The City Council outlawed the practice in the 1980s, with white council members passing the ban and black ones opposing it. Data analyzed by The Associated Press show that more than 3,100 complaints were logged about squeegee kids in 2019, the first year Baltimore used a specific designation for reports involving those cleaning windshields. Silas and others know the work is illegal. Other squeegee kids try to work at half that pace. He takes the change from the outstretched hand. He jokes about accepting credit cards and Venmo. He approaches one who gives a quick look of permission, and he stretches over the windshield. But he also finds smiley drivers, and, after three years, he has regulars.
Some turn on their wipers as a signal to stay away.
#SQUEEGEE WINDOW CLEANER DRIVERS#
He passes cars with drivers mouthing “no” or shooing him away. Silas, 19, scans motorists’ faces, watches for hand gestures. But many drivers call the squeegee kids a nuisance in a city with a complicated history of race relations and violence, and officials have tried for years to steer the workers to alternative jobs and have now launched a program to mentor them. They say it helps pay for groceries, rent and clothes. For some, it’s a primary source of money for others, a side hustle. Silas is among about 100 squeegee kids - ages 14 to 21, mostly black and from low-income neighborhoods - regularly working intersections in neighborhoods across Baltimore, city officials estimate.
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