It's Saturday November 13th, 2010. I just got back from spending time in Monroe Park, observing activities, talking to people, participating with other members of my community, trying to figure out just why Monroe Park has been labeled as a dangerous place. I talked to members from Mount Olive Baptist Church, I talked to apparently homeless people, people playing chess, others waiting with their luggage to be picked to go to shelters, and members of The RVA Hoop Lovers. The RVA Hoop Lovers came out to show their support for Monroe Park, wanting to show people that they (mostly females) are not afraid to use the park. They are planning a family board game day, with a tentative time set at 2:30pm Sunday November 21st. I saw the community enjoying each others company, I saw people smiling and having a good time. I didn't see anyone openly drinking, anyone laying face down on the ground. I didn't see anyone causing trouble with anyone else. I won't claim that this never happens, but it isn't the norm.
Today I met Al in Monroe Park. Al and his wife Darlene have been staying in the park for the last 4 months. He came to Richmond from New Jersey last Thanksgiving to spend time with his father before he passed away on January 5th, 2010. Al and Darlene spent a few months after his fathers death looking for a safe place to hang out while on the street. They ended up in Monroe Park, because they feel safe there. In the four months that they have been here he says that he has yet to see any incidents or altercations that would support the idea that the park is not a safe place. I asked about the concern about drug dealers and users in the park, and he did say that occasionally he does smell marijuana, but that he can't say there is a drug problem in the park.
I talked to members of
Mount Olive Baptist Church that came out to see what they could possibly do to help the community in the midst of the City trying to use renovations as an excuse to flush out what they don't want. They want to be an active part of the Monroe Park community, with intentions of coming the second and fourth weekend of each month to show their support. When they contacted Richmond to ask about serving soup in the park they were told that they are only allowed to distribute sealed containers of food. I think that we all know that for years groups of people have been serving hot food prepared in kitchens and brought to the park. Hot food, straight from the pot to your tray. The members of Mount Olive Baptist Church and members of The RVA Hoop Lovers quickly united and had a two hour hoop jam together near the fountain. It was great seeing these two groups together, one as a community.
On the other side of the park people were sitting at tables playing chess. Further down there was a group of Live Action Role Players sword fighting with wooden swords and shields. There were children playing, side by side with homeless people. No one was scared to be there, and no one is in favor of building a 9' wall around the entire park for 18 months. If you want to support your park then use it. Make yourself visible. You'll be okay.
This is great! Thanks for the photos!
ReplyDeleteI think Monroe Park is charming! Reminds me of DuPont Circle in DC. Nice blog thanks for all the detail and beautiful photography. Your work is an asset to Richmond as well as to friendly humanity =)
ReplyDeleteLaura's Husband here - I will post under her login because I'm too lazy to try to login under my own right now.
ReplyDeleteBackground - I am a tv news photog in DC where I get to see the best & worst of people on a daily basis.
Comment - Your description and commentary of the park is a good one. DC has a number of parks which serve as the centers of local gathering for all types of people. I have found that with some care they can be the best places for people who would not otherwise have a reason to interact.
If there is going to be any substantive improvements in understanding between people of diverse background you must first meet members of these groups to 'break the ice' as it were. Your discussions with the homeless couple are a great example of humanizing a group that is so easily dehumanized and dismissed.
In summary, keep up the good work and I hope you can make a difference there.
The photos are great and touching. If that was cheesy, apologies, but it is true. The one with all the RVA Hula Hoop Lovers members is great. I'm really glad they would show up to support the park. As for the role players, they are Dagorhir (Dag) and my roommate, a mutual friend of ours, and several of his friends participate in it every weekend. I'm even considering participating in Dag. As a female and former VCU student, I have NEVER felt uncomfortable in the park. However, just a few blocks away on the 900 block of W. Grace St. I have felt uncomfortable and unsafe. I lived there for a year above Saigon restaurant. I saw someone get stabbed by three males right in front of my apartment. Someone broke into my apartment and stole $3,000 worth of my most important belongings. I heard from several friends of mine that they had been or knew of someone that had been mugged on that block. I would routinely hear gunshots at 2:30am. I heard of a VCU student getting shot in the head by a driveby and killed. This is the SAME BLOCK that the VCU Police station is located. How does this make any logical or rational sense to anyone?
ReplyDeleteMonroe Park is not unsafe, regardless of what VCU tells it's students during orientation, regardless of the not-so-hushed rumors say. Go to the Richmond City Police Department website and look up crime statistics for the past year. You will find that Monroe Park and the blocks surrounding it are the safest areas in the City. Check out the other neighborhoods. CARYTOWN is the most dangerous, according to police-documented crimes. Perhaps the City should shut down Carytown to weed out the undesirables.
Kontra, Laura and husband, MRO: Thanks for the support!
ReplyDeleteMr. Monday, my first blog outlines how I became so deeply interested in the homeless community. It took someone else approaching me and for me to allow myself to open up and realize that some of these folks living on the streets, in the parks and in the woods are actually good people with good intentions. They are struggling everyday trying to figure out how they can turn nothing into something, never getting enough at once to allow them to move out of their unfortunate situations. (http://myrva.blogspot.com/2010/10/do-not-surrender.html)
MRO, I'm sorry that I did not come over to say hi to your group, I left my sword at home, and you all were the most intimidating group there:) Thank you for including your perspective as a former VCU student and as a female park user. Sorry about mislabeling the Dagorhir group as Live Action Role Players.
So glad to see those words written,"If you want to support your park then use it." Parks are not places to just look at! They are places to take time out, enjoy, interact with others (or not!), find community and fresh air. A couple of commenters likened it to Dupont Circle which I love though I truly wish it were more like Dupont Circle. And I wish Monroe Park was a bit more cared for, maintained by the city so that more folks would find it inviting and a place to interact. Restoring the fountain was a lovely and expensive gesture to move more folks attention to the park but it really needs tending to which the community alone cannot do. Cutting it off from public use for 18 months has been done before, in NY, in DC other large cities, but in truth, homeless folks need help here. They don't just disappear because the park is closed. Usually they wind up hanging around outside of the closed park. And if there was active drug dealing then VCU should be prepared to see more active drug dealing in their dorm areas if this park is closed. This is my experience from living at NYU around Washington Square Park, and also while Union Square was closed and opened and closed and opened until it finally was renovated. The same with Madison Square Park. Don't close the park. Work with it. Work to solve the difficulties of homelessness with the folks who have been taking this on for decades. If the city leaves it up to the community to solve then the least they should do when they are willing to tackle the problem is to work with those who have been addressing the problem in the city's absence.
ReplyDeleteThanks for presenting the human side of this issue. If you want to sign the petition to keep at least part of the Park open, see: http://www.change.org/petitions/view/keep_monroe_open_public
ReplyDeleteI am in the Park every weekend signing up people, as well. The support I've seen is just incredible, from people at the Park, from church groups, and from VCU students. Out of more than 250 people I've talked with, only 6 didn't sign up.