guy in powderhouse

[jd-science.livejournal.com]

does anyone know anything about the guy who hangs out in powderhouse circle, talking to passersby and yelling a lot? i think his name might be mike. i can rarely understand him - sometimes he's aggressive and nice, sometimes he's aggressive and scary. he seems fairly harmless, but i wonder where he sleeps and how he eats, and generally what his story is.

Comments

[joifulgurl.livejournal.com]

aw, i like this guy. i talk to him whenever i pass by, and holler a hello when i ride by on my bike. i'd like to know his story, too.

[georgy.livejournal.com]

His name is Mike, and I think he lives in the halfway house on Broadway between Powderhouse and Ball Squares, though I don't know for sure.

[cthulhia]

he scares the crap out of me when I'm out running/jogging.

I've never seen the aggressive/nice combo.

[racerboy339.livejournal.com]

He lives in a group home around Powderhouse. If you are riding your bike by him, throw up the peace sign, thats his thing for some reason or another.

[snowwand.livejournal.com]

I've seen him grabbing at people's arms and he has followed us across the crosswalk.

He lives in a group home in the circle apparently. I do not like him.

[anotherjen.livejournal.com]

I've only seen him yelling very angrily. I've never seen him being nice either.

[nowalmart.livejournal.com]

There were some discussions about him about a year ago in this community (definitely not knocking you for not finding them, rather just suggesting that if you want to know more, you might check back about a year to a year and a half ago).

He apparently is mostly interested in bumming a cigarette. As someone who spent a few months catching the bus at the Powderhouse Sq. busstop, I never quite knew what to make of him.

[nowalmart.livejournal.com]

Found one. (http://community.livejournal.com/davis_square/394268.html)

A little earlier than I had remembered, but...

[aspasia02.livejournal.com]

I'm pleased to hear that the consensus is that he's generally harmless, because he didn't come off that way when I first saw him. My friend and I were having breakfast at the Broken Yolk this summer and Mike was walking around, yelling at women. Unsettling, but only got worse when we realized that his fly was open, no underwear was in sight, and.... yeah. Interesting morning.

[maelithil.livejournal.com]

I bike through Powderhouse to get to class, and everytime I notice him it's because he's yelling angrily at either a) me, b) passing cars, c) patrons of the Broken Yolk, d) the flying spaghetti monster in the sky.

[jd-science.livejournal.com]

he was nice to me when i was out with my dog. came up and petted the dog, saying "good dog," yelled about some things while i nodded, then said "god bless you" and walked away.

[vanguardcdk.livejournal.com]

Usually he's harmless (if annoying). But I've seen him cross through a busy intersection to bother somebody, completely ignoring the cars that were there.

And tonight I found out he actually followed my roommate home. She had to tell him to go away in front of our building. Thankfully he did, bellowing as he went.
That's more than a little worrying.

[jd-science.livejournal.com]

thanks for the link. fills in the blanks a little.

[kalliejenn2.livejournal.com]

he's tried to follow me home a few times, too, but i outran him. i dodge him whenever i can.

[elusiveat.livejournal.com]

My perception is that he is very frustrated by the difficulties he has in communicating. He is lonely, and approaches people, but his behavior makes them uncomfortable (it's certainly made me uncomfortable at times) and so they look away, or ignore him. This gets him agitated and/or angry. If he pays attention to me, I make a point of smiling, and sometimes flash him a "peace sign," and he doesn't give me too much trouble.

[gildersleeve.livejournal.com]

He is relatively harmless, but very frightening if you have never witnessed his schtick. If you are very firm and loud with him once or twice, I have found he will give up. Usually I just yell "Hey, I don't want to hear from you - leave me be" in a forceful voice and he moves along. Sometimes it takes a little bit of crazy right back at him to make him move on. He seems to have some vaguely religious things to say - but woe is the poor person who actually gets sucked into listening for more than a minute.

Lately he has been in Davis (in front of the Holland T station) more often than Powderhouse circle.

[vanguardcdk.livejournal.com]

I think sometimes he gets in a vicious circle:
1. he's lonely and wants to communicate but has problems and scares people,
2. then he gets angry becuase nobody will talk to him so he gets louder and harder to understand
3. this just scares people more and he gets avoided more
4. he gets angrier/more frustrated becuase nobody will talk to him

Cycle repeats...

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Yup (I'm CDK's roommate). This was the first time Mike followed me anywhere, or followed anyone, as far as I've observed. He wanted a cigarette very badly, but I didn't have any with me since I was just going one block to White Hen and back.

This was also the first time I'd thought I'd been wrong about his being deaf, which I'd presumed for years. Tonight when he'd followed me to our front steps bellowing for cigarettes I said with my back turned to him "leave me alone," and he cursed me and left without further ado.

[elusiveat.livejournal.com]

I agree. Since he doesn't have the tools to step back, understand the cycle, and mediate his actions, it's sort of up to the rest of us to decide how to deal with it. Just smiling at him as you pass can be an important step toward decelerating the circle.

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

Ah, it makes sense that that's where he lives -- it was right near your house that he walked out in front of my car and I (and the car next to me) had to screech to a halt.

That scared me a hell of a lot more than all the times he's yelled at me, and not because those weren't scary too.

[salo777.livejournal.com]

I call him The Bellower, and my feeling is the character shouldn't be walking around outside unsupervised.

It comes as an unpleasant jolt to say the least each time this large man appears charging directly toward me out of nowhere in full bellow mode.

I've learned to walk fast and ignore. I feel sorry for the people who make the mistake of stopping.

I've never heard what he's saying but others have made out "kill me" or "I'm going to die."

I've also been followed for short distances.

It's nothing I can't shrug off myself, but I feel like it impacts the neighborhood as a whole. For instance who wants to spend a nice Spring day in the park by Powderhouse if The Bellower is hanging around there.

I can't quite be bothered to get up in arms. but if say, I had kids, I'm pretty sure I'd be doing everything I can think of to get the guy off the street and back into the hands of the halfway house, or whoever is supposed to be in charge of him.

[bridgesyoucross.livejournal.com]

he scares the hell out of me. my pity for him is totally outweighed by intimidation, even though you guys all basically make him sound harmless.

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

agreed. while he's never actually done anything to me, he did follow me and my family several blocks, yelling at us, and only let up when we ducked into the cvs. another time i was sitting on my porch reading, and he came right up to the porch steps and started yelling at me that i was going to hell. he made me afraid to sit on my own porch. i'd like to think i could sit there without being approached, yelled at, and physically intimidated.

it's all fine and dandy to say just yell back at him, or stand up to him, or whatever, but honestly, he's a large man, and i'm a small woman, and i'm rather afraid to do anything that might make him angrier.

[curiositykt.livejournal.com]

I was wondering where he had been.. I was hoping it was further away..

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I don't understand why he's not getting more supervision. Someone is obviously making sure he has clean clothes, but that's about it. He seems to be left to his own devices from morning til late night every day.

Screamin' Mike

[whitefire.livejournal.com]

I've found that Screamin' Mike is pretty easy to avoid. He has a very small territory that he lurks in and since he is so loud you can usually hear him from far away and take evasive action if you are so inclined. Or you can just carry some smokes with you. Cigarettes are like wolfsbane to him.

Re: Screamin' Mike

[billharnois.livejournal.com]

I disagree. He lurks pretty much everywhere at Powderhouse/Ball Sq. He was really aggressive with me last night, yelling as I walked past the Broken Yolk all the way to Tu-Y-Yo.

I finally got/gave the signature peace sign, which seemed to please him. I feel bad for the guy, but he's really annoying and intimidating. He makes me want to avoid the area altogether.

I think "Crazy Mike" is his official name.

[chumbolly.livejournal.com]

I may be mistaken, but I think Crazy Mike goes into Sound Bites a fair bit and the owner gives him free coffee. Imagine the birth of that relationship....

I once came across Crazy Mike, maybe ten minutes after he cheerfully came into Sound Bites to get some joe, sobbing in the rain like he'd lost everything in the world. He's a hard case.

[watchamacallit.livejournal.com]

I can't stand that guy. Because of him I'm scared to wait for the bus in Powderhouse Square or even walk by there at night.

[righteousness-1.livejournal.com]

The people who are scared of this individual need to call the police.

Being a resident of a half way house or having a name like 'crazy mike' does not entitle him to act in a manner that would have the rest of us arrested.

[tt02144.livejournal.com]

I think it's very sad that people like this aren't getting the help they obviously need. There is almost certainly some form of mental illness involved, perhaps drug use also. Dukakis' program of 'de-institutionalizing' people in state hospitals has created situations like this one. He should probably be hospitalized, but because of our government policies he's left dangling in a 'halfway house' with little or no supervision over his behavior, medications, etc. It's very sad because he could possibly function better with more help.

[anotherjen.livejournal.com]

Good idea. I'll try to be friendlier next time I encounter him.

Head Trauma

[cvs-is-king.livejournal.com]

He had an injury that caused trauma to his brain. He is not who he was.

"The Ambassador"

[by-lime.livejournal.com]

That's what my husband and I like to call him. We usually know we're safe when he's got a smoke, but he has on at least two occasions harassed us. He's unrelenting if he catches you on the sidewalk and you happen to be walking the same direction. He'll speed up or slow down with you as you're walking and he doesn't always respond to clear, firm statements to move away. That's what is particularly distressing. I've often thought about going to speak to someone at his boarding house. The next time he harasses me though I plan to call the police. Perhaps if they get enough calls something will change.

Re: "The Ambassador"

[kelly-lesbo.livejournal.com]

I've never seen him, but I tend to walk quickly past any unsavoury characters hanging around. I still find it weird that there are so many beggars/botherers in Davis Square because it otherwise has such a pleasant market town square feel. When I lived in London it didn't really unnerve me because I was always in "beggar alert" mode. I don't mean to sound mean or uncaring, but these people need proper taking care of, not left to terrify or annoy pedestrians.

[tt02144.livejournal.com]

Any area that is a gathering spot, or a passing-through spot, for large groups of people, many who have money to spend, and which is also served by the T, will attract lots of characters. One of the types it will most certainly attract are beggars, street people, whatever you choose to call them. Deal or no deal.

[mihmo.livejournal.com]

I've walked past this guy once before in front of the Powderhouse circle bus stop and he demanded a dollar and I kept walking on and he moved on to pursue another passerby.

What is annoying though is that I hear him when I'm in my apartment, even with all my windows shut, and the stereo turned up o_O