text: Hmm. I'm a 64-year-old white man, fairly middle-class in appearance. I walk downtown all the time, between the library and the Metro theater and all the streets around and in between. There are loads of people sitting around the streets, yes. I wish they weren't doing that, but it's a free country etc. Yet I've never been "harassed" by any of these people. Generally they tend to themselves and their compatriots. I hardly even get asked for "spare change" much, certainly no more than on the streets of much bigger cities.