The City of Charlottesville argued before a U.S. district court judge Tuesday for the dismissal of a lawsuit regarding the legality of panhandling on the Downtown Mall.
The case, filed by a group of five homeless men, aims to challenge a Charlottesville ordinance that prohibits solicitation within 50 feet in any direction of 2nd Street West and 4th Street East, as well as to any individuals conducting business at any vendor table or cart.
The Charlottesville Code of Ordinances defines solicitation as "request[ing] an immediate donation of money or other thing of value from another person."
According to city laws, a solicitation may take the form of the spoken, written or printed word, or by other physical means of communication, including but not limited to an outstretched hand or an extended hat.
These particular solicitation statutes were enacted in October 2010 as an extension of a long-standing Charlottesville law against aggressive panhandling. Jeffrey Fogel, the attorney representing the plaintiffs, said the City amended its ordinances at the request of at least some members of the Downtown Business Association who wanted further restrictions on begging.
"The primary concern we have is that it interferes with people's way to ask for help in a simple, very non-aggressive way," Fogel said. "Our sense was that the real motivation behind these amendments ... was a feeling on part on some members of the Downtown Business Association that it would harm their business if tourists saw impoverished people at the Downtown Mall - that it would be an eyesore."
Fogel said he believes the Downtown Business Association does not want people to see the "reality of America" and he would like the City to allow for passive solicitation and, if necessary, actively enforce laws against aggressive panhandling. Instead, he said, Charlottesville has banned solicitation to please some people on the Downtown Mall.
"The problem is not eliminating [the impoverished] from our sight," Fogel said. "It's to help them from poverty."
Fogel said he understands panhandling realistically presents an uncomfortable problem to tourists or visitors to the Downtown Mall and can sympathize with that, however.
"I'm not happy with people who call me at home and ask me for donations, with politicians who knock on my door during dinner," he said. "But I'm less happy with the restrictions on free speech."
Fogel thinks the case will proceed past pre-trial motions. City spokesperson Ric Barrick declined to comment, citing a City policy that prohibits commenting on existing or pending litigation.
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