Woodbridge residents are worried about panhandlers in front of their businesses

Charles Stocker's grown son Tim said he was hit up for spare change by panhandlers twice in one day on a recent weekend in Woodbridge's business area.

And Stocker says he encountered the same situation himself a week later.

Reports of people panhandling for money — something new to Woodbridge — have surfaced in the business area on Lower Sacramento Road.

It apparently hasn't happened too much, but it's been often enough that it was addressed at last week's Woodbridge Municipal Advisory Council meeting.

Stocker, who lives in Woodbridge, said that on the weekend of Feb. 14, one panhandler sitting on a bench outside Woodbridge Crossing on Lower Sacramento Road asked his son for money. A few minutes later, Tim Stocker was approached by another panhandler, this one in front of Rosa's Market on Augusta Street off Lower Sacramento Road.

And a week later, Charles Stocker said he was asked for money by a man, again outside of Woodbridge Crossing.

Restaurant owner Keily Herd, said no one has ever asked her for money, and she's never had a customer complain.

In other action

The Woodbridge Municipal Advisory Council heard a proposal by Woodbridge commercial property owner Mark Newfield on Thursday to construct a two-story building in the business area and sell classic cars.

Newfield said he plans for the ground floor to be a showroom with five or six cars, mostly muscle cars, on the east side of Lower Sacramento Road at Mokelumne Street.

"My lifetime dream is to buy old cars and sell them," Newfield said. "If I sell one a month, I'll be happy as a clam."

Therefore, traffic will not be an issue, he said.

The second story would be used for offices.

Woodbridge MAC chairman Tasso Kandris said that questions were raised about the possibility of traffic congestion on Lower Sacramento Road and about the building's architecture.

Residents said they want Newfield's building to be consistent with the 19th-century ambiance of restaurants like Cactus and Woodbridge Crossing and not sport a modern motif like the ARCO gas station to the south.

Newfield, who lives on the property, said his building would have the rustic exterior that the two restaurants have. He has submitted a site plan to the San Joaquin County Community Development Department.

"We need businesses in downtown Woodbridge," Newfield said.

News-Sentinel staff

However, some people who may be homeless hang around outside Woodbridge Crossing almost every day.

"They come in and use the restroom here," Herd said. "They're always respectful. I think they don't really have another place to go."

Employees at Rosa's Market and Woodbridge Pizzeria said they were unaware of anyone begging for money in the business area.

But Kathi Ostenberg, a hair stylist at Hair Mill in Woodbridge's business district, says she has seen some. Nobody had asked strangers for money until recently, but two or three men came into the hair salon and asked for money, Ostenberg said. They were refused.

"I've seen them pick up old cigarette butts and smoke them," Ostenberg said.

Members of the Woodbridge Municipal Advisory Council looked for answers at its meeting last Thursday, but they learned that panhandling is legal.

San Joaquin County Sheriff's spokesman Les Garcia said on Monday that it would be hard to enforce panhandling laws. Deputies can arrest panhandlers if business owners post "no loitering" signs on their buildings, but the only way the law could be enforced is if the act is committed in front of an officer or if someone is willing to make a citizen's arrest, Garcia said.

Panhandling in Woodbridge seems to be limited to weekends, Stocker said.

Contact reporter Ross Farrow at rossf@lodinews.com.

Reader Feedback

Cogito wrote on Mar 10, 2009 6:31 PM:

" Daniel, a panhandler is a noble step up from a lawyer. "

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