboard was posted next to her reading that she had a family to feed and needed money for her four children.
The cup was in front of her. In one minute, I witnessed two generous couples dropping paper money into her cup. I am sure it was not a dollar bill but I did not stop to examine the exact amount.
As I passed her, a question kept bugging me. So I returned again and checked that I had not made a mistake. No, I saw it right. On my last trip she had three children. Now she has four.
I asked myself, if she was so poor, why was she continuing addimg children to her family? Where are her children while she sits on her blankets all day long in the street? Who takes care of them? If, on my last visit, she had three, it means that she was pregnant when I saw her. Pregnant women need to walk and exercise. Her fourth child should be a baby now.
Who is feeding and taking care of her?
I wondered if there were beggar laws in different countries. In Chicago, police are heavily present in the streets. They are usually two or three together. Either they stand in a corner and talk, or they walk up and down the street.
If you ask them directions sometimes they guide you and sometimes they are sorry not to be able to help. But they do not intervene in any of the beggar situations.
In Los Angeles, there are different categories of people present in the streets. Mainly beggars and homeless. There is a difference among the homeless population. , Some homeless do not ask for donations. They live their lives..
Others ask for help. The beggars in Los Angeles also use different locations.
(I have not been involved with this problem. One day I will study the matter.)
I usually see two of them more often. They are accustomed to certain locations.
One noticeably kind man (I do not know his health situation) is dressed up decently, and he stands near the post office. He says hello with a smile to everyone and asks for help.
One time I had a lot of packages in hand. He came and helped me take them into the post office.
I tipped him well. First he worked, and then he was not obliged to help (but I was happy to realize that he was fine, as I also saw that he had the ability to pick up heavy packages and walk straight).
There is another man who has am curved back. He walks with cane. A family member drops him at the corner of Robertson and another main boulevard. In the evenings they come and pick him up.
(To be continued)
Dr. Rosemary Hartounian Cohen, who lives in the Fairfax District, received her Ph.D in sociology from the Sorbonne in Paris. She lived in two other countries before moving, with her husband and four children, to Los Angeles in 1984. She has published four books in America. Since 1985, she has operated Atelier de Paris, an international art business, on Robertson Boulevard. Her email address is Rosemary@atelierdeparis.com.
