Panhandlers

[Strangler Lewis]

I don't like vaguely captive situations, so I never give to anyone standing at a traffic light or who hits me up near an ATM, while I'm pumping gas or walking with my kids. Living in San Francisco, handing out spare change had become somewhat automatic. Here in Petaluma, the situation arises so infrequently that it surprises me and, thus surprising me, it annoys me, so the answer is almost always no.

On the storefront issue, a couple of months ago, there was a fairly toothless couple with a pen full of goats set up outside. They were collecting money with the hand drawn sign that said "Goats: pets, not food." That one had me wondering.