PalenQ

<You know like the ones sitting on a blanket, blind sometimes with a dog. Most were not disabled and all were making a decent salary.>

by extension you are saying that most of the street folk begging in American cities make a decent salary and are really not destitute

well you should come to my town - i've seen the same beggars for years and believe me they are not doing well

Get real and show more empathy for folks, often yes mental patients perhaps, who beg on the street.

and what is a decent salary?

Bitter

I think there is a difference between the beggars and vendors. Certainly a mentally ill or drug addicted person may need some help (and may not be able to hold down a job or be a vendor). That said, I question whether some beggars are truly unemployable, or just prefer the tax free handout.

suze

The people sitting on the sidewalks talking to themselves, that I see every day in downtown Seattle, are most certainly NOT fake or going home to fancy apartments. Sheez.

PalenQ

Perhaps yes some beggars may work the system and do quite well - especially perhaps in Manhattan or other afluent areas

But i know the many local street beggars get, hopefully enough coin to buy a fifth of booze and not more

I'm a lot more charitable to their miserable situation i guess.

Bitter

PalenQ: Your evidence that they are destitute appears to be about as substantive as my suspicion that not all are (destitute). Anyway, empathy can be constructively channelled by giving to welfare/homeless agencies to assist these people. Or, as I witnessed last year in Rome, when I saw a few young women handing out sandwiches to some beggars.

Les

Good lord, would you look at some of the suggestions presented here:

<"why not turn your approbation to Rome authorities who have let this type of selling mushroom for years"

<"why not just ignore him, avoid eye contact, and then walk towards some sort of authority member or into a hotel for a few minutes?">

For crying out loud, Dave was sitting in a cafe with his family, enjoying his vacation as I'm sure the tourism bureau hoped he would, and you guys want him to interrupt whatever he's doing to hide in a hotel or search out authorities, or (unbelievable) attract the attention of a government bureauocracy that for years has ignored this problem?
While you guys may claim to never be rude, from a practical standpoint, you're nuts!

PalenQ

Les - you missedmy point

it's not up to Dave to complain to local authorities

but local authorities obviously know about this problem and have not done anything to control it

cafe owners, etc. should also complain as it could impact tourism to Rome, etc.

This type of activity would not be tolerated in many European cities - try it in London and see how far you get for example - you see nearly no street vendors there obviously because police run them off.

I'm not saying Dave should interupt his dinner, etc. - just that local authorities should do something about this whole thing if indeed it is so out of control as seems the case

as for most street beggars - not vendors - not being destitute i stand by my view that most are not making a decent wage out there.

Michel_Paris

I look at it from a practical point of view. The vendor's goal, and he is in business to accomplish this goal..of selling something. Him harassing a customer, beyond the customary...what, 3 or 4 minutes, is not efficient for him (so many other 'marks' walking by) and at some point he knows (since it is his business) who he is wasting his time on.

So by ignoring him, he is going to go away, unless he has some mental issues. Now if he was touching and pulling on me, that is another issue.

If I was jet lagged and grumpy, I might actually say something, otherwise I don't even look at them. I would never mock them, it's just not the way I treat people I don't know.

I was in Turkey last summer, and went to Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, and walked restaurant area in Marmaris. Both had aggressive sellers, in both cases it was culturally interesting and at times annoying. We ignored them.

PalenQ

Funny how those poor Rome street vendors, nearly all south asian it seems or Blacks when i was there a few weeks ago

how they all seem to speak some English

this segment of society - presumably uneducated, etc. can converse enough in English to sell things

not speaking English to them or saying No Speak English may be the best tactic to getting good riddance of them

Travelnut

Re: the Rome vendors - they aren't that easy to ignore, since you can't complete a full sentence with your spouse without being interrupted by more than one of them. It might help their case if they sold some trinkets that <i>actually had something to do with ROME</i>, instead of rattlesnake beans, plastic flowers, and rocket-launchers. I remarked to my husband that if they could get a job washing dishes or something, they would probably earn a lot more money (since I saw no one buy anything from them) and endure a lot less rejection.

SeaUrchin

How about the lady I work with who was getting pestered by a man selling little jumping things. She backed him up against a wall and told him.......she would buy all of his wares. She did and passed them out at work when she got home. We all had little jumping things on our desks.

bellastarr

S: hysterical! Were they Beans or those little beetles chained to a lapel pin?

SeaUrchin

Some kind of a blob like thing, needless to say we kept them for a while and they soon &quot;disappeared&quot;, hmmmm, who is stealing all these blobs? odd. LOL

bellastarr

Maybe they're being recycled by Dave!

Padraig

SeaUrchin asked: &quot;who is stealing all these blobs?&quot;

I suspect the boss, who might want some work done.

SeaUrchin

LOL, she was the one who gave them to us! They were the gifts she brought back to us, so out of politeness we kept them on our desks.

So we had Roman Blobs which could have been bought in Chinatown here. I guess the vendor was happy though.

daveesl

Oh boy, this is now getting fun, almost 100 responses.

1) To the person that said I should report them to the authorities. As it was, this was at one of the cafes by the Pantheon. Both arms of the law were there, shooing off the vendors who were selling their stuff on the ground, but not bothering the others. In addition, the wait staff were also yelling at them. Since I had stupidly chosen the end/corner table, we were in the strategic location to get them all I guess.

2) Yes, we should have ignored our family conversation and paid more attention to the waifs.

3) To all of you who complained, I respect your complaints. However, next time someone decides to SELL something using this board, please remember what you have said. Just ignore them. After all, they are only trying to support themselves. And does their posting actually infringe on ANYTHING you are doing?

Glass houses, hmmmm



dave

suze

OK now you're got me there Dave... How in the WORLD does someone posting an advertisement on Fodor's travel forum compare with street vendors in Rome and what you do or do not choose to do about them? Truly you are grasping at straws to validate your actions as originally posted on this thread.

daveesl

Hi All, gee, I've never done a post with this many responses. Golly gee whiz, I'm famous.

For all, it was meant to be a bit funny in response to a problem. I realize that most folks don't see the humor in it. In addition it seems that most people advised that one should say no, then ignore the sellers.

My travel down the slippery slope with my previous post was in an attempt to show that many people have a real problem with folks selling things on this message board. If that is the case, and if the accepted response to a &quot;sales&quot; ploy is to ignore the sales ploy, then that is why I said we should therefore ignore sales people on this board. After all, what is the difference? A street vendor in Rome or a virtual vendor in Fodorland. Except I can choose to read a post or not. I may not be able to &quot;choose&quot; to have someone go away.

So, I will now choose to not read any more of this thread. Thank you all for your comments.



Keep on smiling!!!

dave

suze

...and... 100!!!!!!!!!!!!!