Redmond Park neighbors ‘take back’ park for kids

Saturday night as the sun went down, Redmond Park looked idyllic.

Robins darted on the trim green lawn, a girl swung on the monkey bars, four boys tossed a football and a part-time city worker wandered with a bucket, picking up what little trash lay on the ground.

People who live around the park say it can change for the worse in a moment, though. Park Avenue can turn into an unwelcome block party thrown by a loud, young, drinking and drug-dealing crowd that blasts window-rattling music from car stereos and leaves a trail of garbage on the ground.

So they're taking back their park.

“It's a perennial problem in the spring. Every year, we have to stake out the claim for the kids,” said Russ Oviatt, who lives nearby. “It gets to the point where, some nights, it's not an inviting park for the kids to come and play. It gets so heavily populated with the upper teens and early-20s crowd.”

Things came to a head on Good Friday, April 2. Park Avenue filled with cars; there was public urination, drinking and probably drug-dealing. When the crowds went away, they left behind a park littered with empty beer cans, little plastic bags lined with green dollar signs, diapers, rotting food and even discarded condoms.

CBS2 ran a story on the garbage problem April 2, and neighbors asked police for more attention on the public space. So far, things have been better. Cool, breezy nights this past weekend helped.

“It's because we've been doing a lot of calling,” said Chris Browne, who lives nearby. “The police have been really good about coming by lately.”

Oviatt, a former president of the Wellington Heights Neighborhood Association, helped lead a campaign to “take back” the park in 2002. He has two grandchildren and likes to take them to the playground. He has been visiting the park almost every night this spring.

Oviatt takes his dog to the park and sits with his cell phone on his leg, as if he's ready to call the police at the slightest provocation. He believes it helps keep troublemakers away. In other words, to keep trouble out, neighbors have to fill the space themselves.

“There were a few guys that came sniffing around,” Oviatt said. “Over the course of this last week, it feels like it's slowed down considerably.”

Browne said he and his neighbors - and police - have to stay on top of it, otherwise the crowds will return. As long as people visiting the park know that neighbors will quickly call police and that police will quickly respond, the park stays calm, he said.

“A passive attitude is going to send the message of tolerance,” Browne said, “and we don't want to send that message.”