Who is that Guy with the Dog?

By on January 13, 2007 3:56 pm in Brooklyn Heights

bichon.jpgYou know who we’re talking about — the portly older gent who walks his tiny white dog (perhaps a bichon similar to the one in the picture) around Clark Street and chastises people for “not knowing how to walk down the street around a dog.”  Has he scolded you lately? Who is he? What’s up with that?

17 Responses to Who is that Guy with the Dog?

  1. C January 14, 2007 at 4:19 pm #

    I can’t believe I’ve never encountered this guy. Hopefully someone has, I want to hear more.

  2. Mr.Bingo January 15, 2007 at 12:20 am #

    I have also seen him scolding his own dog for not walking well on the sidewalk. He takes as well as he gives I guess.

  3. anonymous January 15, 2007 at 2:06 am #

    I have been yelled at by that guy several times. He yelled at me once for passing him on the sidewalk and once for running around him, while I was jogging. I have also seen him yelling at others. I think its a miracle that someone could yell at people all day and not get himself hurt.

  4. Arthur Torres January 15, 2007 at 3:56 am #

    Is he angry about something or just nuts?

  5. anonymous2 January 15, 2007 at 1:11 pm #

    Is this the same guy who yells at you for walking on the wrong side of the sidewalk? I’ve passed that guy (incorrectly, apparently) in front of Fascati twice. He’s a charmer.

  6. jen January 15, 2007 at 6:26 pm #

    He seems to be a bit nuts. Thank you for posting this because I have been on the lookout for him (I don’t like getting yelled at) and I was well behind him when he yelled at two groups of people. One for stopping a car in front of the church on Orange St and the other group for “charging in front of a red light.” There is no light on Orange and Hicks so not sure what he was talking about there. The dog seems happy enough though! Waggy tail and all.

  7. anonymous 3 January 15, 2007 at 8:17 pm #

    I’m thinking this is the same guy who yells at runners on the promenade. He’s interrupted my run a number of times by yelling at me to stop being selfish and do something for someone else. I find this especially humorous when I’m wearing t-shirts from charity races I’ve run.

  8. frelkins January 15, 2007 at 9:52 pm #

    one of the great things about nyc is that we pay huge taxes for social services for the elderly and mentally confused.

    if you think this person is fading into alzheimer’s or something, maybe schizophrenic, perhaps we ought to find out more about him and make sure he is receiving the appropriate social services.

    i myself have run several times into a confused elderly lady on clinton street, but when i ask her where she lives, she doesn’t appear to be able to tell me. about 2 months ago i last saw her near the rite aid muttering “help me help me.” she doesn’t appear to be homeless, however, but may have slipped away from her senior day care.

    the next time i see her i am marching her into the rite aid and calling social services to make sure she has support. we can’t abandon the elderly in our nabe if they need medical help or a case worker. this is one thing that makes bklyn different than manhattan, i hope!

  9. Homer Fink January 15, 2007 at 10:00 pm #

    Well said Frelkins, well said.

  10. Anonymous P January 15, 2007 at 11:07 pm #

    I see that guy all the time on Hicks/Clark Street. And everytime he snipes at me, I give it right back…..usually in the form of a hearty “oh, shut the flup up” as I pass on by. And then he continues to bicker as I walk away.

    Cute dog, though.

    Isn’t this why we all moved here from the midwest? To wallow in the aura of anonymous Crazy Folk everywhere we go?

  11. spm January 23, 2007 at 2:38 pm #

    I encountered him riding a bicycle ON the sidewalk with his dog trotting along beside him. He was going slowly and I was there with my neighbor and both of us had our dogs with us. He yelled “Beep, beep – move or I’ll run over your dogs!” I yelled back “You’re not supposed to be riding your bike on the sidewalk” he “Beep-beeped” again about running over the dogs and said “Who says I can’t ride on the sidewalk?” and I said “The law says!” He just kept cycling along with that poor little dog with him. I wouldn’t have remarked on it but I had read in this the blog about him. Crazy and nasty does not make for good neighbors.

  12. Nettie Moore January 23, 2007 at 7:14 pm #

    A friend sent me this link because I complain so much about this man yelling at me. dog is a king charles spaniel, I believe. Its owner has been harassing me for over 2 years; I run every day on the Promenade. The man has become increasingly disheveled and disturbed in the last year. He has begun to yell at the dog, which is worse than yelling at us.
    Brooklyn Heights, by the way, is not a suburb. Well, it used to be a neighborhood but I suppose now you are welcome to call it what you want. As a third generation native of Brooklyn and a 40 year resident of the Heights, I and my family knew all was lost as far back as when Starbucks opened on Montague Street. All the revolution that’s in the air now is heated discussions about strollers, private nursery schools, and summer timeshares. We have actually begun to feel that the brainwashed Jehovah’s Witnesses are a last bastion of, er, *authenticity* in poor Bklyn Hgts. Yuppies, it’s all yours. All we ask is to please keep it clean.

  13. Qfwfq January 23, 2007 at 7:59 pm #

    Though it may not be in the same vein as modern suburbs we are all used to nowadays (Levittown was probably the first of those) Brooklyn Heights is considered by historians as America’s first suburb. A brief overview of its history can be found here:
    http://www.southbrooklyn.net/b_heights.html

  14. Nettie Moore January 24, 2007 at 7:12 am #

    I’m sorry, yes of course the term is historically accurate, and formerly amusing: that the connotations of *surburb*– homogeneity and standardization, and stimulation sacrificed for domestic security– would apply here. Yes, this is why all of you moved here from the Midwest.
    If you are interested in anything relating to NY history, the urban historian Francis Morrone is about the best source we have. He has a website and gives classes and walking tours all year long.

  15. Homer Fink January 24, 2007 at 8:41 am #

    Morrone rocks.

    As for “from the Midwest” — I’m from Queens originally. Poppa Fink from Brooklyn, then Queens, his Poppa from the east side. Mama Fink from Queens and Manhattan.

    Dylan is from Minnesota.

  16. spm January 24, 2007 at 9:52 am #

    In response to Nettie – that dog is not a cavalier king charles spaniel – that’s ANOTHER crazy man who has that dog. I haven’t seen him yell – either at people or at the dog, but the dog (and the man) is looking mangier and mangier by the day. The one who we are all writing back is a more elderly gentleman – nto that disheveled looking to my eyes.

  17. Tim N. January 24, 2007 at 10:14 am #

    Nettie seems a little dissheveled herself, but I know what she’s talking about regarding the guy with the dog. He is a very unpleasant person and obviously disturbed in some way. I passed him on the street once while walking his dog, said “excuse me” as I passed, and was prompty cursed out for the remainder of the block… for walking by him, for speaking to him, for taking up too much space, for whatever other complaint he could pin on me. When I’m with my daughter I cross the street when I see him around. Poor fellow… wonder if we’ll all end up like that…