As the crowd spilled from the North Carolina Blumenthal Performing Arts Center after an evening show a month ago, another scene unfolded outside: the panhandlers began asking for money.

"There were enough of them where you felt a bit uncomfortable," said Jim Shannonhouse, president of the Fourth Ward neighborhood association.

As uptown Charlotte grows, so have concerns about the homeless. Bar and restaurant customers increasingly complain about beggars, and during the past two years, city crews have spent four times as many hours removing urine odors from streets and cleaning litter-filled camps under bridges.

To spruce up the city's image, Charlotte leaders are trying to limit panhandling and keep the homeless from sleeping on benches. Next month, the City Council will likely consider a proposal to ban begging for money after dark or within 20 feet of ATMs, restaurants, bus stops and taxi stands. And to help enforce a 1991 law that already prohibits sleeping on uptown benches, the city is installing dividers on the 210 benches along Tryon Street, making it difficult for people to stretch out.

"What we want to do is provide as safe an environment for residents and visitors as possible," said Assistant City Manager Julie Burch.

Such ideas have been controversial. In San Francisco and Denver, homeless advocates said politicians were trying to boost their popularity by targeting panhandling. And in the 1990s, Charlotte leaders pressured St. Peter's Episcopal Church to move its soup kitchen away from uptown's splashiest attractions.

But several Charlotte social workers have been supportive, offering feedback as the panhandling proposal was crafted. Rather than money, the social workers said, it's better to give cards directing panhandlers to the Urban Ministry Center. Giving money typically supports drug and alcohol addictions, the social workers said.

"We don't see panhandling as a solution to anything," said Dale Mullennix, executive director of the Urban Ministry Center, which provides emergency services to the homeless. "Giving money to a panhandler is supporting a life on the streets. It's not turning anyone's life around."

Even some panhandlers Thursday agreed with the proposal.

Charlotte currently allows panhandling unless it's "aggressive," meaning beggars make threats or block someone's path, demanding money. Concord has a similar law, while Rock Hill and Hickory have slightly different measures.

Gastonia doesn't have a panhandling law, but three additional police officers were stationed downtown last year after city leaders worried homeless people would scare away customers.

The new Charlotte law, which would be a misdemeanor violation, would still allow panhandlers to hold signs at night.

In Mecklenburg County, more than 9,000 men, women and children slept in emergency shelters in 2000, more than twice as many as in 1996, according to a report last year from The Community Task Force on Homelessness.

During the past five years, complaints about begging increased from fewer than five a month to that many in a week, according to Charlotte Center City Partners, which promotes uptown development. And police patrolling uptown said they now notice 10 panhandlers on a four-block stretch, twice as many as they did three years ago.

"The only reason they're out there is because it works, because people give them money," said Sgt. Jim Hollingsworth. "I have stopped people and talked to homeless people who will have a wad of 50 to 70 $1 bills."

The new proposal was modeled after other cities' laws. In Orlando, Fla., there have been fewer complaints since a law allowing beggars to panhandle only in dotted blue rectangles found on most downtown streets. And Asheville last year banned oral begging, allowing panhandlers to use only signs or upside down hats.

"When you get panhandled now, it's extraordinary," said Kim MacQueen chairwoman of the Asheville Downtown Association, "whereas before, it might have been just part of a walk down the sidewalk."

Underneath an Interstate 77 bridge Thursday, Jesse Suffels, 49, and Ray Carter, 42, stood along Morehead Street hoping for cash from drivers. On a good day, the unshaven men with long hair and torn clothes make as much as $45. Bad days leave them penniless.

Carter said he uses some of the money for beer. Suffels said he doesn't touch drugs or alcohol. They said if the panhandling law was strengthened, they would either move to another state or comply with the new rules of not panhandling at night.

"When it gets dark, people get scared," Carter said, just before a woman exiting the highway handed him $1. "You never know who is a crazy nut out here."

-- STAFF WRITERS DANICA COTO, KEN GARFIELD, JAIME LEVY, HANNAH MITCHELL, HEATHER VOGELL, KATHRYN WELLIN CONTRIBUTED TO THIS REPORT

© 2003 Charlotte Observer