They’re becoming as ubiquitous — and scary — as squeegee men in the 1980s.
But unlike the successful drive to rid the streets of the squeegee menace, the Bronx parking-spot hustlers on Fordham Road — who beg for money in return for an empty promise to watch a driver’s parked car — have the courts on their side.
A series of federal court rulings has determined panhandlers have a First Amendment right to beg from motorists and other passersby. One Fordham-area panhandler who sued the city was even awarded $100,001 in taxpayer money in a 2006 court settlement.
“For an area that’s being revitalized, this is not something we need,” said Greg Gonzalez, who runs a parking garage and claims hustlers on 189th Street between Park and Webster avenues cost him business.
One day last week, a Post reporter saw hustlers approach 30 motorists. Drivers pay the hustlers a dollar or two, believing they’ll watch their cars and feed the parking meters.
But Gonzalez says the hustlers don’t feed the meters and don’t do anything to protect cars from vandals.
“People still get tickets,” he said. And the hustlers “stand around smoking weed.”
“It’s a quality-of-life issue for the neighborhood,” Gonzalez said.“These guys are bad news.”
“It’s an implied thing: ‘Pay me, and I’ll make sure your car is OK,’” said David Miller, 36, who owns a locksmith business on the Fordham Road commercial strip.
“It’s intimidating,” said Daisy Ramirez, 25, who parks in the neighborhood and works in a beauty salon there.
However much the parking hustlers aggravate area merchants and shoppers, local legislator Sen. Pedro Espada, the state Senate majority leader, doesn’t seem fazed — even though the beggars operate near his district office.
“It’s pretty f—ing funny, what these guys do here,” Espada told The Post. “They ask me for money, but I say, ‘I don’t need your services.’ Sometimes these guys charge as soon as you park, and sometimes they don’t ask for a tip until you leave.”
Police crackdowns over the years have ended up putting even more coin into the beggars’ pockets — and costing the city a bundle in legal fees.
The city’s $100,001 panhandling payout went to Eddie Wise, 48, who’s been arrested dozens of times and is the lead plaintiff in a federal class-action lawsuit over police panhandling arrests.
Lawyers for Wise and other panhandlers around the city won $329,079.28 in legal fees in a court order issued by Judge Shira Scheindlin last year.
Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said despite the court case, officers in the 48th Precinct — which covers the Fordham Road shopping area — “stand ready to arrest any panhandler who is intimidating.”
But the hustlers say the lawsuit keeps cops from busting them. “The police leave us alone,” one said. The beggar, who did not give his name, insisted he and his friends provide a valuable service.
“There’s a lot of vandalism here, and we’re just trying to help people park cars,” he said. The man said he and others in the hustle makes $50 or $60 a day.
David Greene and Denise Buffa
bill.sanderson@nypost.com