Squeegee man
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The sometimes pejorative term squeegee man (or woman) refers to an individual who, washcloth and squeegee in hand, applies them to the windshields of cars trapped in traffic and then accepts (or sometimes coerces) donations from drivers.
Squeegee men are a feature of life in many cities around the world, including London, Boston, Mexico City, Buenos Aires and São Paulo.
The phenomenon first became acute in New York City in the 1980s. The usual modus operandi would involve groups of squeegee men surrounding cars trapped in traffic, especially targetting cars driven by sole females. The gang would then demand payment from the single driver. Upon his election, mayor Rudy Giuliani famously embarked on a crusade against squeegee men as part of his quality-of-life campaign, claiming that their near-ubiquitous presence created an environment of disorder that encouraged more serious crime to flourish. Squeegee men disappeared from city streets during Giuliani's mayoralty and have yet to reappear in significant numbers.
Londoners, and perhaps others, extend the appellation to include those who roam in the midst of stopped traffic to not only wash windscreens, but also hawk items such as roses and newspapers. For this reason, they are sometimes called squeegee merchants.
In Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary they are known as squeegee kids and they were mostly tolerated, since they were considered to be working for money, rather than begging. In 1999 the Ontario government passed the Safe Streets Act, outlawing squeegee kids and aggressive public begging. Squeegee kids have become scarce on Toronto and Vancouver curbsides, as police frequently stop them and check their identities for outstanding arrest warrants. In Australia the practice of unsolicited window washing for money is illegal.
