After OK'ing panhandling, Des Moines bans standing in medians of some 200 intersections

The Des Moines City Council decided Monday to ban standing in the medians at about 200 intersections in the capital city.

The panel’s vote came six months after the city rescinded its ordinance that banned panhandling without a city license. The city’s legal staff then said it would work on a different measure that would prohibit the practice in certain areas on the basis of safety.

The median ordinance cites several safety metrics for why the city should ban loitering in the sometimes-narrow medians, including that 50% of pedestrians hit by cars driving 30 mph or more die, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Pedestrians will be banned "from standing, sitting or staying on a median for any purpose other than to cross the street,” the ordinance states. It will not apply to medians that are 6 feet or wider.

The City Council unanimously passed the new regulation after a brief discussion at City Hall on Monday. The new ordinance will go into effect in 17 days, City Clerk Diane Rauh said.

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Panhandlers that hold signs asking for money often are seen standing on the medians at some of the included intersections: Merle Hay Road and Douglas Avenue, Indianola Avenue and East First Street, and Martin Luther King Jr Parkway and Ingersoll Avenue, among others.

Des Moines’ city engineer determined which intersections to include based on the city’s map data and site visits, officials said.

“It’s about people crossing the street, standing in the street,” City Attorney Jeff Lester said. “It doesn’t single out panhandling.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa urged Des Moines and other Iowa cities to rescind their panhandling prohibition ordinances last fall, arguing that they infringed on panhandlers’ free speech rights under the First Amendment.

Des Moines repealed its panhandling ordinance Oct. 8, one week after Des Moines police said it had stopped enforcing it.

In a statement, Rita Bettis Austen, the ACLU of Iowa’s legal director, said her organization didn’t have a comment on the specific ordinance being considered Monday night. She said laws that “don’t target speech activities don’t offend the First Amendment.”

Bettis Austen also referenced an ongoing lawsuit in Oklahoma in which the ACLU alleges that Oklahoma City banned panhandling in medians under the guise of safety.

"If the Des Moines ordinance is being proposed as a response to the ACLU's successful efforts to push the city to repeal its prior panhandling ordinance, and in fact is intended to limit begging, rather than a true traffic safety measure, it too would be subject to potential legal challenge," Bettis Austen said.

Austin Cannon covers the Des Moines metro for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at awcannon@registermedia.com or 515-284-8398.