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Editorial: Make park safe for kids
Sunday, May 11, 2008
When the city of Schenectady a couple of months ago was considering expanding Jerry Burrell Park on Hamilton Hill, neighborhood residents said they didn’t need a bigger park, but a safer one. Right now, the park is anything but safe. The city owes it to them to make it so. It’s pathetic that, with a good-sized park nearby, organizations like Carver Community Center, Girls Inc. and the Boys and Girls Club have to create their own playgrounds or parks. That’s not because Jerry Burrell lacks equipment, but because of its longstanding, well-deserved reputation as a place for drug deals, violence and other criminal activity. Most of the dealing goes on at night, as evidenced by the dozens of plastic baggies that can be found littering the park each morning; but there is also dangerous stuff going on at other times, as evidenced by the murder in broad daylight that occurred there last year. What mother would send her children to play in this park, knowing they might get recruited as drug mules, caught in a crossfire, or simply exposed to bad language, criminal talk and behavior? But moms are more than willing to send them when some organization, such as the church or YMCA, runs a supervised special program or activity. Then the park is filled with kids — the way it should always be. Some steps that are being taken could help. Habitat for Humanity plans to build new houses across from the park, on private and public land acquired after the city's decision not to expand it. Residents of those houses presumably will keep an eye on the park and call the police when there are signs of trouble. Weed and Seed will also provide motion detectors that will activate lights on the basketball court when anyone walks through the park, which is supposed to close at dusk — although police don’t enforce the rule. Something else that should help, day or night, is security cameras. There may be some now (law enforcement officials won’t say one way or the other), but if there are, they can’t do much good unless they are monitored and the bad guys know about them. Knowing they were being watched might only cause them to take themselves and their criminal activities a few blocks away. But at least it would create a safe place for kids, making Jerry Burrell a park in more than name only.
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December 2, 2008
11:25 a.m. [ Suggest removal ]
my theory about the crime activities in Jerry Burrell park. the sensor lights are a great idea, because then when they walk through, the light will scare the beans out of them and then they will be in the spot light. also i agree with the security cameras, but do not announce that they are there. so that you can catch them in the act without them knowing. then have the police go and arrest them on the spot. i know the budget and all that doesnt allow a police officer to be patroling that area at all times. but i think this would be well worth it, since it is a big crime spot. just think of all the criminals you would be getting off the streets. then you would not have to worry about them moving their dealings to another area, they will be off the streets so they wont be able to have any dealings at all. then it would be a much safer place to live. its terrible that we cant even send our kids outside to play or to walk to school without being worried about their safety. i dont mean to let your kids hang out on the streets to run wild, because this is what causes these kinds of criminals, but i remember riding my bike up and down our sidewalk with our neighborhood kids. now we cant even sit on our porches or take a little walk through a park or to the store ect. its a shame because schenectady used to be a nice place to live. but in the past 10 - 15 yrs it has become a scary place to live. and unfortunately the lot of us that are good and law abiding citizens are the ones who suffer and cant afford to move away, or have to stay in our houses because we have to stay in the area due to our jobs. my daughter is even losing out on her education, because of a group of girls threatening to cut her face, because she is a blonde and all the guys like her and not them. so she dropped out. so who is suffering from all this. even the teachers are afraid of their own students, and cant get enough control to teach anything to anyone, not even to the kids who want to learn. i also seem to think that with the police dept. some of the officers are also afraid of the criminals, and some of them are in with them. so therefore it doesnt make us feel very safe. i was glad to hear that we have some state police here. too bad they cant have more of them and here for as long as it takes to get this city back in shape, instead of just for a few days. its obvious that we need the help. these out of control people are mostly teens or in their 20's and they are making it fearful for people to live in this city. to me its like the book/movie the lord of the flies where the children are all out of control. or the movie children of the corn, where the kids take over the town. something needs to be done before they have complete control. just some inner thoughts from a concerned - law abiding - schenectadian