thatgirl wrote:
I called the police on a panhandler last night outside of Paradise Grocery on newark near coles. The homeless beggars have multiplied and gotten very aggressive recently. Generally I cross the street to avoid them, it has gotten so I have to cross newark back and forth 3-4 times walking from Grove to Coles, there are so many.

This particular one was a tall, somewhat skinny black man who looks like he his totally out of his head. I think he may be the same man who walked into Grove Street Bistro, walked up behind me, and put his arm around me/hand on my butt about a month ago - same out of his head look as that guy. In that previous case, I was clearly with a date and the man kept staring straight at me for the next 10 minutes at which point we left.

Last night this man stared at me non stop while was sitting on the bench outside the store and was watching where I was going. Normally I tried to ignore him but he was just super creepy and I felt like he was going to come after me. To the point where I went home, put my purse down, and went into Paradise Grocery to complain to them - I have lived there 4 years and for at least 3 they tolerate a begging bum on their doorstep - the sidewalk outside the business is the responsibility of the business owner, and if they were telling the begger to leave and calling the cops instead of letting them hang around there, they would not be there every single day. The people working in Paradise Grocery (who I know are not the owner) were trying to say there is nothing I can do. Meantime the crazy homeless man followed me into Paradise Grocery and stood there continuing to stare at me from the doorway until I started getting really mad. Then this same homeless guy asks me for money when I left at which point I screamed at him to stop f-ing staring at me. So what does he do, but continue to stare at me. It is not just the looking, that guy is whacked so far out of his head he does not even know where he is. I called the police.

The police non-emergency number said if people complain they can assign a patrol to a targeted problem spot.

Newark ave off of grove is a problem spot.
I have complained to the staff at McDonald's before telling them I am not buying anything from there because of the bums outside that live on their steps. That was a few years ago, and they said they give the bums leftover food.

Also, there is a black guy with a long beard that sits on the bench outside the bank of america on Newark near Jersey Ave. He has some mental issue and will beg for money and yell foul curses at you (and this is with just walking by/not looking at him/pretending he's not there). I had two women who I think were prostitutes harassing me for money the other night, not just 'can i have money' but going on and on so I ran across the street. Then there is the couple, the lady who lives in the shopping cart whose homeless boyfriend pushes her around. They don't usually ask for money but have moved in to the block around Helen's Pizza, they seem to live there in one particular spot at night.

The normal homeless man who is usually outside paradise deli for the last three years isn't aggressive but after three years I get tired of being begged for money by the same person on the same spot which no one ever does anything about.

They filmed Mercy the tv show at Lucky 7 a few years ago, and there were like six cops standing around doing nothing guarding that, while they ignore the beggar around the corner. Same thing when Snooki was living in town, it took six cops to stand around to guard Snooki's truck all day and all night, when those six cops walking around could remove the beggars who harass people.

Anyway I am sick and tired of the escalating homeless aggressive panhandler issue. The grafitti tags have also gotten bad. I would like to just move to a better area, but the rents have gone up a lot and it's going to be some time before I can afford to move, if ever.

In the meantime I just want to walk home in peace and safety and be left alone. I also had a different black man than all of the above, this one with dreadlocks who did not ask me for money but stared at me non-stop and followed me for four blocks regardless of my repeated turns and change in directions trying to get rid of him, he was trying to follow me home. This stuff is creeping me out. I feel like I'm going to get mugged or otherwise attacked one of these days going home, and I am not going home late. I'm talking about 6-9pm on a weekday.

And you may not think grafitti is not a big deal, but when you live in a walk-up, as in no doorman/no security, building, and you come outside in the morning and there are fresh grafitti tags on your building door, you know people were at your building messing with the door in the night. Repeatedly. Every block is covered in grafitti paint lately and the building owners aren't cleaning it. I don't know what the police can even do about that, I guess the city could fine landlords for not removing it, but that's about it. I just feel like when the landlord doesn't clean the grafitti of the building front door then that sends a signal to whoever is coming in the middle of the night to paint it that no one is watching the building and that it could be open to being broken into.