He might not have a job or a place to call home, but even panhandler Charles Carter doesn't like it when others who share his occupation are belligerent to passers-by.

	Bill Wade, Post-Gazette Claudelle Bazemore, 56, sits at the site she has laid claim to for about 12 years on Forbes Avenue, just south of Smithfield Street, Downtown to panhandle, read, play chess and just live. Click photo for larger image.

Carter makes a living by asking for money, but he agrees with some parts of the proposed bill in City Council to restrict panhandling Downtown.

"It won't bother me," he said. "I'm trying to change my life."

While some, including a few panhandlers themselves, argue that visitors have the right to enjoy Pittsburgh without being harassed by people asking for money, others argue that the new bill is an unnecessary infringement on free speech rights, and that ordinances like it have not been effective in other cities.

There is a high probability that the American Civil Liberties Union will file a lawsuit if the bill is passed in its present form, said Pennsylvania legal director Witold Walczak.

The bill would ban panhandling between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. during daylight-saving time, and between 6 p.m. and 9 a.m. during standard time, but allows for "busking," or street performance. It also bans panhandling within 50 feet of any outdoor eating establishment, 25 feet of an admission line, 10 feet of a food vendor or bus stop, and 25 feet of an ATM. The bill also would forbid aggressive panhandling and money soliciting that hinders traffic.

City Council first passed a law prohibiting aggressive panhandling in 1995. It said that people soliciting money were not allowed to "cause a reasonable person to fear imminent bodily harm" or solicit money in an aggressive manner. This past spring, an ad campaign sponsored by local organizations discouraged people from giving money to Downtown panhandlers.

But neither initiative stemmed a growing tide of people asking for money on city streets, some of the bill's supporters say.

"Our stakeholders feel that panhandling is becoming a bit more of a problem than it used to be," said Michael Edwards, executive director of the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, which supports the legislation.

Anecdotal evidence from his colleagues in other cities shows that similar laws are effective, Edwards said.

People asking for money constantly bother both customers and employees of Jenny Lee Bakery in Market Square, a member of the Downtown partnership, said clerk Regina Casey. While the manager shoos them, some employees still feel harassed.

"It's freedom of speech to some point, but if you say anything to them, they smart-mouth you," she said.

"I know there's a need out there to crack down on aggressive panhandlers," said city Councilman Jim Motznik, who says he's seen an increase in people asking for money on city streets. "Visitors that come into the city and city residents alike shouldn't have to deal with going to a Pirates game or a Steelers game only to leave there and be harassed by panhandlers."

Motznik is not decided on how he will vote.

The current law is sufficient to prevent aggressive solicitation, if only it was enforced, said Mac McMahon, outreach coordinator for Community Human Services, an Oakland social service agency that works with the homeless and with panhandlers, who McMahon says are overlapping but different groups of people.

He didn't have a problem with the ad campaign that discouraged people from giving to panhandlers, but wonders if the new ordinance goes a step too far.

"If they enforce the laws that are in the books, I don't see what the problem is," he said. "I keep hearing about aggressive panhandlers. If that's the case, why don't they do something about it?"

The new ordinance, if passed, could create some problems of its own.

Its language also would apply to other groups that ask for money in public places, like The Salvation Army, college students who raise money by standing on the Boulevard of the Allies, and firefighters who campaign for muscular dystrophy, said the ACLU's Walczak.

He said the weakest points of the bill are those that ban solicitation at night and within 50 feet of establishments that have outside dining, which might prohibit any panhandling in Market Square. This infringes on First Amendment rights because asking for money is a form of speech protected by the Constitution, he said.

Laws in other cities have met with limited success, advocates for the poor say.

Anti-panhandling laws started gaining traction in the early 1990s, said Tulin Ozdeger, a civil rights staff attorney for the Washington, D.C.-based National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty.

Of 49 U.S. cities surveyed by the center between 1999 and 2002, 70 percent showed an increase in the total number of laws that criminalized homelessness, said Ozdeger. Although such laws are different from those targeting panhandlers only, she said the numbers indicate a general trend toward punishing poverty in the past six years.

Chicago banned panhandling altogether in 2002 but repealed it after a class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of those cited for soliciting money. The city passed a new law in 2004 that targeted aggressive panhandlers.

People soliciting money in downtown Orlando, Fla. are required to limit their activity to marked blue chalk squares in the city center, said Michael Stoops, acting executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless. In Dayton, Ohio, and Cincinnati, panhandlers are required to have permits.

A vote on a proposal to ban panhandling in certain parts of Atlanta's downtown area has been delayed twice and is now scheduled for mid-August.

"Even if a panhandling law is passed, it doesn't seem to stem the tide of people panhandling," Stoops said. "It's a fact of urban life."

Stoops said there are more effective ways to curb aggressive panhandling -- like publishing a newspaper that homeless people write for and sell. Keeping homeless shelters open year-round and during the day also might curb panhandling.

Restricting panhandling is neither effective nor possible, he said, and people asking for money aren't harming anyone. Contrary to some beliefs, few make more than $25 a day, and most make less, he said.

"People have the right to ask for money, and you have a right to give or not give," he said.

"Business people feel that a homeless person is bad for business, and want to drive them out of the downtown area," he said. "That would make sense if they had somewhere to go."

Like Carter, panhandler Claudelle Bazemore doesn't object to many parts of the proposed legislation. She's also been seeing a lot more aggressive panhandlers on the streets, and thinks the city is dangerous at night.

But the panhandlers have rights too, she said.

"The city has the right to protect people," she said. "But I am one of those people."