Gainesville, FL Public Conduct: Aggressive Panhandling (2026)

" Subsection (c) then lays out the actual restrictions: beggars, panhandlers and solicitors are barred from obstructing pedestrian or vehicular traffic, from aggressively begging under that definition, and from soliciting any operator or occupant of a vehicle that is in traffic on a public street. No one may stand on a traffic median, bicycle path, or public street in active use by vehicles to beg or solicit, and drivers themselves are barred from handing money to a solicitor while their vehicle is in traffic. The ordinance also creates buffer zones where any begging, panhandling or soliciting, aggressive or not, is prohibited outright: at or within 12 feet of an outdoor cafe, in a public restroom, at a permitted public event or park event, from anyone standing in or within 12 feet of a line to enter a building, from anyone entering or exiting a building or within 12 feet of that entrance, and at or within 12 feet of an ATM or a pay phone. Violating any provision of the article is punishable under the general penalty in § 1-9 of the Code, per § 19-83.