Some guy said this to me as I walked past him sitting on some steps on the street. As I understand it, girls get this sort of harrassment all the time. Me not being a girl this is only my third time in seven years living in New York. Still though, if only it was possible to make this sort of smile in real life. The design is part Calvin & Hobbes (the strip where he sarcastically smiles while eating his cereal) and part Edward Gorey. At least, that’s the way I intended it to look.
The only part about this comic I know is true is my own feelings, and the fact that barely ever do you see people on the street asking for change during the rain. Anyone who’s been in a city for a while is probably pretty good at ignoring people asking for change if they so choose. I’m no exception, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t rather they weren’t there at all. That includes the ones who have a good attitude. I actually don’t think there would be someone who would try to get change during a rainstorm because I would imagine homeless people would do their best to not get sick because they did something stupid.
The deli that I go to in the morning has its resident homeless person with his milk crate and bucket sitting out front. I didn’t catch the entire exchange, but I did see him leave for a sec and then drop some change off with the cashier. I don’t actually believe he got that change then and there, I was more under the impression that he was going back to his stash to get a few coins to cover what he was missing. Still though, the sight was enough to inspire a comic.
This happens periodically, you have an average looking white guy on the other side of the turnstile, he sort of fidgets with his pocket as if he does have his Metrocard somewhere, and then he asks if you can swipe your Metrocard for him. I think people sort of hesitate because if they have an unlimited card they’re really not being inconvenienced all that much, I hesitated the first time but didn’t give in. Of course now I just keep walking without a beat. The inner me wants to ask them for two dollars or tell them that I don’t give homeless people I pass on the street every single day a single penny and he wants something worth two dollars?
Forgot to mention, for those who don’t live in New York, tokens were fazed out over three years ago.
I haven’t had anyone ask lately me for money whose story I already knew, I just thought it’d be funny to catch them off guard in this way. If I think about it I actually don’t know too many repeated stories people on the street have told to me. I usually don’t give them enough time to tell me a story. I did once freshman year of college, but have only had one or two other times since then I’ve let them talk enough to tell a story.
I was walking down Bedford Ave. in Williamsburg with a friend last night and we were accosted by three separate people in the space of what had to be only five to ten minutes. First person asked my friend if he was Jewish. The second person was holding a cell phone and asking us if we had a cell phone they could borrow for two seconds. I did this once in a Starbucks for a woman who as looking for a shelter to stay at that day, and she ended up overstaying her welcome.
The third person who tried to accost us asked if either of us spoke English. Of course, we said in English something like “Sorry, can’t help you.” That sort of response works for almost everyone, but to do it with this person’s approach just makes you feel sort of dumb. Turns out my friend had been stopped on the street by this person twice before and the second time they were leading into their “Do you speak English” approach, but he just gave her some change at which point she realized she had stopped him before since he already knew the end result of whatever she was going to say was that she wanted money.
We just found it amusing that we were stopped by three people with three completely separate requests. One guy just wanted to discuss Judaism for hours and hours, the other person wanted to use a phone and the last just wanted money.
Bedford Ave. seems to be oddly populated with people of this sort. I was walking down it late one night and was asked for change from two people. Only thing was that these two people looked nothing at all like the usual types you expect to get asked change for on the street. I’m not even talking the completely B.O. ridden people who seem to not move from their one place all day long. Still weird.
There’s a homeless guy who sits on a siamese pipe nearby my subway stop. When I first moved into my apartment he was there almost all the time, but lately he’s only there very sporadically. I sometimes wondered if his butt was shaped funny from sitting there for hours and hours on end every single day. Some things are best left unknown.
They say beggars can’t be choosers, but I think in New York you really can because of how many different things you can get for maybe two dollars and under. Aside from the dollar menus in fast food restaurants you could get bagels with cream cheese, knishes, pizza and the totally awesome dumplings for only one dollar. Not that this adds up to very good nutrition, but the point is that there are far more options here than anywhere else for that price range.
The dumpling stand in question is this place around Allen and Broome Street. You can get five pan fried pork dumplings for ONE DOLLAR. Or four larger pork buns. I think you can get them steamed too. They also sell them frozen thirty in a bag for six dollars I think. Vegetarians, sorry, nothing in dumpling form for you there. They have sesame pancakes for $1.50 and you can get some soup there too. I visited this place many a time when I lived around the Chinatown area my junior year of college. All my friends know about it, and if they don’t THEY’RE NOT MY FRIENDS!! No just kidding. At the very least my closest college friends all know about this place. There’s also another location on Mosco street which is off of Mott Street below Canal. Delicious.
I was walking on 6th avenue when this white guy who looked and sounded perfectly okay was panhandling for a dollar so that he could get subway fare. This guy might as well have been a normal pedestrian who sat down and decided to do this just for kicks. He didn’t look desperate in any way shape or form, in fact was rather jovial from the brief glimpse I got. Needless to say I didn’t give him a buck for his subway fare, though I was very tempted to say something sarcastic (perhaps not as sarcastic as this strip) to him, but I didn’t give into temptation.
I think this is a semi-regular occurance when you’ll see someone who fits this description on the street asking for money, usually specific about the quantity they want and usually much higher than the amount than the average pedestrian would ever give to a guy on the street. Really, do they never walk around enough to realize that they’re taking the wrong approach?
I got a pretty good handle on the people on the street asking for money in my area. One deli seems to have a rotation of people every single day. There’s one place where an old guy with a cane and messed up eye sits on a siamese pipe, but he was gone for a few months, and when I finally did see him after those few months it was only a couple of days. Then there’s one guy whose weekday spot is in front of a supermarket, but he opens the door at an ATM on weekends. There was also another guy who used to sit around on my street during the first year I lived here, but I haven’t seen him in ages, he probably moved on. Actually, he never asked for money now that I think about it.
This comic specifically is about this woman in the area who at her peak frequency showed up only one day or so on weekends. Plus she always had something to sit on, whether it was a milk crate turned on its side or a stool. Her tone of voice sounded the most like begging out of anyone, but she had a very sparse schedule so I always wondered. Then she wasn’t on her spot basically the entire summer, and then I saw her again but it felt like it was only every few weeks.
The last thing about being a tourist with a girlfriend was a guy in Manhattan. It was this guy with long hair and glasses who had that approach where they talk very slowly and don’t ask for change outright, but it always ends up with them asking for money. His story was that he was a tourist with his girlfriend (who was never around) and they just needed X amount of money.
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