Alhambra, CA Public Conduct: Aggressive Panhandling (2026)

Alhambra Municipal Code § 5.32.010 makes it unlawful for anyone to "beg, ask, solicit or receive alms for his own benefit, or for the benefit of any other person, firm, association or corporation," on any street, sidewalk or park, or in any doorway, hallway or building entrance in the city, a blanket ban rather than a narrower rule limited to threatening conduct. The same chapter adds companion prohibitions: § 5.32.020 bars wearing a sign advertising a physical ailment to solicit alms; § 5.32.030 bars carrying a cup or receptacle positioned so the public can drop in coins; § 5.32.040 restricts street sales of tokens, poppies, ribbons and veterans' badges without a Council-granted permit; § 5.32.050 bars approaching drivers or occupants of moving or standing vehicles to sell, solicit or wash windshields; and § 5.32.060 requires written property-owner consent before soliciting patronage or distributing handbills on hotel, apartment or office building grounds.

Elsewhere in the code, the Alhambra Civic Center Library's rules of conduct at § 2.32.080(C)(12) list "aggressive solicitation, as defined in Chapter 5.32 of this code" among the criminal conduct that can bar a person from library premises, confirming Chapter 5.32 is the city's operative solicitation ordinance. There is no separate carve-out in the chapter for solicitation that is merely aggressive as opposed to passive; the ban reaches begging of any kind in the covered public locations.