Homless say panhadling a sign is a art

You have to go to work early. That's what they call it, going to work.
Get there by 7 a.m. or some guy who says he's disabled, or some woman who claims she has kids, will steal your slice of sidewalk.
You want an interstate off ramp: lots of traffic, an overpass for shade. Or a busy intersection with a long stoplight.
And you need a sign: your life story summed up on a soggy square.
Better yet, make two signs, so you can be whatever you need to be.
"After a while, you learn what works," said Roderick Couch, 28. He was in a wheelchair outside a St. Petersburg Wal-Mart last week, clutching a sign that said, "Disabled." The word was in quotation marks, as if the writer were crossing his fingers. Couch limps but can walk 100 blocks of U.S. 19 in a day. He hasn't worked since he got out of jail.
His girlfriend, Jazmine Saldana, 24, held her own banner: Homeless. No quotation marks, but maybe there should have been. Since the couple started panhandling in November, they have had enough money to sleep in a motel all but one night.
"You have to know how to fly," Saldana said. That's what they call it, flying a sign.
Every day, from dawn to dusk, they're out there. From Seminole to St. Petersburg, Clearwater to Carrollwood, hundreds of panhandlers brandish their makeshift billboards across Tampa Bay. Their weathered faces and sad signs have become part of Florida's landscape.
There's the elderly African-American man who swears he fought in 'Nam. His hat reads "U.S. Air Force." His sign includes the Marine motto, "Semper fi."
There's the bearded white guy whose cardboard claims he was "layed off." And the young guy with the red goatee and "Anything helps" sign who hangs out by Tampa's Bayshore Boulevard Publix.
Every day, you see more.
Around Tampa's Hyde Park alone, panhandlers say they can count at least 200 of their kind. In St. Petersburg, off I-275, nine people compete for shifts at one intersection. Turf wars erupt. A 60-year-old man who uses a walker recently shoved a 49-year-old into the bushes. "He knew I owned that spot under the tree."
Maybe you feel sorry for them: Times are tough. It could be me.
Maybe they make you angry because they want handouts.
Homeless or not, desperate or not, they all have their strategies, each one forged in the blast oven of the streets.
"Panhandling isn't just a job. It's an art," said Cliff Stewart, 49, who has worked the I-275 22nd Avenue N exit in St. Petersburg since he got out of prison two years ago.
You have to know what moves people most: beer and God.
• • •
You have to learn the rules. What to do, what to avoid doing. You have to set quotas. And know the right words.
Police say: Stay on the sidewalk. Wait for people in the cars to call you over.
Panhandlers say: If someone else is waiting to fly a sign, you have to rotate out every half-hour. If you leave to get a drink, you forfeit your shift.
Try to make eye contact. People in BMWs and Lexuses won't look at you, the panhandlers say. People in beaters give the most. When someone gives you money, that's a hit. Or a lick. Try to look friendly but not too happy. Remember, you're hurting.
Don't smoke or drink beer or scratch yourself. Don't wipe your nose or pick your scabs. Who would want to slide money into that hand? Stand on one foot sometimes so drivers will think you're not drunk; your eyes are bloodshot because you've been crying. And just because some hippie gives you a baggie of mushrooms, it doesn't mean you're going to trip.
"People hand you all sorts of things," said Damion Ogdee, 29, who works the Hyde Park area. He has gotten Budweisers and Pop-Tarts, cigarettes and T-shirts. His buddy once scored four tickets to a Poison concert.
Women give more money than men. Female panhandlers fare better but have to put up with obscene propositions. "If I was doing that," said a thin young woman named Sarah, "you think I'd be out here holding this sign?"
She was at the 22nd Avenue N off ramp in St. Petersburg. Her cardboard said, "Stranded! Trying to get home." With all the competition, it's no longer enough to be generically needy.
"The more specific your request, the more people can relate," said Sarah. "That way they think they're really helping."
• • •
Two debates divide the panhandling community: Stay on one corner or float? Wheelchair or walker?
If you always work the same sidewalk, regulars get to know you. If you float from spot to spot, your face — and your story — stay fresh.
Some say wheelchairs increase people's pity. But if you're in a chair, you can't get to the cars. Wheelchair Dave, they say, did better with his cane.
"A lot of people out here aren't sincere," said Roderick Couch, the "disabled" ex-con. "That messes it up for the rest of us."
According to Couch, there are low-class panhandlers "who sleep outside and won't even clean themselves." And high-class panhandlers "who might even work a little on the side, so they don't really need your money."
"Me and Jazmine," he said, "we're middle-class. We believe in washing our clothes and our butts. We got morals."
Like everyone else interviewed, they have criminal records. He served time for stealing from the Spring Hill IHOP where he worked. His girlfriend was arrested for prostitution.
• • •
Your sign is your voice. You have only a few words to get sympathy at a stoplight.
Scrawl your messages in magic marker on the back of a Listerine box or a pilfered "Home for Sale" placard. Highlight your words with crayons. End your pleas with three exclamation points.
Are you homeless? A vet? A single dad? A widow? Do you have an ailing mother or pet? All the above?
One guy parades his limping dog. Another says he sends half his money to his 2-year-old son. One admits he stays out just long enough to collect enough for smokes and a six-pack.
"I don't need much. So I don't have to stay out here long," said Jeffrey Buzzard, 49, who lives behind a St. Petersburg church. In the back of his dirty camouflage shorts, he carries three signs. His morning pitch says "Layed off." His evening placard: "No work today." Like he tried. On Sunday, he flies: "Got God? Need daily bread."
Other professional panhandlers swear by the two-sign minimum. You have to watch the cars, switch it up. When Cliff Stewart sees an older driver at 22nd Avenue N, he holds: "Homeless Vet." For people who look like they party, he has: "Why lie? I need beer. God bless!"
God and beer. If you don't like one, he says, you're bound to like the other. And you'd be surprised how many people love both.
• • •
Though their signs say they're homeless, few panhandlers seem to sleep outside. Most make at least enough for a can of beer, a piece of chicken and a cheap motel room. The typical daily take falls between $60 and $100.
Couch and Saldana say they each collect about $80 a day, more than they would make flipping burgers or stocking shelves. They don't have to punch a clock, ask for a lunch break or pay taxes. "A while back, a woman gave us $400," Couch said. "Tell me where you can make that in a day."
Ogdee, outside the Bayshore Publix, sets his weekly quota at $800. His income has never fallen short in the four months he has held "Homeless. Anything helps. God bless!"
"I'm paid a week in advance on my rent," he said. "I got a load of food in my motel fridge."
He insists he's not panhandling. "I'm not asking for nothing. I'm just holding a sign."
So what does he call it? He laughs.
"Making money."
Lane DeGregory can be reached at degregory@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8825. Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this story.

D.S.S.A.

If Obama gets elected, it will be the end of the USA as we know it. We are just a whisper away from being a completely socialistic country. At that point we may as well throw out the Constitution, The Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence. That United States will be gone for ever. I would say we could call our selves "The Divided Socialist States of America". I tell you what, if Obama get in the White House this country will be as divided as the Grand Canyon is wide. All the spending this guy wants to do, all the free money he wants to give to the poor will make all the real tax payers even more mad once they see that his so called tax cut for 95% of the people is a complete joke. That will divide us to the point where we elect another Reagan, or go into civil war. I am up for either one. Our governing body has completely let the American people down. Our governing body has led us down the path to the destruction of the United States that has gleamed in the horizon of other countries as a beacon of freedom and a beacon of prosperity.

Michelle Obama's Speach

I heard "The Great One" Mark Levin talk about this on his radio show. I thought it would be a good thing to link it on this site. We have to spred the word about these two markist leftwingers.
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/08/figures-michelle-obama-quotes-lines.html

Libs in my mind

Libs in my mind again. I read all this stuff of what they want to do with this country. I one of the two Democrats get into office this year, you can kiss this country good by for the next 20 years. They want to raise taxes on the rich, and cut them for the middle class. Why don’t they just cut taxes for all? I thought Liberals were supposed to be equal. No of course not. The only people that Liberals want rich are themselves, but they want to control every thing else. Time and time again cutting taxes for all people even the rich bring more money into the Government. Raise the taxes and revenue falls. I can’t get it through people’s head that if rich people have more money, then so will every one else. If Obama gets into power the tax rate for the rich reportedly will be around 50%. So if you rake in a million dollars you leave with $500,000. Now that rich person has less money to buy stuff like new cars or services that rich people use. If I was a rich guy who saw my taxes go up to 50%, I may not want to pay for that cleaning lady that I employ, or the car wash guy to come by the house and wash the cars. So there are two people out of work right away. Two less people paying taxes to the Government, less sales tax being generated at the stores. Now there are two more people going to the unemployment line to get checks from the Government. These Democrats tell people they deserve better lives. You only deserve what you work for in my book. Then, if you want to give you’re money away, then that is you’re decision. It is not the Governments job to take money and give it to people. I am so sick of this nanny state, socialism type, Government bail out bull crap. And with Obama and Clinton, it will only get worse.
What happens when the Liberals spend all the money that they get from the rich to pay for all the new socialistic programs? Where are they going to get the money then? I know, they will raise taxes on the middle class. Soon after that there will be no rich or poor. There will be rich Liberal Government people and poor people working hard to just make it by. In the mean time China will become a super power and it will take Russia with it. Then we will be in the same position Russia was in when we toppled their country. We wont have enough money to buy bullets, let alone defend our selves. So off we go to be under one world government. We will have to relinquish our Sovereignty to just eat.

Barack scares me to death

Barack Obama scares me to death. He and Hilary are as close to Communist as you can get in The United States. I was reading about Obama's Fairness Doctrine he sent to Congress. He basically wants to make sure that all of the radio stations " Talk Radio " have balanced and fair time for both sides of an issue that has to do with the public interest. Well talk radio is about the only palace conservatives have for an outlet. And Barack wants to take that away. The doctrine is a FCC regulation that requires broadcast licensees to present controversial issues of public interest in a manner deemed by the FCC to be " honest, equitable and balanced. " Dems in Congress fought to bring it back last year but failed to get enough votes to do so. So if this passes, which I doubt it will, the never do anything wrong U.S. Government will tell us what we have to hear on our radio dial. That sounds like Communism to me. So if we have a Liberal House, a Liberal Senate and a Liberal President, you know for sure they will pass this bill with no problems in 09. All these Libs want is control over the people like Stalin. These commi libs in Washington are doing everything to take away, to smother the voices of Conservatives. We have to stop these people folks, we can't let them take over. If Obama or Clinton get into office, the end of talk radio will be here. Then it will be legislation in favor of San Francisco values all across the nation. And slowly they will pass law against tradional American values. They will slowly be widdled away. Starting with the Fairness Doctrine, then ban guns, allow gay marriage, forcing thier ideas and ideology on our kids in school. This liberal fascism will bring our country to an end.

Al and the boys

The law is always different for black people when it comes to hate crimes. They both, white and black people in this case, should be charged with hate crimes. The black kids should have been the bigger man about it. So you have a stupid white person who hangs a noose from a tree, and stupid black kids taking the law into their own hands. All these people are stupid. And yes the black kids will get away about as free as you can get for beating someone to a bloody pulp.
As for Al and the boys, they are about the biggest racist in the country. He makes money and political gain on the plight that black people have. He does nothing to help the plight. I think Al and all those people with the Rainbow/Push Coalition and Jessie Jackson hold the black people down just so they can use them to have power, so they keep looking to them for help. The more help they need the more power they will have. Wow, sounds just like the democrat party.........

Loony Left

I want to go back about 55 years ago. Back when 99% of Americans loved their country. Now we are so divided, there is a gap between us as wide as the Grand Canyon. Back in the 50's people kept their mouth shut about stuff that could get Americans killed. From our troops in Iraq, to the average people going to work like on 9/11. Now we have people supposedly leading our country, going to other countries bad mouthing the USA. This to me is completely anti-American, and treasonous. Nanci Palosi goes to Syria to kiss there ass. This a country considered to be a terrorist sponsoring country. Now we have Dennis Kucinich over there last week saying we can't win the war, we are there for the lies that Bush made up and that we shouldn't be there. Now this stuff is going to be shown all around the extreme Muslim world and used as propaganda. They are going to say look even their own leaders are coming here to speak against their own country. This kind of America hating stuff that dumb ass Dennis did is going to kill Americans. And he is in a country talking crap about America THAT BORDERS IRAQ. Right next door American soldiers are fighting with their lives and he is in the next country talking crap. This guy should be kicked out of the United States. You don't go to a country that sponsors terror and talk crap about the country you are running in the presidential race for. Nanci Peloci, Dennis Kucinich, Hillary Clinton, and all their Liberal wackos on the left are using our military for political gain. This is despicable.
To Hillary Clinton is calling Gen Petraeus a lire and Bush told him what to say. That's bull####. She has no respect for the military. Talking down to a general just so you can pound your own chest, what a scum bag.