OP here - my deep in thought, if some of you must know, was probably just me walking home thinking about what to make for dinner and what ingredients I need to pick up along the way. I think that's a pretty normal thing to do, no? Regardless of whether i was concentrating on what's in front of me or not, I don't believe this encounter could've been prevented. Seeing a homeless person walk toward my direction in the street does not automatically make me think this person will cause me harm and run the opposite direction. I refuse to keep crossing the street to avoid homeless people in fear that they may be dangerous or unstable either. Otherwise, I'd be zig-zagging Newark Ave the entire way home!

As to if this person is the "Gordon's Fisherman" or not and whether he is mentally ill or not, I do not know (he was not wearing a heavy coat nor carrying a shopping basket). I can only assume that he was a belligerent old man, who seem prone to violence and may very well be the type that imbibes heavily as well.

I posted my experience on JCList partly because I wanted to start an open dialogue (or apparently, re-address this problem) on the disturbing amount of homeless people in the area and how everyday citizens are affected by some of their aggressive behaviors. I believe change starts with at least admitting and discussing the problem. Change will never take place if you tell people to just accept the status quo or move elsewhere. I really don't understand the attitude of some of the posters here. I do however, thank those that understand and sympathize with what i was trying to convey. As one poster mentioned, there is a disturbing "blame the victim" attitude going on here and I really am disheartened by those responses.

I feel like some people here don't realize that not every post on this forum needs to be answered by them. If you don't have something constructive to contribute than I'm not sure why you're bothering to answer. I lived in cities all my life, so not sure where this holier than though attitude comes from on suburbs vs. cities and how they have so much more "street smarts" than everyone else.

Really?! So the problem is with me, that I should pay more attention when someone walks right up to me in the middle of the day to harass me and refused to let me walk by, almost grabbing at me? Hmm...thanks for the advice of accepting the problems in the city as it is and work on myself instead.

I had a disturbing experience with a homeless man walking down Newark Ave (Ward E) this afternoon. The person in question from what I can remember, is a 5ft 5" white male, around 60-ish years old with short cropped gray hair. I think his eyes may be blue or grey. He walked right up to my face and asked for spare change. I was deep in thought so didn't notice him until he was right in front of me. I said sorry and tried to walk by, but he wouldn't let me through. I tried dodging left and then right as he followed me at each direction I took, continuously asking for money, so I finally told him to get out of my way. He then turned belligerent and started cursing at me. I was finally able to walk past him as he continued to curse and then actually spat at me. Luckily I was a safe range away from his spit. I was afraid at first when he wouldn't let me walk past him. He was so close and aggressive that I thought he was going to grab me at any moment.

Not sure if anyone else has experienced something similar with this homeless person or others. There are usually homeless people hanging around Newark Ave and I have wondered before if they were ever aggressive. This proves to me that safety may indeed be an issue.

Hubby and I stopped by a couple weeks ago on a nice, sunny day and asked if we can sit outside. They told us, sure. We proceeded to sit and wait outside for service for at least half an hour. No one came out to greet us with water or menus. We finally decided to just get up and leave. The staff was definitely indifferent. Perhaps they thought we were asking them if we can just sit down to rest? It was definitely a baffling experience.

Really?! My experience with them has been extremely underwhelming - ordered a grilled chicken sandwich and the chicken was tasteless and extremely dry. Should've known when they were reheating the already dry looking chicken breasts on the grill too. My husband ordered some other sandwich which was better, but not memorable. I tried them out due to the great reviews online, which lead me to question the validity of what was written. To each their own I guess...