SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — In the past six months, there have been 48 complaints filed to the Syracuse Police Department over illegal dumping, suspicious vehicles, and lewd behavior in Lincoln Park, said Peter Bardou, superintendent of park grounds maintenance.
Syracuse officials have found couches, tires and half of a car dumped in the park, Bardou said.
Now, city officials are addressing resident concern in an attempt to improve park safety and reduce crime. On Tuesday night, Syracuse’s Department of Parks, Recreation & Youth Programs hosted an online public meeting with residents of the Lincoln Hill neighborhood, laying out options to improve the park.
“Every great neighborhood has a great park,” Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh said. “By all standards, Lincoln Park is a great park. But like many, it has its challenges.”
To combat those challenges, Bardou offered two options to improve Lincoln Park. The Tuesday meeting was purely for community members to provide input on the differing options. Both plans included a proposal to construct a gate at the Lincoln Park Drive exit onto Mather Street. While this is currently the exit to the park, Bardou believes that a gate would deter illegal activity.
“Putting a gate (along Mather Street) would allow us to come in there and have access — police have access,” Bardou said. “Putting a gate there, I think, is better than a garden box.”
However, the city does not want either option to be permanent. Instead, they are intended to be temporary options to deter illegal activity until the city is able to install more cameras, lighting or other forms of surveillance, Bardou said.
Option one would place planter boxes on the south side of the parks pool parking to restrict vehicle access to the Overlook entrance. Option two would place similar garden boxes on the road south of the Overlook entrance, restricting vehicle access to Lincoln Park Drive.
There is still no determination for how much each option may cost the city, and no more meetings that the community are currently planned, Bardou said.
Lincoln Hill community members are wary of the park, and while they would like the crime to diminish, they are worried that new crime locations may be closer to their homes.
“I had no idea that there was this dumping issue in the park,” Christi Defazio said. “My biggest concern was if people aren’t going to be doing their drug deals in the park, are we going to have them in front of our house?”
