Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 19, 1993 TAG: 9308190300
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: N-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
I have no objections to Bowman Park being used as a playground. It makes me happy to see small children having fun. But I do not want to see Bowman Park (or any park) used as a driveway, racetrack, driving range or hangout for drunks and dope peddlers.
Over the years, I have thrown back dozens of balls that landed on my property.
My property adjoins Bowman Park, which was still private property when I moved in. Today, a 6-foot chain link fence separates me from the park. This fence was partly paid for (after several years of wrangling) by the city of Roanoke. Here are some of the reasons why:
Adults regularly came to the park, staying from just before dark until about midnight, drinking alcoholic beverages, engaging in shouted conversations (frequently spiced with obscenities), and holding impromptu motocross or dirt-racing exhibitions with motorcycles and automobiles.
The park was often used as a short cut drive between Meadows Street and Hillcrest Avenue. In addition to raising clouds of dust and creating unwarranted noise, this endangered small children conducting ball games or using the playground equipment.
Without city permission, some residents of the area installed bases in the park and began using it as a baseball field. Given the small size of the area, this meant balls regularly came smashing onto surrounding property, sometimes breaking glass and denting automobiles.
Those people who decided this was not reckless enough brought their golf clubs and balls to use the park as a driving range. One of these stray balls almost broke my wife's arm as she was sitting on our side porch.
People going to the park insisted on using my private property to reach it, whether on foot or by vehicle. When I approached the driver of one pickup, he tried to run me down. Another occasion saw me chased into my garage and grabbing a pick handle to defend myself from a youth wielding a bicycle chain.
Today, there are still traces of ruts dug into soft earth by truck tires. Any orchard trees or garden produce I planted were swiftly destroyed.
Repeated complaints to the police and the parks and recreation department went unanswered or elicited only, "We can't do anything about it unless we see them do it."
When a couple was murdered in their home across the street from Bowman Park, there were increased police patrols for a while.
But, for years, we put up with the noise, harassment, trash, broken glass, mangled plantings and the clouds of dust that stained drying clothes.
Finally, the city paid for half the costs of a fence.
So long as those abuses continue, I will complain.\ Lane F. Stanley\ Roanoke
by CNB