MEMORANDUM OPINION

NORMAN K. MOON, District Judge.

Described in the complaint as "impecunious and reliant to a certain extent on begging" for sustenance, Plaintiffs1 filed this civil rights action alleging violations of their rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Plaintiffs complain that the City of Charlottesville (the "City") has "adopted and enforced" an ordinance that "restricts the right to solicit on the downtown mall and criminalizes conduct in violation of the ordinance." Plaintiffs object to the ordinance's prohibitions against soliciting (or, as Plaintiffs describe it, "begging") "[f]rom or to any person seated within an outdoor café area, during the hours of operation of such outdoor café," "[f]rom or to any person who is conducting business at any vendor table or cart," or "[o]n the Downtown Mall within fifty (50) feet (in any direction) of 2nd Street West and 4th Street East, when those streets are open to vehicular traffic." Charlottesville City Code (1990), § 28-31(a)(5), (6), & (9) (as amended Aug. 16, 2010).

Plaintiffs seek declaratory and injunctive relief, compensatory and nominal damages, and an award of costs and attorneys' fees. The City moved to dismiss, arguing that Plaintiffs lack standing because they "fail to allege a plausible claim of `injury in fact,'" and arguing further that Plaintiffs have failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. The matter has been fully briefed and supplemented, and the parties' arguments have been heard. As discussed herein, I find that Plaintiffs have standing to bring this action, but I will grant the City's motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.

I.

Plaintiffs challenge the following provisions of the Charlottesville City Code:

Sec. 28-31. — Soliciting.

Plaintiffs' first "cause of action" alleges that the ordinance is "not content neutral and advances "no compelling interest." Asserting that "[t]he conduct" they "have engaged in and seek to continue is expressive activity protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution," and that the City "adopted all or part of the cited sections in order to restrict the rights of the impoverished to solicit funds for their own well-being," Plaintiffs maintain that, while the ordinance "criminalizes" the "solicitation of money or things of value or the sale of goods and services," it does not criminalize "all other forms of speech, including all other forms of solicitation." Plaintiffs allege that this distinction is "based on the content of the communication." They further assert that the City "does not have a compelling interest in limiting the First Amendment rights of the impoverished to solicit funds for their own well-being" and that "[t]he ordinance violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution."

Plaintiffs' second "cause of action" challenges on vagueness grounds the ordinance's prohibitions against soliciting "[f]rom or to any person seated within an outdoor café area, during the hours of operation of such outdoor café" and "[f]rom or to any person who is conducting business at any vendor table or cart." Plaintiffs maintain that subsections (a)(5) and (6) are "so vague as to require that those subject to its restrictions guess at its meaning" and, because of this alleged vagueness, these subsections "give[] virtually unlimited discretion to law enforcement in enforcing the ordinance," thus "render[ing] [the ordinance] in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution."

Plaintiffs' third "cause of action" alleges that the "[o]rdinance does not serve a significant interest and is not narrowly tailored." Describing the "Downtown Mall in the City of Charlottesville" as "a traditional public forum," Plaintiffs state that the challenged subsections of the ordinance "violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments" because, even "[i]f construed as content neutral," they "do not serve a significant interest of the city and, in any event, are not narrowly tailored to serve the asserted interest."

Under each "cause of action," Plaintiffs assert that they "have and will continue to suffer ... damages to their right to communicate to the general public," and Plaintiffs seek, inter alia, a declaration that the ordinance is "unconstitutional in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution on its face and as applied to the plaintiffs."

II.

There is no question that "[s]olicitation constitutes protected expression under the First Amendment." Comite de Jornaleros v. City of Redondo Beach, 657 F.3d 936, 945 (9th Cir.2011) (en banc) (citing Int'l Soc'y for Krishna Consciousness, Inc. v. Lee, 505 U.S. 672, 677-78, 112 S.Ct. 2701, 120 L.Ed.2d 541 (1992); United States v. Kokinda, 497 U.S. 720, 725, 110 S.Ct. 3115, 111 L.Ed.2d 571 (1990); Riley v. Nat'l Fed'n of the Blind of N.C., Inc., 487 U.S. 781, 788-89, 108 S.Ct. 2667, 101 L.Ed.2d 669 (1988); Heffron v. Int'l Soc'y for Krishna Consciousness, Inc., 452 U.S. 640, 101 S.Ct. 2559, 69 L.Ed.2d 298 (1981)). The parties point out that the Supreme Court of the United States has not specifically ruled that "begging" is speech protected by the First Amendment; however, assuming it is necessary to distinguish the concept of "begging" apart from "soliciting" (which is, after all, the act restricted by the ordinance at issue here), it seems readily apparent that the "begging" delimited by Charlottesville's solicitation ordinance is protected speech. The Court has ruled that seeking donations is protected speech, see Vill. of Schaumburg v. Citizens for a Better Env't, 444 U.S. 620, 632, 100 S.Ct. 826, 63 L.Ed.2d 73 (1980) (charitable solicitations "involve a variety of speech interests ... that are within the protection of the First Amendment"), and several circuit courts of appeals have determined that begging stands on the same ground, see, e.g., Gresham v. Peterson, 225 F.3d 899, 904 (7th Cir.2000) ("Neither the parties to this appeal nor any authorities found by this Court suggest that we should distinguish between restrictions on organized charities and individuals for the purposes of understanding the First Amendment guarantees."); Loper v. N.Y.C. Police Dept., 999 F.2d 699, 704 (2d Cir.1993) ("We see little difference between those who solicit for organized charities and those who solicit for themselves in regard to the message conveyed.").

III.

As previously mentioned, the City argues that Plaintiffs "fail to allege a plausible claim of `injury in fact'" and therefore lack standing under Article III of the United States Constitution.3 The City asserts that "none of the plaintiffs has alleged that they have been charged or convicted of a violation of any of these subsections," adding that, although Plaintiffs allege that they regularly beg "within view" of the restaurants and cafés on the Mall, "[t]he Complaint does not allege that any of the plaintiffs beg ... from persons seated within an outdoor cafe, from any person who is conducting business at any vendor table or cart on the Downtown Mall, or in the restricted vehicle crossover locations." In the City's view, "Plaintiffs do not allege that they solicit in any of the restricted areas and, therefore, do not allege sufficient `injury in fact' to support standing."

I disagree. Plaintiffs sufficiently allege that they have formerly solicited and wish to solicit in the future from passers-by and customers of the restaurants and other businesses on the Mall, and that their acts of solicitation are inhibited by the ordinance. There is no requirement that one must violate a law in order to have standing to challenge the constitutionality of that law. See, e.g., Steffel v. Thompson, 415 U.S. 452, 459, 94 S.Ct. 1209, 39 L.Ed.2d 505 (1974) ("In these circumstances, it is not necessary that petitioner first expose himself to actual arrest or prosecution to be entitled to challenge a statute that he claims deters the exercise of his constitutional rights."); Doe v. Bolton, 410 U.S. 179, 188, 93 S.Ct. 739, 35 L.Ed.2d 201 (1973) ("We conclude, however, that the physician-appellants, who are Georgia-licensed doctors consulted by pregnant women, also present a justiciable controversy and do have standing despite the fact that the record does not disclose that any one of them has been prosecuted, or threatened with prosecution, for violation of the State's abortion statutes.... They should not be required to await and undergo a criminal prosecution as the sole means of seeking relief."); Evers v. Dwyer, 358 U.S. 202, 204, 79 S.Ct. 178, 3 L.Ed.2d 222 (1958) ("We do not believe that appellant, in order to demonstrate the existence of an `actual controversy' over the validity of the statute here challenged, was bound to ride the Memphis buses at the risk of arrest if he refused to seat himself in the space in such vehicles assigned to colored passengers. A resident of a municipality who cannot use transportation facilities therein without being subjected by statute to special disabilities necessarily has, we think, a substantial, immediate, and real interest in the validity of the statute which imposes the disability.").

To satisfy the standing requirements of Article III, a plaintiff must show that:

Stephens v. Cnty. of Albemarle, 524 F.3d 485, 491 (4th Cir.2008) (citations omitted). "The party invoking federal jurisdiction bears the burden of establishing these elements." Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 561, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 119 L.Ed.2d 351 (1992). "[A] proper assessment" of the injury in fact element requires a court "to decide whether the Plaintiffs have `adduce[d] facts demonstrating that [they have] suffered an invasion of a legally protected interest[.]'" Benham v. City of Charlotte, 635 F.3d 129, 135 (4th Cir.2011) (quoting White Tail Park, Inc. v. Stroube, 413 F.3d 451, 460 (4th Cir.2005)).

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has

Benham, 635 F.3d at 135 (alteration in original).

Plaintiffs allege that they beg on the Downtown Mall, which is a restricted pedestrian area of Main Street; that they need to do so in order to sustain themselves; and that the ordinance challenged here causes and will continue to cause harm to their right to free speech. Solicitation, as defined in the ordinance, "may take the form of, without limitation, the spoken, written or printed word, or by other means of communication," including, by way of example provided in the ordinance, "an outstretched hand, an extended cup or hat, etc." Plaintiffs specifically allege that each of them "is impecunious and reliant to a certain extent on begging," that "[o]ne of the locations where each Plaintiff begs is East Main Street in the City, commonly known as the Downtown Mall," and that the ordinance "restricts the right to solicit on the downtown mall and criminalizes conduct in violation of that ordinance." In sum, Plaintiffs allege that the ordinance limits their rights to beg on the Mall, where those rights were previously unfettered, and that they have begged and, if permitted, would continue to beg in the restricted areas of the Mall. The City does not deny that the ordinance limits the right to beg in those restricted areas.4

Plaintiffs have alleged a sufficient injury in fact to their First Amendment rights. They have "alleged such a personal stake in the outcome of the controversy as to warrant [their] invocation of federal court jurisdiction and to justify exercise of the court's remedial powers on [their] behalf." Planned Parenthood of S.C. v. Rose, 361 F.3d 786, 789 (4th Cir.2004). Plaintiffs' rights to beg or solicit are restricted by the ordinance, and they have standing to challenge those restrictions without first violating the law.

IV.

Regarding Plaintiffs' allegations that the challenged subsections of the ordinance violate their rights under First and Fourteenth Amendments, I find that Plaintiffs fail to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.5,6 The Mall is a public forum where content-neutral, time, place, and manner regulations are nevertheless allowed, and the ordinance is content-neutral.

The ordinance applies to all forms of solicitations, regardless of the solicitor's purpose or the content of the solicitor's speech. Additionally, the ordinance actually leaves intact the right to solicit on most of the Mall, and it does not impose an outright ban on begging or panhandling on the Mall — a commonsense reading of the ordinance reveals on its face that it does not, and any casual stroller on the Mall can see that it does not. The ordinance simply limits soliciting (whether by beggars or anyone else) on the Mall by imposing a time, place, and manner restriction on requests for immediate donations of money from persons sitting in the Mall's outdoor cafés, conducting business with one of the Mall's vendors, or within the Mall's street crossings when those crossings are open to vehicular traffic.

As I have already observed, solicitation is a recognized form of protected speech; however, the right to solicit is not absolute. Kokinda, 497 U.S. at 725, 110 S.Ct. 3115. Generally speaking, the Mall (a public street closed to vehicular traffic save for two crossings) is a traditional public forum, and speech regulations pertaining to it are subject to strict scrutiny. See id. at 726, 110 S.Ct. 3115 ("Regulation of speech activity on governmental property that has been traditionally open to the public for expressive activity, such as public streets and parks, is examined under strict scrutiny.") (citing Perry Educ. Ass'n v. Perry Local Educators' Ass'n, 460 U.S. 37, 45, 103 S.Ct. 948, 74 L.Ed.2d 794 (1983)); see also Frisby v. Schultz, 487 U.S. 474, 481, 108 S.Ct. 2495, 101 L.Ed.2d 420 (1988) ("[A] public street does not lose its status as a traditional public forum simply because it runs through a residential neighborhood."); Heffron, 452 U.S. at 651, 101 S.Ct. 2559 (a public street, which was "continually open, often uncongested, and constitute[d] not only a necessary conduit in the daily affairs of a locality's citizens, but also a place where people [could] enjoy the open air or the company of friends and neighbors in a relaxed environment," was a traditional public forum).

Perry, 460 U.S. at 45, 103 S.Ct. 948.

However, content-neutral regulations of the time, place, and manner of expression in such public fora are permissible if "narrowly tailored to serve a significant governmental interest, and leave open ample alternative channels of communication." Id. "[T]he `principal inquiry in determining content neutrality, in speech cases generally and in time, place, or manner cases in particular, is whether the government has adopted a regulation of speech because of agreement or disagreement with the message it conveys.'" Ward v. Rock Against Racism, 491 U.S. 781, 791, 109 S.Ct. 2746, 105 L.Ed.2d 661 (1989) (quoting Clark v. Cmty. for Creative Non-Violence, 468 U.S. 288, 295, 104 S.Ct. 3065, 82 L.Ed.2d 221 (1984)). "[W]hether a statute is content neutral or content based is something that can be determined on the face of it; if the statute describes speech by content then it is content based." City of L.A. v. Alameda Books, Inc., 535 U.S. 425, 448, 122 S.Ct. 1728, 152 L.Ed.2d 670 (2002). "As a general rule, laws that by their terms distinguish favored speech from disfavored speech on the basis of the ideas or views expressed are content based." Turner Broad. Sys., Inc. v. F.C.C., 512 U.S. 622, 643, 114 S.Ct. 2445, 129 L.Ed.2d 497 (1994). Regulations requiring enforcement authorities to "necessarily examine the content of the message that is conveyed" are content-based. F.C.C. v. League of Women Voters of Cal., 468 U.S. 364, 383, 104 S.Ct. 3106, 82 L.Ed.2d 278 (1984). Content-based regulations may also be identified where they "effectively drive certain ideas or viewpoints" from the forum. Simon & Schuster, Inc. v. Members of N.Y. State Crime Victims Bd., 502 U.S. 105, 116, 112 S.Ct. 501, 116 L.Ed.2d 476 (1991). "By contrast, laws that confer benefits or impose burdens on speech without reference to the ideas or views expressed are in most instances content neutral." Turner, 512 U.S. at 643, 114 S.Ct. 2445 (citing Members of City Council of L.A. v. Taxpayers for Vincent, 466 U.S. 789, 804, 104 S.Ct. 2118, 80 L.Ed.2d 772 (1984)).

On the face of the ordinance, the restrictions at issue in the instant case are limited to "situations in which people most likely would feel a heightened sense of fear or alarm, or might wish especially to be left alone." Gresham, 225 F.3d at 906 (adding that, "[b]y limiting the ordinance's restrictions to only those certain times and places where citizens naturally would feel most insecure in their surroundings, the city has effectively limited the application of the law to what is necessary to promote its legitimate interest").7 It is important to recognize that this ordinance leaves unaffected Plaintiffs' rights "to address a willing audience," and only serves to "protect listeners from unwanted communication." Hill v. Colo., 530 U.S. 703, 716, 120 S.Ct. 2480, 147 L.Ed.2d 597 (2000). "The right to free speech ... may not be curtailed simply because the speaker's message may be offensive to his audience. But the protection afforded to offensive messages does not always embrace offensive speech that is so intrusive that the unwilling audience cannot avoid it." Id. (citing Frisby, 487 U.S. at 487, 108 S.Ct. 2495). "The unwilling listener's interest in avoiding unwanted communication has been repeatedly identified in" the Supreme Court's cases, and the Court has observed that the "`right to be let alone'" has been "characterized as `the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men.'" Id. at 716-17, 120 S.Ct. 2480 (quoting Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438, 478, 48 S.Ct. 564, 72 L.Ed. 944 (1928) (Brandeis, J., dissenting)). The ordinance here protects the captive audience, i.e., it protects one in such circumstances that one might not freely get away from the solicitor, whether that solicitor be a beggar, a busker, or a politician imploring a vote. A person seated at one of the Mall's outdoor cafés is entitled to the exclusion of importuning hands, much as one would be were one seated inside one of the Mall's restaurants; a person engaged in a business transaction at one of the vendor stations, with wallet or purse or till open, is likewise entitled to conduct that transaction free from such importunities and distraction; and a person waiting or attempting to cross one of the Mall's two vehicular crossings is entitled to proceed unimpeded.

Here, the ordinance does not distinguish between favored and disfavored solicitation, and it does not discriminate based on a solicitor's identity. The ordinance leaves open most of the Mall's "channels of communication," Perry, 460 U.S. at 45, 103 S.Ct. 948, while protecting captive audiences (of certain outdoor diners, persons transacting purchases at the outdoor vending tables, and pedestrians waiting to cross the vehicular through-points) in just a very few areas of the Mall, see, e.g., Hill, 530 U.S. at 716, 120 S.Ct. 2480. The challenged subsections are content-neutral, narrowly tailored time, place, and manner limitations on solicitation.8

V.

The ordinance is not susceptible to a vagueness challenge. Subsection (a)(5) prohibits soliciting "[f]rom or to any person seated within an outdoor café area, during the hours of operation of such outdoor café[.]" Subsection (a)(6) prohibits soliciting "[f]rom or to any person who is conducting business at any vendor table or cart[.]" Plaintiffs maintain that subsections (a)(5) and (6) are "so vague as to require that those subject to its restrictions guess at its meaning" and, because of this alleged vagueness, these subsections "give[] virtually unlimited discretion to law enforcement in enforcing the ordinance," thus "render[ing] [the ordinance] in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution."

A statute is void for vagueness where a person of "`common intelligence must necessarily guess at its meaning and differ as to its application....'" Roberts v. United States Jaycees, 468 U.S. 609, 629, 104 S.Ct. 3244, 82 L.Ed.2d 462 (1984) (quoting Connally v. Gen. Const. Co., 269 U.S. 385, 391, 46 S.Ct. 126, 70 L.Ed. 322 (1926)). However, "the Constitution does not require impossible standards; all that is required is that the language conveys sufficiently definite warning as to the proscribed conduct when measured by common understanding and practices." Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476, 491, 77 S.Ct. 1304, 1 L.Ed.2d 1498 (1957) (quotations omitted); see also U.S. Civil Serv. Comm'n v. Nat'l Ass'n of Letter Carriers, AFL-CIO, 413 U.S. 548, 578-79, 93 S.Ct. 2880, 37 L.Ed.2d 796 (1973). "[T]he void-for-vagueness doctrine requires that a penal statute define the criminal offense with sufficient definiteness that ordinary people can understand what conduct is prohibited and in a manner that does not encourage arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement." Kolender v. Lawson, 461 U.S. 352, 357, 103 S.Ct. 1855, 75 L.Ed.2d 903 (1983) (citation omitted).

When considering the ordinary meaning of the terms "[f]rom or to any person seated within an outdoor café area, during the hours of operation of such outdoor café," and "[f]rom or to any person who is conducting business at any vendor table or cart," I find that the ordinance plainly prohibits soliciting from persons dining in the outdoor cafés on Charlottesville's Downtown Mall, and from persons who are "conducting business" at the outdoor vendor stations on the Mall. "A law is not void for vagueness so long as it (1) establishes minimal guidelines to govern law enforcement and (2) gives reasonable notice of the prescribed conduct." Schleifer by Schleifer v. City of Charlottesville, 159 F.3d 843, 853 (4th Cir.1998) (quotations omitted). Charlottesville's solicitation ordinance proscribes easily identifiable conduct toward a specifically limited audience (as I have already explained, such proscription directly advances the public interest in protecting certain captive audiences), and it provides adequate guidance to law enforcement to avoid arbitrarily suppressing First Amendment liberties.9

VI.

For the reasons discussed herein, the complaint will be dismissed for Plaintiffs' failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.10