Reno ordinance banning panhandling on medians, traffic islands sparks concern among residents

U.S. Marine Corps veteran Jesse Hernandez often spends his afternoons waving at drivers as they pass him in north Reno.

He usually takes a bus from his Sun Valley home to the shopping center on North McCarran Boulevard and Northtowne Lane. On Thursday, he sat in his wheelchair on a traffic island holding a sign that read: “Disabled marine hungry.”

Most drivers pretended they didn't see him as they turned onto a nearby roundabout. Other times, they gave him money or food.

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“I’m not homeless, I’m just here to get food,” Hernandez said, adding he lives with a friend. “I got to get some food. My food doesn’t last that long. People tell me, ‘Why don’t you go to the church?’ Well, their food doesn’t last that long either.”

He said most of the money he earns is used to pay for groceries or rent.

“And my rent… that’s all my money right there,” he said. “It hurts me a lot.”

Hernandez isn’t the only person who solicits donations from drivers at that site. Panhandlers can be found throughout Reno asking for money, food or work.

They often remain on traffic islands, medians or in areas along the roadway.

Earlier this week, Reno City Council members passed an ordinance that would make it illegal for pedestrians to stop, stand or remain in raised traffic islands or medians, except when waiting to cross a roadway at the next signal or when traffic clears.

“The ordinance was designed to make the street safer for everybody involved,” said Lt. Scott Dugan of the Reno Police Department’s traffic division. “Obviously, pedestrian safety is a key priority for the city and for the police department, and this ordinance will help ensure that pedestrians aren’t in places that aren’t safe for them, which are these medians that weren’t designed for pedestrians in the first place.”

“They’re not in an area where drivers expect them to be,” Dugan said. “They are inherently unsafe.”

But for residents like Hernandez, it could mean a financial blow.

Hernandez said he joined the Marines in 1977, completed boot camp in San Diego and served eight years.

“The medical retired me because of my injury in my back and all of that,” Hernandez said, adding he underwent surgeries in 2008 and 2009. “I got hit in the back, and I had a herniated disc.”

But he was never the same.

“I started getting sicker and sicker and sicker,” he said.

Boyd Renken, 67, remembers meeting Hernandez earlier this year.

“I see him get up ... and then it seemed like he was going to fall onto the street,” he said. “He was holding onto that chair.”

Since then, Renken often visits Hernandez and helps him gather money from drivers willing to help.

Boyd said the real problem is drivers who don’t pay attention to the road. They often see drivers on their cellphones who appear distracted.

“They’re all over the place,” Boyd said of panhandlers and homeless individuals. “If you go down Kirman (Avenue), there’s a place you can get under the bridge to get out of the rain when it rains. They put a gate there and locked the people out.

Boyd said he often sees other panhandlers roaming around the entrance of the shopping center on Northtowne Lane.

“It’s a problem already as is because there’s a lot of people living on the streets,” he said. “And then you get guys like (Hernandez) trying to make a living, and he can’t because his back is out.”

The ordinance also received criticism from nonprofit organizations who seek help from volunteers to gather donations along roadways.

Janeen Kerian, fundraising coordinator for the Muscular Dystrophy Association of Nevada, wrote a letter to the city council expressing her concern over the new regulation.

In the letter, Kerian said the ordinance would essentially “ban on-street requests for donations.”

“Every year the Reno Fire Department raises money for MDA by walking along the sidewalks and medians (on South Virginia Street and South McCarran Boulevard) receiving donations from motorists,” Kerian said in the letter. “Last year, they raised over $69,000, which we depend on to provide services to our Northern Nevada children, adults and their families as well as funding much needed research at the University of Nevada, Reno.”

Kerian said she believes if firefighters stop a 64-year tradition of soliciting donations along roadways, the organization’s donations would be cut by 80 percent.

But the ordinance isn’t necessarily about stopping people from soliciting donations. It’s about keeping people safe.

The Reno Police Department plans on giving out warnings and educating the public about the ordinance for 30 days to allow people to adjust to the new law, according to Lt. Dugan.

“Violators face a standard misdemeanor traffic citation,” Dugan said. “We don’t typically arrest people for a violation like that, unless they don’t meet citation criteria.”

He said keeping the public safe is important.

“We do get concerns forwarded to us from the public about people standing in those places because they’re unsafe,” Dugan said. “I know that we’ve had pedestrians who have been struck in the roadway.”

“There are a variety of ways for people to solicit donations from the community, which are safe and legal,” he later said.