Good start Mayor, damn good start: Reed pledges to aggressively address panhandling

From the AJC:

In a meeting Wednesday with the folks that bring conventioneers and tourists to Atlanta, Mayor-elect Kasim Reed got straight to the point on one of their biggest gripes: Panhandling

"We're going to enforce the ordinances and we are going to fix the panhandling challenge in the city of Atlanta, period," Reed said to rousing applause from members of the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"We are going to deal with this issue in a very muscular way," he said.

Convention visitors have consistently listed panhandling as one of the city's biggest drawbacks when surveyed.

Hospitality is an $11 billion industry in metro Atlanta and much of its health depends on the impression it makes on visitors, industry observers said.