Here are a couple of updates from local businesses.
West Philly acupuncture fans rejoice: after a few delays and setbacks West Philly Community Acupuncture is finally opening its doors at 4636 Woodland Ave on Tuesday, Feb. 25, according to owner Sarah Lefkowich. “It’s so exciting to be finally accepting appointments,” Lefkowich told West Philly Local via e-mail.
A $10 treatment special we told you about earlier is now from Feb. 25 until March 25 and you can schedule it online at www.
In other news, West Philly’s popular coffee shop, Green Line Cafe, has started accepting credit cards at their Baltimore Avenue location. The news prompted some lively discussion on Twitter:
Cash only NO MORE at Baltimore Ave. Bring yr cards! @westphillylocal http://t.co/0Cf7StCXLa
— Green Line Cafe (@GreenLineCafe) February 21, 2014
@WestPhillyLocal @GreenLineCafe woohoo! Welcome to the 20th century everyone, it’s gonna be awesome!
— kyle cassidy (@kylecassidy) February 21, 2014
@kylecassidy @WestPhillyLocal … ’bout time…we know! 🙂
— Green Line Cafe (@GreenLineCafe) February 21, 2014
If you want to leave a tip, there’s an option of cash or credit card, so no worries.
February 21st, 2014 at 8:46 pm
Bravo!!
February 22nd, 2014 at 7:42 am
Woohoo! Now I can buy allllllll the ice cream.
February 22nd, 2014 at 8:07 pm
When will the Green Line Locust stop encouraging Omar to hang around harassing people on the street?
February 27th, 2014 at 2:11 pm
‘guest’, is Green Line Locust the USSR now? Do they have a gulag for people in the community whom you don’t like? They are a coffee shop. This is America. Omar lives here. Move back to Iowa if you don’t like him so much.
February 28th, 2014 at 8:47 am
thank you Steve for being a good neighbor.
February 28th, 2014 at 3:45 pm
Omar does not live here. He visits. But that’s irrelevant. The fact of the matter is, he’s for the most part a very nice guy, but he has a terrible drinking problem and is often not in any kind of state to be frequenting a coffee shop. It’s not too much for the Green Line to ask him leave.
March 1st, 2014 at 9:25 pm
or….go to one of the other many coffee shops in the area. in a community(neighborhood) there are gonna be people you dont like,agree with, or want to be around. thats a part of being in a community. thats a part of diversity. yes he has issues. yes he should have help for these issues. there arent great resources for people without alot of money to get help. im sure you and i also have issues. things about ourselves that other people dont like and have to deal with. deal with it. he’s harmless. this conversation changes when some is violent or threatening both of which omar is not. he’s actually pretty funny and witty if you can bare to stop and listen to him ramble for a minute.
March 3rd, 2014 at 9:36 am
It’s eye opening that Omar’s enablers think that it’s okay to encourage him to harass people constantly on the street since they think of it as celebrating diversity. It explains why he’s still welcome here.
When he’s not hanging out inside the Green Line, he seems to spend most of his time harassing people on the street. It seems like his most frequent targets are women. I doubt you would tolerate this stuff from anyone else, but because you find him funny and witty, you are okay with him shouting obscenities and making fake gun gestures at people who walk by.
Many of those people happen to be Green Line customers, and it’s very strange that the Green Line would continue to encourage Omar to harass their customers and the people who share their community.
March 3rd, 2014 at 9:13 pm
So, since there can’t be two people at 45/Locust vic. fitting that
general description, I assume I know who omar is and can confirm if so
a) he’s basically a nice guy and 2) he has no business putting his drama
in your face. He’s been there forever it seems, and we get along ok on
the street, but he knows to give me space. It’s partially the vibe you
put out, still no one should have to crack his secret code in order
to pass by unmolested.
March 4th, 2014 at 3:17 pm
I don’t think Green Line necessarily “encourages” Omar to hang out and harass people. He’s not even allowed in the Baltimore Ave. store, I’ve seen him get turned around promptly by staff upon walking through the door. I suspect the Locust st. location is more lenient since the one or two people on staff there can’t really be expected to run a busy coffee shop while babysitting him at all times. Even if they did go out and shoo him away every time he started getting wound up, he would likely just cross the street and continue his antics somewhere nearby.
The thing to keep in mind with people like Omar is that he is looking for attention, if you ignore him he will get bored and leave you alone. He seems to have been in the neighborhood longer than most of the people who either complain about or indulge him, and unless he does something worthy of getting locked up, he probably won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.
March 4th, 2014 at 10:44 pm
I was in there recently and he was fine. When I spoke to the people that run the place, they indicated they put him out if he starts to bother anyone. So, if he is bothering you, let them know. When he is on the street – you can walk the other way if he is that much of a problem. Watching out for neighbors, especially ones with problems, makes me feel proud to live in West Philly – and not center city where they would throw him out. Take a pause – none of us are that far from falling.
March 5th, 2014 at 6:24 pm
I’m glad you all don’t seem to have encountered Violent Omar. I have. He threw a lit cigarette at my face and called me a “cunt” as he spat at me. I’m not interested in his antics. Since that day, he yells and shoots fake guns at me. What a guy.
March 5th, 2014 at 6:38 pm
Cue more victim blaming and there but for the grace of god type stuff:
March 5th, 2014 at 7:38 pm
Yeah, let’s not go overboard with the so-called”compassion” — if for no
other reason than it’s patronizing and assumes that obtrusive people are too “troubled” to be expected to maintain self-discipline and respect
for others.
I don’t consider it a valid expectation that anyone should feel compelled to “walk the other way” as a response to someone else’s
improper behavior. When that behavior reaches the point described
by Oy Vey it takes the situation to another level called zero tolerance
or something close.
Watching out for neighbors with problems is great — that should include neighbors whose problem is being randomly chosen by someone on the street to take out his issues on.
March 5th, 2014 at 10:42 pm
I would much rather have Omar at Green Line than the crying babies and assorted toddlers that usually infest it.
March 6th, 2014 at 10:33 am
OK. I’ll jump on the troll bait. If you’d rather hang out with drunks than toddlers, then you go to a bar, not a cafe in a neighborhood that’s brimming with toddlers. Besides, Omar loves toddlers. He and my little guy are buds. You should see the way Omar’s face lights up when we wonder into the Green Line together.
The bottom line here is, bad behavior is bad behavior no matter who it’s coming from. It does no good to tolerate bad behavior from people with substance abuse issues, especially people we care about. He’s not a clown or a cartoon character, he’s a human being with a serious self-destructive streak and, yes, an often confrontational and sometimes violent streak as well. If you care about the guy, you’re not doing him any favors by shrugging this stuff off.
March 6th, 2014 at 3:11 pm
Locust Street:
I agree that humoring/encouraging him does nothing to help him. You reference in an earlier post that he lives elsewhere and visits. I always kind of assumed he was homeless. So he has a place to lay his head and is able to get himself back and forth?
March 7th, 2014 at 8:12 pm
There are quite a few local characters who capitalize on the “homeless”
stereotype to engage in parasitic and anti-social activity. Their headquarters seems to be the 45th/Baltimore Sunoco, where a new batch of lowlife con artists(who have homes)emerges every few weeks to harass
and guilt-trip people who just want to fill their tank and grab a bottle
of milk or whatever, or to offer “help” with the gas pump. Generally these are drunks or druggies of some sort; at times they will be openly drinking while bumming money with the other hand.
Outrageously and to the detriment of the neighborhood, there are always those who think they are expressing compassion by handing out change, thus assuring the person will return. They remind me of people who go to church on Sunday to get their religious time in so they can be oblivious to humanity the rest of the week. But the joke is on them;
their assumptions about what homeless people look like (i.e. derelicts) end with their being essentially ripped off by those who will take their money, even express enormous gratitude, then snicker on their way to the bar at what suckers people are.
March 8th, 2014 at 12:12 pm
Butch at Sunoco isn’t homeless though he is straight up mentally-ill and does need help. Believe me I’ve called the right numbers. It’s a difficult situation.
March 10th, 2014 at 10:55 pm
Watchcat’s 2nd paragraph is dead on. I wish that more people realized the truth in those words. From the bit about compassion to the beggars snickering on the way to the bar. All truth.
March 11th, 2014 at 12:45 pm
Omar is an extremely intrusive character; sometimes ignoring him doesn’t work. Every time I see him I experience a wave of mild anxiety. However, I wholeheartedly agree with W.L. Omar > toddlers any day.
March 11th, 2014 at 12:51 pm
I also agree with guest. Omar enablers think they’re being multicultural. Dumb hipsters.
March 11th, 2014 at 5:45 pm
Agree with Locust Street. If you prefer an alcoholic/mentally-ill man who shouts obsentities and harrasses people on the street to children and toddlers, I suggest you move elsewhere and not frequent businesses within a 2-block radius of a popular elementary school or across the street from a lovely park. I am sure there are plenty of neighborhoods that are not so family-friendly that would welcome you.
March 11th, 2014 at 11:56 pm
I suggest you breeders take a few breaths and reevaluate your plebeian little lives 🙂
March 12th, 2014 at 10:44 am
I would encourage those of you who don’t see Omar as a threat to try to put yourselves into the shoes of someone who does. I have lived here for 20 years, and I have never been afraid to live alone, and walk alone, in a city. I have been allover the world, actually. But there is something about Omar that really, genuinely frightens me. I can honestly say no one has ever made me that scared in all of my time here. Whether it be from things I have seen him do or say, or things that have happened to me in my past, or some combination of the 2, I assure you that I find him very scary. You may find him charming or harmless or troubled-but-not-threatening, but others feel the opposite. I’m not trying to convince you to change your minds, or invalidating your feelings; I would ask you to do the same with me. The other side of the coin is also true. Some day Omar is going to pull this with the wrong crowd–people who don’t know him and don’t know that he isn’t going to attack them or ‘disrespect’ them. And someone may pull out a gun. And then we’ll all lose.
March 12th, 2014 at 12:48 pm
Omar once showed up at an art show and started tagging people’s art on the walls. That is not okay. There is no situation when that is okay. What’s worse is there were people, similar to ones on these posts here, who encouraged it and thought it was fantastic. I agree with Christina. When you encourage actions like that, don’t be surprised when the reaction from another is violence, and be proud of yourself for inciting it with your positive reinforcement.
March 12th, 2014 at 2:51 pm
Sorry for the bitchiness — I totally agree!! I see Omar as a threat as well.