the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, it is being reported that the homeless guy has taken up shelter in front of the old Bobby Knapps store for the last week or so and is defecating and eating out of the garbage alongside the building. This same homeless person has been caught defecating in the bus station ,on the street and frequently eating out of garbage cans in town .
The Ridgewood blog has also received information that another homeless who clearly has issues with alcohol had a seizure after he fell and is now in an undisclosed ICU .
Let’s defund a few Ridgewood PD cops and replace them with social workers. Help the poor chap! … and watch another hundred homeless descend on Ridgewood to socialize with our social workers. Then defund the rest of PD and hire BLM teens to work as 100k / year social workers. Then, setup a budget for homeless in Ridgewood and introduce a dedicated property tax to fund this. That will attract BLM activists from other NJ towns… and more homeless… repeat.
Welcome to NYC!
Well obviously the guy has nowhere to go. And he’s eating out of the garbage cans because he has no money. Maybe one of the restaurants can give them some food. I’m sure they throw out a lot of food every day. Don’t we have some kind of support center in the Village of Ridgewood. Let’s help people instead of Hurt people. It’s amazing they are worrying about charging to park your car during this epidemic. People this disease is coming back they better get ready.
So lets just say he gets fed by a restaurant. Then what? Feed him a couple of times every day? Then what? If you feel so inclined to help him, drive over there, pick up up, and take him back to your house. Let him live there until he gets his life straightened out. Of course you won’t do that. It’s ll about virtue signaling and making yourself feel better with a “we should do something” comment.
Jesus was a virtue signaler!
This is nothing new. This has been going on for a few years now. There’s a few homeless people living in the village. It’s a shame. What’s amazing is how many homeless people living on with bridges just a few miles away In Patterson.
Maybe bring him to Cathy Brienza’s house…his life matters too.
Defund the RPD
Maybe he can stay at the senior citizen Lounge In Village Hall.
I offered support and he refused. He’s harmless he’s just hungry.
its great for down town business to have a guy craping on the street
the guy needs serious help
“Defund the RPD”?
YOUR neighborhood first.
Yes Catherine Brienza has plenty of space in her mega mansion
So a town full of doctors, lawyers, and leaders of business cannot figure out how to help one homeless man so he doesn’t have to shit in the street and eat out of garbage cans.
Maybe he could stay at Beth Meleski’s compound up on California since she loves black lives sooo much
This is unfortunate he probably has mental health issues. There should be at least one trained social worker in Ridgewood that can help him get to a place where he can be helped. As the situation in the country continues to decline we might end up with more homeless. Giving him a few scrapes of food and a porter potty will not help he needs more then that and no one should suggest that they take a stranger into their home. It’s just not safe.
Society is always judged on how they treat the must volnerable, some of you are in for a surprise on judgement day.
Plenty of new apartments going up in town,give him anyone he wants. What’s 3 grand a month to wealthy developer?
where is BLM on this ????
So shocked at how the anonymity of this blog draws out the hate and heartlessness in this town. Very depressing
so the guy has been wandering around the Village creating havoc for over 3 months , has been arrested several times, needs serious medial help and you never noticed him but other people are heartless ?
Hell, even Mayberry had Otis. Adds to the towns charm.
The word is “wandering”
yes, you noticed the typo but not the homeless guy ….
I agree with you PJ the righteous douche bag comments are a bit lame
Hey look in the past I have given a few individuals at the bus station blankets and coats and hot coffee, just so they can get through the night it was so damn cold. I was told to stop. The jester of it was nice , But the problem is I was enticing them to stay. Which I was not. It was bothering me I couldn’t get through the night thinking how cold it was. That’s all. I wasn’t looking to be a hero. I can only imagine to be in that position it’s got to suck. I hope I never ever find out. I will say this you drive down Maple Avenue a few miles right in the Patterson ride around downtown, tell me what you see.
if you know me you know me , if not keep it that way
Yet another thing going against the center business district revival.
First the pedestrian mall be disrupted certain days every other week by protests. Now this guy.
In addition business has to pay 100 dollars a week per curbside pick up spaces.
Before this harassing business owners by the chamber of commerce police.
Let these kids do something useful and help this homeless buy. Pick up his crap and feed him. Why are the police letting this happen?
Can’t they/he be taken to Valley for an assessment? They have to treat sick with no insurance
usually the police bring them to New Bridge(Bergen Pines) in Paramus , I believe he has been brought there several times
He’s a person – not a rodent. He obviously has medical and mental issues that require professional attention. No one is asking any of the readers here to personally help him – but there should be resources that are available to get him basic care – and we can all try to at least recognize his basic humanity.
“He’s a person – not a rodent….”
This is a truism.
If he defecates in the street (or anywhere *other* than a bathroom or designated place), then he is – by definition – breaking the law. We *must* uphold the rule of law. If he is caught doing so, then he should be arrested and charged accordingly. Otherwise, this town really will go to shit!
” but there should be resources that are available to get him basic care – and we can all try to at least recognize his basic humanity.”
Sounds suspiciously like socialism. Have the Marxists gotten to you, too?
“…recognize his basic humanity.”
I think everyone on this board recognizes his basic humanity (at least, I hope so!). As the saying goes, “There but for the grace of God go I.”
Yes, we should try to get the man some help (if he WANTS the help). If he doesn’t WANT the help, then sadly there is probably not much that can be done to remedy the situation.
We don’t know why this person is in this situation.
It’s possible that there are a few of you readers who could unwittingly be on your way to a similar existence someday.
Life happens~if you can’t show a little compassion, at least try to develop a more caring mindset.
If you think it can’t happen to you, you are wrong.
I grew up in New York City and in Ridgewood and have seen the stark contrast of both. It’s sad to see what is happening in Ridgewood. However, when you keep voting the way the people of Ridgewood vote, then you deserve everything that goes with it. The white uber liberals who live in their antiseptic lily white ivory towers want a socialist agenda, but not in their back yard. These dumb white people know nothing of the real world. Their fingers will be the first to hit 911 when the reality of the world shows up on their doorstep. They want to make the rules for everyone else, but they don’t want to get down in the dirt and play the game.
After reading in the comments how lacking our village’s residents are of sympathy and acceptance of life circumstances, I’m moving and this man can have my house. Then will you accept him when he’s no longer homeless? He didn’t choose homelessness, it’s just part of life- possibly part of your life one day. We have so many brilliant minds in town sitting idly right now because of the pandemic, and instead of brainstorming the most effective way to combat homeless, they’re on the internet shaming a man down on his luck because he dared to pick your village to settle in. Why not take it as a compliment? We have an enticing and beautifully inhabitable village but bigotry and racism detract from that substantially. Values are more than just the price put on your house.
the man need serious help i am not sure how romanticizing it is going to help , he is currently a danger to himself and residents and btw where are the BLM people , here is a black life does it matter ???
Gladys – Well said. Thank you.
Mine, and hopefully the other, comment about him being taken in by one of our local activists was of course a metaphor. Since you clearly didn’t get it…instead of encouraging others to march/protest/whatever to SYMBOLIZE helping people, perhaps Cathy and Beth could be ACTUALLY helping this person.
Lets build him a huge concrete garage
I agree with James. Rallies be damned. Help improve the life of this one black man. This would make a serious meaningful impact, more than marching around and shouting. Catherine Brienza? Jeanne Thiesen ? Laurence Fine? Come on you talk the talk now walk the walk.
Wow, all the cowardice anonymous posters🙄 Pathetic. My Husband and I will try and find this man tomorrow to help. Shame on you who have made such nasty comments. And yet you can’t post your name, cowards.
let us know how it works out
Is the guy a drug user and does he have alcohol dependency? I think we need to answer these to questions first. If “yes” to either, then the first “help” should be solving those issues. Then, we can consider “helping” in other ways…
Either way, it’s a bag look for the town to have a guy splayed out on a bench in front of a vacant store. Just saw him a about an hour ago…
As several posters said, “We’ve offered help. He doesn’t want it.” It is against the law to commit anyone involuntarily unless he/she is a danger to him/herself or to others. Some people are so disturbed that they just want to be left alone. He’s not standing in the street begging, is he? When it gets hotter, or colder, he may decide he can use some help and will accept it then. It is also against the law to publicly urinate or defectate. We could legally have him picked up, and then what? The United States has lots of agencies designed to help people such as this. But they have to be willing to take the help. There used to be a drop in center, run privately by donations, to help mentally disturbed people with no questions asked in Hackensack. They lost their lease–but they couldn’t have helped this man. Homeless shelters will take him for a month unless he is an addict or is constantly drunk. There are actually some small shelters for those people. He is probably a result of NJ choosing to close psychiatric hospitals and throw their residents onto the public for assistance. I well know that I am not offering any solution to his presence. In reality, with the law the way it is, there is no solution. He most likely was living on the streets in another community and was literally picked up and dumped here. Someone mentioned that the “Black Lives Matter” group could take a real Black and, with much constant effort and concern be able to help him understand that he needs help and find help for him. That would certainly be a more fruitful use of their time than blocking streets and traffic and expecting everyone else in the world “to see it their way.” But, this group seems to be interested in making noise and proving that their “rights” can do away with others rights as they –think, not know, as they assume–that they are “educated” “with it” etc. What was the quote about nothing is achieved if it is only sought “through sound and fury”? That does seem to be all that they are capable of doing. They are young, yes, and the young always know what is best for the world until they are forced to quit living “in the world as they want it” and accept “the world that really exists today”.
‘Someone mentioned that the “Black Lives Matter” group could take a real Black and, with much constant effort and concern be able to help him understand that he needs help and find help for him. That would certainly be a more fruitful use of their time than blocking streets and traffic and expecting everyone else in the world “to see it their way.”’
Yes!
To the young anarchists (sorry, I mean “demonstrators”) in Ridgewood: take this man into your home and help to rehabilitate him. What’s that you say? You can’t do it. Well, then, you’re all fu$king hypocrites! Trouble-making, liberal, punk losers… all of you! You will amount to NOTHING!
Taking such a man into your home is both dangerous and possibly hazardous. Some, who are merely down on their luck, can be helped but the untrained should never take in anyone with a true mental condition. This man obviously has a mental problem. The Police can keep taking him to Bergen Pines, but he can’t be kept there unless he agrees to treatment. One of the “Defund the Police” suggestions is to keep a specially trained social worker on staff who can be called to go with a police officer to try to defuse this situation. Most officers, however, have been trained to deal with this themselves and, in Ridgewood at least, that would probably be a duplication of services.