When I took my family to San Francisco in '89 for the ND/Stanford game, we stayed at the Marriott at Union Square.
My daughter, who was 6 at the time asked about the panhandlers. Somehow the word "bums" got into the conversation and for the rest of the weekend, whenever she saw some panhandlers coming up to us as we traversed Union Square, she said, "Here come a bump." or "Daddy, look, some bumps."
The worst and most aggressive panhandlers I've ever encountered were on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley in '69 when I went there to visit a high school classmate who was going to Berkeley.
The Black Power thugs from Oakland would hang out at the intersections and would shove their palm into your gut and say "Spare CHANGE, MAN?"
Students took to crossing the street to avoid them.
The Berkeley Police Department was worthless back then. They wouldn't do anything to prevent this stuff.
