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/Z_ g–95 down. The police effort appears to have
<br /> • _ "When I first moved here, it was
<br /> �' ��'' �� : > `,• enjoyable to go to the park,"said the cut crime in the campus area, but
<br /> - ; 33-year-old Tataglione. "This July I the park may have been an unin
<br /> '>>
<br /> .,� : � �• V tried to get the drug dealers to leave tended victim.
<br /> -, �ifand was told that the hippies had "What we found was that people
<br /> > 0%�,�; taken over, and it was no longer my were going into the park" to escape
<br /> `' - the saturation patrols elsewhere in
<br /> ?'-Akt
<br /> c. ,"' • - ' .r is,;r,-- park to come to."
<br /> l. too the neighborhood, Hanson said.
<br /> ;?i,}� � �� In September, tired of Tata- Citizen calls for police
<br /> glione's constant harassment,a drug response
<br /> • dealer at the park from June through No-
<br /> pulled a gun on him and vember demonstrate the, park's
<br /> warned of deadly consequences if he
<br /> didn't quit calling police and inter Problems. In that period, police
<br /> ' rupting the constant stream of illegal served 23 arrest warrants, stopped
<br /> transactions at the park. 64 people,took 61 calls for violations
<br /> "It was the kind of situation
<br /> whereof city codes, such as public urina-
<br /> closing the park was the last tion, responded to eight fistfights
<br /> and had 84 complaints of criminal
<br /> straw," said Shannon McCarthy,
<br /> chairwoman of the West University trespassing,Hanson said.
<br /> f • Neighbors Association. Frustrated that every strategy
<br /> „ "The neighbors realized that the devised to clean up the park had
<br /> y` •
<br /> only way to get the park back was to failed, the neighborhood and busi
<br /> CHRIS PIETSCH/The Register-Guardlose it for awhile." ness groups met Oct.6 with park and
<br /> West University Park is closed to prevent abuses. Over the years, the park slowly police officials and decided to close
<br /> degenerated from a community we park.
<br /> gathering place to a hangout for On Nov. 8, Christine Andersen,
<br /> Drug dealers transients and criminals of all types, executive director of the Eugene
<br /> said Richard Greene, president of Public Works Department,signed an
<br /> ♦ the West University Small Business administrative order that amended
<br /> ruin small park
<br /> Assoc
<br /> Buiaiion. park rules.The order gave Andersen
<br /> But in past years, any rowdy be the authority to temporarily close
<br /> havior was temporary and cyclical. parks and city facilities"to preserve
<br /> Moreover, those committing illegal the welfare and safety a residents."
<br /> nei hbors built
<br /> acts were not as brazen and intimi On Nov. 20, with the bacirnQ of
<br /> dating to the neighbors, he said. the neighborhood groups and'piker.
<br /> The downward spiral started in Andersen issued an order closilgthe
<br /> By JOE HARWOOD 1994,when the parks department be- park. The signs went up two days
<br /> The Register-Guard gan receiving regular complaints of later,and police began enforcing the
<br /> John Tataglione remembers when he and his wife criminal activity at the park. closure on Nov. 27.
<br /> could join University of Oregon students or hospital "It started with overnight camp- The closure of the park is indefi-
<br /> employees on lunch break at the park that borders his ing, drinking and people bringing in nite and can only be rescinded b'
<br /> back yard. their garbage," said Dick Morgan, another administrative order.
<br /> They would lounge in the sun,read or picnic. city parks operations manager."And
<br /> Back then, hypodermic needles didn't litter the it wasn't letting up."
<br /> ground, and there were no drug dealers hanging The neighborhood and business
<br /> around, ready to make a quick sale. groups met with police and parks de-
<br /> partment officials to discuss the
<br /> Today, West University Park — one-third of an problems. In April 1994, they decid-
<br /> acre of open space on 14th Avenue between Hilyard ed to remove the covered picnic ta-
<br /> and Patterson streets—stands empty. ble,pay phone and drinking fountain
<br /> Four signs that read "Park Closed" greet passers- and to clear the shrubs, Morgan
<br /> by, and smaller print warns of imprisonment or fines said.
<br /> for those who enter and remain in the park. Removing the amenities, along
<br /> In an effort to combat a rising tide of drug sales, with police foot patrols and under-
<br /> assaults, thefts and other illegal behavior emanating cover drug stings and surveillance,
<br /> from the park, city of Eugene officials on Nov. 27 seemed to quell the trouble.
<br /> closed it indefinitely. But the problems returned late
<br /> Now nobody but police and city workers can yen- this summer, when Eugene police
<br /> ture into the park, built 16 years ago by a tight-knit saturated the west campus area, es-
<br /> group of neighbors who wanted to improve their com- pecially 13th Avenue, in an effort to
<br /> munity. squash a rise in drug dealing and
<br /> Ironically, it was the neighbors who laid the 21,000 other crimes.
<br /> bricks that make up the walkways and planted the "When we hit 13th in August and
<br /> fruit trees in the tiny park who asked the city to shut it September, we made a lot of arrests
<br /> Turn to PARK,Page 6A and everybody was being watched
<br /> very carefully," said Lt. Becky Han-
<br /> son. "We were not very tolerant of
<br /> any illegal behavior, and included
<br /> jaywalking."
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