Urban mystery

Post date: 2018-04-21 09:39:22

Every workday on my way home, I go through a busy intersection in Torrance, California. There is always a panhandler standing on the concrete island next to the left turn lane with a cardboard sign. It is never the same panhandler twice. Why is that?

It seems to me that a panhandler would pick a corner to panhandle that was some trade-off between (a) easy for them to get to, and (b) profitable, and keep coming back to the same spot. But maybe that particular corner is not so profitable? If so, why is there always someone there? Wouldn't word spread among the nearby panhandlers?

Someone once told me that some residential drug rehabs that serve the homeless will drive a group of clients to distant, more prosperous locales in a van and drop them off to panhandle, then pick them up at night, and take a portion of their takings for room and board. This seems pretty exploitative if true -- but I don't know if it is just an urban legend or what.

I suppose I could ask one of the panhandlers, but I think it would sound judgey and weird. You can't really ask a complete stranger to explain their behavior.

Do you have any insight?

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