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Articles
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| Resident brood over Spielberg Park crime |
VOICE writes, "By Jezerey Weiderman
Residents who live near the triangular Spielberg Park at the corner of 17th Street and Massachusetts Avenue SE continue to worry that crime in the park and surrounding alleys, particularly drug dealing, is destroying the family-friendly atmosphere in the Hill East neighborhood.
A neighbor whose house faces the park recently said she witnesses illegal activity in and around the park daily. She often finds discarded drug bags and dozens of beer cans in the park.
“The funny thing is, the drinking has almost become OK. We’ll take the drinking over the drugs because it’s the lesser of two evils,” she said.
Though her house looks out on the park, she often chooses to walk an extra half-mile to Lincoln Park with her children. She believes the park’s benches need to be removed, more lighting installed and that police should institute a regular beat around the park.
Keith Erickson, who lives around the corner from the park, said that although he would like the crime to end, he recognizes some of the problems are inevitable in an urban setting. To avoid drug dealing in your neighborhood, “you live in Bethesda in a high-rise,” he said. "
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Erickson said he has heard of violence happening near the park and his home, but neither he nor his wife has felt threatened by drug dealers. They frequently bring their 18-month-old daughter, Emily, to the park to play on the equipment that was installed after Steven Spielberg filmed the opening scene of the hit film “Minority Report” in the triangle.
Crime near the park has never overshadowed the aspects of the neighborhood Erickson loves, he said. He is able to sit on his porch and enjoy stories of older residents on the block. He said people in the neighborhood look out for his family. Erickson believes that if his neighbors would spend more time in the park together, some of the crime would decline. Erickson said that many residents who complain have never set foot in the “underused” park.
While residents agree that a stronger sense of community would benefit the park, they said it is not enough. For instance, the benches make it easier for drug dealers to get comfortable, residents have said.
Resident Jim Meyers, who helps clean graffiti in the park, is also concerned about drugs in the neighborhood but has hope for the park.
“I don’t believe that you should operate on the basis that your neighborhood could never have a park bench,” he said.
Francis Campbell, a Southeast Capitol Hill advisory neighborhood commissioner, said that after the drug dealers gravitated to the park from several former hangouts, including the New Dragon restaurant, that closed, residents complained and alerted police.
Cambell, Erickson and other residents have recently said in interviews and on listservs that the police have been responsive to calls and actively control the park’s criminal activity. District 1 Cmdr. David Kamperin did not return several phone calls from The Voice seeking comment. But residents noted both in interviews with The Voice and neighborhood listservs that the lack of light, coupled with the benches, is conducive to drug dealing.
“Frankly, drug dealers are like roaches; you turn on the lights and they scatter,” Campbell said.
Though the shadows might aid criminals, residents still find that the drug dealers are audacious enough to act in the open. The neighbor who lives across the street said some dealers bring children with them to the park while they smoke and sell marijuana.
On the Hill East listserv, some posters have attributed the drug dealing to men in their late 20s and older, but teenagers also hang out in the park late at night and no one knows if the two are related.
Some wrote that the large groups who frequent the park at night are not “conducive” to drug dealing and might just be teenagers having fun. And one poster on the listserv said, “I was struck by the presence of about eight males just hanging on the corner … peering into my car and looking suspicious. Instinctively I was nervous.”
Meyers believes that the large groups are a result of the closed Eastern Branch Boys & Girls Club at 261 17th St., which shut its doors after saying that there were fewer high-risk children in the area.
But, Meyers said, “We still have a lot of kids in the neighborhood that you should be concerned about, wanting to look out for.”
The younger teenagers who frequent the park do not concern Erickson, either.
“Maybe it’s OK that the sort of surly teenagers hang out some,” he said. “I did that when I was a teenager. We hung out at the park and we didn’t get into any trouble.”
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Posted on Mar 22, 2008 08:40am.
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