Safety at Bergen Place, Marvins Garden and Ballard Commons Park has been a topic of discussion this year.
Back in June, Seattle Parks Superintendent Tim Gallagher announced that he has approved an exclusion zone for the three parks. Tonight there is a follow-up community meeting sponsored by the Parks Department. The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at the Ballard Library.
Parks safety follow-up meeting tonight
I wonder when they'll do something about the “summer campouts” at Gilman Playground. We've stopped taking our toddler there to play even though it's the closest park to our house. We've called the police on several occasions when we've seen things happening, and the dispatcher said they get lots of calls… why isn't anything happening there? I bet those “excluded” from the downtown core parks will migrate there!
Took my son to Gilman Park the other day, a park I played in as a kid, and there was a bum sleeping on the grass next to his cart of stuff; the guy needed to be hosed down he stank so bad!
Where are the cops and their batons!?!?!?!
This is a neighborhood park, not downtown! Kick them out!
Why can we not give the professional homeless a one way bus ticket to Portland and a few bucks of spending cash and tell them if they show up in Seattle again they will put to work by the city picking up garbage. The word “work” should scare them away!
Sorry, but expected, seriously. This was a common occurrence in the parks that are now being enforced. (to some degree)
I'd say that if we don't enforce the safety and usability of all of our parks, we won't have any before too long.
Keep calling the police, keep calling the parks department, and if we need to have a dog show, or anything, let's do it soon.
Unfortunately you weren't the first person to think of this…
For those people talking about Gilman, yes, that park is a real problem and we really need to do something about that park. I live across the street and see many horrible things that go down there. This weekend alone, there were two incidents where I called the cops. One was a transient who chased the parks people and yelled at the tennis players while the other just stood in the middle of the park and yelled about how he was going to fuck everyone's mind up. I've seen homeless people taking dumps out in the open, peeing on the basketball courts, and have seen some needles tossed in the corners near the outhouse. Also, the wading pool has not been used at all this summer due to all of the broken glass and again needles found in it.
Does anyone know what steps we need to take in order to make this park a place where people want to hang out again?
The cops once told me that they can't really do anything except chase them away, however, the park closes after 11pm, so if people are there after that time, then they are breaking the law and the cops have more reason to get them out of there. Everyone, keep calling the police. The more they hear about illegal activity happening at this park, the more likely they'll keep coming around to clear it out.
Well I guess folks could move to where there are no homeless people. Oh wait there are poor homeless people everywhere. I even have seen them in other countries over seas. Maybe if everyone strives to wipe out hunger and homelessness instead of whining that someone is taking a dump on some sports court while they sit in their comfy abodes and eat whatever they want from their stash then maybe the city would be a better place for everyone. Where else are they going to go? Maybe we should line them up and put them out of you misery. What happened to Old Ballard. There is a bunch of whinny ass folks around these days.