What's up with so many young people begging for money in Queens?
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Back in the 80's begging was rampant in the City and it wasn't due to poverty. They had TV reports that showed some of these professional panhandlers made a couple of hundred dollars a day, tax free. I remember a 'blind guy' walking through the subway with his seeing-eye dog. The dog was walking behind him the whole time. There was one guy in a disheveled suit that frequented the R train and would tell how he was just mugged and the police couldn't help him, and he needed money to get home - one day he started his routine and one of the passengers started to recite the monologue word for word with him. Penn Station was brutal, lots of early twenty somethings that 'came in to the city for the day', lost their wallets or were pickpocketed and needed money to get home. Same guy would come up to you literally every day. It was like squeegee guys without the car.
I noticed this not only in Queens but all around the city. The economy is bad, job market is very tight, and people are being priced out of their neighborhoods. The shelters are overcrowded so people end up on the street.
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