San Fran City Hall Supervisor Gavin Newsom is trying to outlaw all begging in his city, The San Francisco Chronicle reports. “‘This is not legislation I’m particularly proud of’… ‘But the problem is so dominant and disproportionate in a city our size that something needs to be done,'” Newsom said.

The proposed legislation would “prohibit panhandling along median strips and freeway ramps, around parking meters, in front of banks and check-cashing businesses, in parking lots, around transit stations and places where people are lined up to go into a building. Violating the ban would be a misdemeanor that could carry a $500 fine and six-month jail term.”

“Mara Raider of the Coalition for Homelessness said begging is a fact of life where there are poor people. ‘This is yet another political attempt to legislate poverty out of sight,’ she said. ‘It’s not the answer, and he knows better.'”

Reached for comment, the Arab street snickered, “Have these infidels no oil?” and the ghost of Richard Brautigan suggested the homeless and the beggars just steal some fishing rods and “hitchhike into, say, Idaho.”

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