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define the character and spirit in which Scobert Park was born and <br /> evolved. <br /> Charlie Sundberg, a graduate student in landscape architecture and <br /> a neighborhood volunteer, drew up plans for the park and led our group of <br /> eight until his departure in 1984 or 1985, when I agreed to take his place. <br /> Volunteers ultimately overcame the blackberries; and grading, path <br /> construction, lighting and irrigation proceeded on contract, consuming <br /> most of the budget. Subsequent development progressed in fits and starts <br /> over several years. The die -hards persevered to create new planting beds <br /> and turf, and to purchase, pick up and plant from far and wide an <br /> assortment of unconventional perennials and shrubs. The thirty mature <br /> rhododendrons we transplanted from Hendricks Park, enhance the <br /> plantings and give the park, as a visitor observed, "the air of an English <br /> garden." <br /> City landscape designer John Etter and I moved tons of columnar <br /> basalt to the site and set the sculptural pieces in place. I helped compose <br /> and build the drinking fountain from irregular pieces of basalt and <br /> contracted the woodcarver who carved the Scobert Neighborhood Park <br /> entry sign. In fact, beyond Mrs. Scobert's and Mother Nature's seminal <br /> plantings, I have purchased, picked up, planted, transplanted, maintained <br /> and otherwise been responsible for every tree, shrub, perennial and <br /> ground cover, sometimes with help, often without. After Sundberg's <br /> departure, with only a small portion of the planting accomplished, design <br /> and implementation- -any and all decisions regarding the park- -have been <br /> largely mine. Scobert has gradually come together as a whole, as an <br /> organic sculpture so subtle and rich that from year to year, season to <br /> season, it can surprise even those who helped create It It has achieved it <br /> own evolution. <br /> But at the same time this long birth was occurring, many of its <br /> visitors were doing their damnedest to abort It by getting drunk and <br /> vandalizing the shrubs and trees by defecating and urinating on them and <br /> in them (the need to void is directly proportional to alcoholic intake); by <br /> littering profusely even though trash cans were nearby; by verbally <br /> harassing and physically intimidating other park users; and by otherwise <br /> endangering the public health by discarding potentially AIDS and <br /> hepatitis carrying hypodermics throughout the park where children play <br /> and maintenance crews must work. <br /> Yet, ironically, the occasional misbehavior of a drunk, the litter, <br /> even the occasional needle have a kind of innocence about them <br /> compared to what's occurred over the last two years. As onerous, as <br /> unpleasant, as unacceptable as those incidences of year past were, they <br /> were by and large manageable. And they were manageable to a large <br /> degree because of police presence and enforcement. <br /> What's been occurring in Scobert until the last few weeks is <br /> completely out of control, untenable and intolerable. To treat this as an <br /> issue of gentrification, elitism, police harassment or class warfare- -and to <br />