Finally, Businesses pushes Fort Lauderdale cut down on panhandlers.

Downtown Fort Lauderdale is not safe to drive or walk about because of the number of aggressive panhandlers/homeless people in the area. Just walking to the library feels unsafe. The city officials and the police have done little in the last couple of years to crackdown.

Every day in downtown Fort Lauderdale, wherever the crowds are — the drivers, employees, residents or tourists — someone is there with a hand out, begging for money.

Aggressive panhandlers stand in the roadways, approach drivers' windows, walk up to diners at outdoor restaurant tables and hit up patrons in parks. They want money, and some of them don't take rejection well.

Downtown business owners want the in-your-face panhandling stopped.

Members of Fort Lauderdale's Downtown Development Authority say they'll push City Hall to rid downtown of the scourge. They suggest officials follow the lead of other Florida cities and get tough, enforcing existing laws or entertain new ones. One possibility: mimicking a successful law passed years ago at Fort Lauderdale beach regulating where panhandlers can beg.