This post is just a quick one to thank everyone for their ideas. I don't think the hard part is going to be the cleanup. It will be keeping it clean and getting the community involved to help. It is going to be a long slow process, but I think it is worth fighting for. I don't want my blog to become a forum for this, so this is the last you will hear of it until there is something big happening with it.
Thank you all again!
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Day at the Park
Anyone who grew up on the west side of Manchester knows about Rock Rimmon. It is the place we were all told to stay away from when we were kids because "Bad People" hang out there. You can see how this would be true because of the fact that the back side of the rock ends at the Kimball Street Housing Projects.
It was Sunday morning, and the family and I decided to go to the playground at the school at the bottom of Rock Rimmon. It is called Northwest Elementary. There is also a pool and a park here that has a separate playground. We have been here before to play and it is an ok place.
Rock Rimmon overlooks the school and park. How bad could this place be on a Sunday morning, right? We decided to head over to the trail that goes up to the top of the rock. Going around the backside of the school/pool, we passed an area where someone had a little fire and a 30 pack of Bud Light a few nights before. I found this a little disturbing, as in a few years my kid would be going to that school if if he was to go to public school.
Next we passed through the sad little park, which you could have mistaken as a dump. There was trash all around the few pieces of playground equipment that was there. We decided to hurry the boy past this stuff and coax him to the head of the trail.
Now before I go any further with my story, let me explain Rock Rimmon a little better. It is a big rock face that you can walk up to the top of fairly easily in about 5 minutes. The rock face overlooks the park and the school. It is ~ 5 stories tall I would say. I know that some people use it for repelling and rock climbing, as there was a family there that day doing just that.
Ok, we are now at the trail head. The rocks on the ground near the entrance are large and misshapen and difficult to walk on. This mixed with the large amount of broken glass on the ground made for a situation where I was uncomfortable with my son walking on his own. I took him by the hand and lead him to smoother ground just inside the woods.
The amount of trash just past the trail head was unbelievable. It easily doubled, and in some spots tripled from what we had seen in the park. Lots of broken glass and random food garbage was strewn everywhere. I had never been to the top of the rock before, so we pushed on.
About 50 yards up the trail, we came upon something terribly disturbing. There in the middle of the trail was a small, used hypodermic needle. It absolutely blew my mind. Here in this park behind my ward's elementary school, some asshole was shooting IV drugs and leaving their paraphernalia behind for some kid to stick themselves on. It was a slap in the face by reality, waking me up to the times that we live in. Had my son been walking ten feet in front of us, he could have picked it up and stuck himself with it. I was totally disgusted.
We moved on past the needle up the trail, but the image of that needle was burning in my brain. I turned around and my wife was taking a picture of my son, who was doing something cute, like he always does. At that point, something clicked in my brain. I asked for the camera and told them to go ahead. I needed to make someone aware of what was going on here.
I went back and took several pictures of the needle lying there in the trail. After, I picked it up with some leaves and moved it to the side of the trail, which was the best I could do at the time. It was still visible, but out of the path where some child might stumble upon it.
I quickly caught up to my family to continue the hike. 20 feet from where I met back up with them, there was an empty pack of blunt wraps on the ground. Another Kodak moment and we were on our way. The rest of the hike up was uneventful, except for the beer cans and broken glass which seemed to be a common theme with this trail.
The view from the top of the Rock is absolutely gorgeous. You can clearly see all the way to the other side of the city. It is a shame that this place is as fouled as it is. The people who overtook this place came not for the beauty, but for a place to get drunk, high and laid in a place that would be to cumbersome and unsafe for the police to patrol. I suggest the hike to anyone, as it is well worth it. Just make sure you go in the morning to avoid trouble. Even a lunch up there would be safe I think.
The way down was more of the same. This time we had the joy of finding condom wrappers amongst the beer cans and rolling paper. At least the scumbags that were trashing my parks and schools had the courtesy of not reproducing. (I say mine because I am a tax paying land owner in Manchester, so I carry the burden of the city through my taxes.)
So, evidence in hand, I went home and put together a nice travelogue of my day's adventure and emailed it right off to my Alderman. I have never done such a thing before, so I had no expectation of what the response would be. I was pleasantly surprised when the next day I received a response from him, and the officer in charge of community projects at my local police station.
The email from my alderman was to inform me that the police had a department that handles this sort of thing, and that he was forwarding a copy of my email to them. The last sentence was a heartbreaker though. He told me that two months ago, CityYear(who I have volunteered with in the past on cleanup projects) had done a cleanup on this park. Two months was all it took for the filth to infiltrate the park again. Ouch...
The second email from the police department was very nice. They explained that they were well aware that Rock Rimmon has always been a problem. He said that they give that park as much attention as they can afford with the amount of officers they have. He also said they are constantly chasing people out of there who are having bonfires and partying. He told me that he had connections to organizations that helped with cleanups, and would provide any support he could if I wanted to organize a cleanup. I am very happy with this response. I think that it would be unfair for me to say, "This park needs a cleanup, so you go do it." We all need to take responsibility for our community. I have been stewing for a few days about what to do. A cleanup is much needed, but will it be pointless if no one can do the upkeep?
If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions, please let me know. I want to take this treasure back for the community.
A picture of the park
It was Sunday morning, and the family and I decided to go to the playground at the school at the bottom of Rock Rimmon. It is called Northwest Elementary. There is also a pool and a park here that has a separate playground. We have been here before to play and it is an ok place.
Rock Rimmon overlooks the school and park. How bad could this place be on a Sunday morning, right? We decided to head over to the trail that goes up to the top of the rock. Going around the backside of the school/pool, we passed an area where someone had a little fire and a 30 pack of Bud Light a few nights before. I found this a little disturbing, as in a few years my kid would be going to that school if if he was to go to public school.
Next we passed through the sad little park, which you could have mistaken as a dump. There was trash all around the few pieces of playground equipment that was there. We decided to hurry the boy past this stuff and coax him to the head of the trail.
Now before I go any further with my story, let me explain Rock Rimmon a little better. It is a big rock face that you can walk up to the top of fairly easily in about 5 minutes. The rock face overlooks the park and the school. It is ~ 5 stories tall I would say. I know that some people use it for repelling and rock climbing, as there was a family there that day doing just that.
Ok, we are now at the trail head. The rocks on the ground near the entrance are large and misshapen and difficult to walk on. This mixed with the large amount of broken glass on the ground made for a situation where I was uncomfortable with my son walking on his own. I took him by the hand and lead him to smoother ground just inside the woods.
The amount of trash just past the trail head was unbelievable. It easily doubled, and in some spots tripled from what we had seen in the park. Lots of broken glass and random food garbage was strewn everywhere. I had never been to the top of the rock before, so we pushed on.
About 50 yards up the trail, we came upon something terribly disturbing. There in the middle of the trail was a small, used hypodermic needle. It absolutely blew my mind. Here in this park behind my ward's elementary school, some asshole was shooting IV drugs and leaving their paraphernalia behind for some kid to stick themselves on. It was a slap in the face by reality, waking me up to the times that we live in. Had my son been walking ten feet in front of us, he could have picked it up and stuck himself with it. I was totally disgusted.
We moved on past the needle up the trail, but the image of that needle was burning in my brain. I turned around and my wife was taking a picture of my son, who was doing something cute, like he always does. At that point, something clicked in my brain. I asked for the camera and told them to go ahead. I needed to make someone aware of what was going on here.
I went back and took several pictures of the needle lying there in the trail. After, I picked it up with some leaves and moved it to the side of the trail, which was the best I could do at the time. It was still visible, but out of the path where some child might stumble upon it.
I quickly caught up to my family to continue the hike. 20 feet from where I met back up with them, there was an empty pack of blunt wraps on the ground. Another Kodak moment and we were on our way. The rest of the hike up was uneventful, except for the beer cans and broken glass which seemed to be a common theme with this trail.
The view from the top of the Rock is absolutely gorgeous. You can clearly see all the way to the other side of the city. It is a shame that this place is as fouled as it is. The people who overtook this place came not for the beauty, but for a place to get drunk, high and laid in a place that would be to cumbersome and unsafe for the police to patrol. I suggest the hike to anyone, as it is well worth it. Just make sure you go in the morning to avoid trouble. Even a lunch up there would be safe I think.
The way down was more of the same. This time we had the joy of finding condom wrappers amongst the beer cans and rolling paper. At least the scumbags that were trashing my parks and schools had the courtesy of not reproducing. (I say mine because I am a tax paying land owner in Manchester, so I carry the burden of the city through my taxes.)
So, evidence in hand, I went home and put together a nice travelogue of my day's adventure and emailed it right off to my Alderman. I have never done such a thing before, so I had no expectation of what the response would be. I was pleasantly surprised when the next day I received a response from him, and the officer in charge of community projects at my local police station.
The email from my alderman was to inform me that the police had a department that handles this sort of thing, and that he was forwarding a copy of my email to them. The last sentence was a heartbreaker though. He told me that two months ago, CityYear(who I have volunteered with in the past on cleanup projects) had done a cleanup on this park. Two months was all it took for the filth to infiltrate the park again. Ouch...
The second email from the police department was very nice. They explained that they were well aware that Rock Rimmon has always been a problem. He said that they give that park as much attention as they can afford with the amount of officers they have. He also said they are constantly chasing people out of there who are having bonfires and partying. He told me that he had connections to organizations that helped with cleanups, and would provide any support he could if I wanted to organize a cleanup. I am very happy with this response. I think that it would be unfair for me to say, "This park needs a cleanup, so you go do it." We all need to take responsibility for our community. I have been stewing for a few days about what to do. A cleanup is much needed, but will it be pointless if no one can do the upkeep?
If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions, please let me know. I want to take this treasure back for the community.
A picture of the park
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