Another Sucess Story About Comrade Miller And His Cabal Of Left Wing Clowns

Think outside the cardboard box

By MIKE STROBEL

Those smelly, snoring piles of cardboard and cloth are popping up all over downtown again.

The annual migration has begun.

Just as great herds of wildebeest gambol across the Serengeti in search of grass, the beggars of Toronto go in search of grates.

They emerge from their summer pastures, such as Allan Gardens and Moss Park.

Up Bay St. yesterday, toward the cenotaph, they squat, slump or snooze at every corner.

At Wellington St., a 20-something fellow slumbers in the shadow of Royal Bank Plaza, which gleams in its coat of real gold.

Near Adelaide St., an inside-out sleeping bag, in human form, rests against a recycling bin.

In the lee of the war memorial at Old City Hall, a veteran of the streets in an orange toque adjusts his poppy and his paper cup. Ask any beggar. A Remembrance Day crowd is good pickings.

Another winter. Another plague.

Not that it's just seasonal. You can't drive Lake Shore Blvd. at any time of year without encountering a) an infuriating string of red lights and b) a hale and hearty young man strolling each lineup, cap in hand.

Winter makes the problem look worse. It can't be camouflaged in our 1,500 leafy parks. It's in the open -- on every grate, every source of street heat.

We all agree it's bad. It scares away women, tourists, customers, even Habs fans.

So what do we do about it?

City Hall claims its Streets to Homes has taken hundreds of panhandlers off our sidewalks. I hope so, though frankly I don't see much difference.

Even if it's true, the program only works on vagrants who want a roof over their heads. And it doesn't rid us of career panhandlers who already have a home.

There are scads of those. I wrote of one a few years ago, the Shaky Lady. She shook and shimmied her way to oodles of loonies, toonies and $50 bills, then went home to her computers, leather couches and big-screen TV.

Few moochers are in her league, though many aspire to it.

Since City Hall has failed to cure this eyesore, it's up to the rest of us. A couple of ideas

SOLUTIONS......