Fear of crime means even a postcard view has a last call

The new signs are up in Federal Hill Park, flanking entrances to the historic lookout once favored by generals and their armies and more recently by boyfriends and girlfriends who come for the views of the glimmering harbor and the bright lights of the city skyline.

"Park closed 11 p.m. until dawn," the signs say in large, hard-to-miss red letters. "Trespassing is strictly prohibited."

Most city parks close at dusk. This one in Federal Hill has always closed later, though the signs listed conflicting times and police never consistently enforced the curfew. That changed after two men were shot and killed in June on nearby streets where homes can fetch a half-million dollars or more and finding bullet-riddled bodies is considered something that happens someplace else.

The victims were outsiders, according to police, men who might have been lured there by rival gangs who favored the park for the same reason as everyone else: safety and solitude.

The slayings opened the eyes of police to a persistent problem: The park is filled with people at all hours of the night. They came to walk their dogs or steal a kiss after a late-night stroll along the harbor. But some smoked marijuana and drank beer, were rowdy and loud, robbed people and carried guns.

Maj. Scott L. Bloodsworth, commander of the Southern District, decided it was time to enforce the park's closing time. Now, every night starting around 10:45 p.m., at least two police officers on bikes and sometimes others in cars gently remind stragglers that it's time to go.

Police say they are merely enforcing a long-forgotten rule. But I can't help but think we lose something by the stepped-up enforcement, even if it is welcome and necessary. Crime has a way of changing the way we live. We become more suspicious and wary. We lobby for brighter streetlights and buy more secure locks. We move.

We close our parks after 11 p.m.

Even if you've never flouted the rules and walked the park at midnight, now you can't. The police will kick you out. The gangs have gone, but so has everyone else.

I spent hours walking the park and the neighborhood last week and talked to close to a dozen people. I found none who objected to closing the park.

"If you're out past 11, you're probably not up to any good," said 25-year-old Monica Joines, who along with her boyfriend, Patrick Starleper, was walking her dog. "In order to bring safety to our neighborhood, we have to make some sacrifices. The city doesn't have the best record on crime, so anything they can do is good."

Residents, police and the president of the community association said the park had become overrun and sometimes out of control.

Standing on the park's northern edge, where the descent to Key Highway is steep, the view is, as Bloodsworth put it Wednesday, "just like a postcard."

That night was typical. Just before 11 p.m., a few residents were giving their dogs one more moment outside before bedtime as couples embraced on the benches. "It's a poor man's lover's lane," Bloodsworth mused.

Most people left on their own or with the gentle prodding of officers. At 11:10 p.m., the major eyed two men with a camera, a tourist from Arizona and his friend from Federal Hill. They had lost track of time, but asked for one more moment to change lenses and take another shot.

Officer Borris Graham conceded. He said few people complain and most leave right away, but he noted that dog walkers voiced the most objections when the enforcement began earlier this summer. "They tend to come out late because it's a good time to let the dogs run free without a leash," he said.

Paul Robinson, head of the Federal Hill Neighborhood Association, said his group approves of the police presence, saying members had complained about lewd and illegal activities in the park for years. "Is it an imposition that is unreasonable? No. Is it a necessary imposition? Yes."

Many years ago, the park was used mostly by the people who lived near it. Now its visitors include diners from the Inner Harbor, patrons forced by the last call from the Cross Street bars, and, as the latest violence attests, gang members toting guns.

The style of policing has changed, Bloodsworth said, because "the people who come here have changed."

Related topic galleries: Gang Activity, Federal Hill, Federal Hill Park

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