"Pigeons" seem to have flown the coop!

That didn't take long. Despite Mayor Larry O'Brien's politically incorrect attempt at encouraging people to stop encouraging local panhandlers - Ottawa's sidewalks are a little less encumbered these days. It seems that the population of beggars has been relocating.

Have we sent them to Perth by bus?

According to various media reports today, panhandlers are complaining that they aren't making any money. Police officers who regularly hand out tickets of aggressive panhandling have had a hard time finding people to fine in recent weeks. For those who remain and are whining about their shrinking "income", I've got a solution to these people - find real work.

Not all panhandlers and beggars out there are homeless as they purport to be. Those who spend days in the blazing heat or frigid cold "patrolling" intersections or Queensway off-ramps where they can hold motorists at red lights hostage are clearly able to withstand the physical demands that come with standing on their feet and walking in circles for hours.

There's no work out there, you say? I work for an agency that provides services to seniors in order to help them maintain their independence by continuing to live in their own homes - with a little help. Not a season goes by where we could use addition snow shovellers or grass cutters. There are dozens of agencies just like mine, where a little physical labour goes a long way towards improving people's quality of life, not diminishing it. These jobs can pay upwards of $20 an hour for anyone willing to put in the time and effort. Take a walk through Bayshore Shopping Centre or any other area mall - one cannot walk 100 yards without seeing help wanted signs in the window.

Yes, I know - there are people who truly cannot work due to a disability or some other reason. I just cannot believe that these so-called "travelling and hungry" people (who never seem to move on, by the way) are one of them.

That is why Mayor O'Brien recommends that those who have been predisposed to "feeding the pigeons" should give money to local food banks, homeless shelters or other well-deserving charitable organizations. He's 100% right on this one, for it is those agencies who can help those who truly need it, not those who choose some alternate lifestyle, unwilling to conform to the "norms of society".

If for some reason I do decide to seek out public office some day and some opportunistic opponent falls upon this blog - this entry in particular - bring it on... try to make me look like I care not for the downtrodden. The bottom line is that this city is rife with social services ready and willing to help those who need it. THAT is where public dollars and dollars from citizens of this great city should be going. Not into the hands of many who have readily admitted that the loonie or twoonie given to them goes straight to feeding some drug habit.

Just ask anyone who comes out of a rehab centre and has seen their lives transform in front of their very eyes. Those on the street would glare at me with vicious looks if they knew I wrote this - but those who once did live on the street or "worked" on the street and turned their lives around would agree with me 100%.

Fix the core problem and all the little problems disappear. Don't feed the "pigeons".