A complaint about crime in Centennial Park sparked a discussion by residents about race and revival of a once troubled neighborhood for more than a half-hour at Tuesday's city board meeting.
People who live near the park -- bordered by West 16th and West 17th streets to the north and south and South Wolfe and South Battery streets to the east and west -- showed up in response to recent media reports about a resident's email to the Board of Directors and city officials that described "out of control" behavior at the park.
Paul Dodds, who lives on West 17th Street and also buys and renovates houses near the park, sent an email to the city Sunday detailing a gathering he observed Saturday where he said 15 people were drinking, loitering and blocking traffic with their vehicles.
"Please, do whatever you can in your power to take Centennial Park from the gangs, our alleys from the trash heap and our historic homes from risk of demolition," Dodds wrote. "Please make it safe for me to invest, and us to live in peace. Only you can get this done."
After the email, City Director at large Joan Adcock responded that the behavior was "unacceptable."
Mayor Mark Stodola replied and asked City Manager Bruce Moore to direct police patrols there and light up the area. Centennial Park was "a real hot bed of criminal activity" back in the 1990s when gang violence was at its height in Little Rock, Stodola said.
"With summer break upon us, we need to stifle this activity before it gets worse," he wrote.
The quick attention city officials gave Dodds, who is white, concerned some black neighbors, they said Tuesday.
"One white resident made a complaint about Centennial Park. Adcock [who is white] made a complaint and the mayor [who is also white] jumped on it. That's favoritism again," said Benny Johnson, a reverend who is black and leads the advocacy group Stop the Violence.
"Everybody that goes to Centennial Park is not a gang member," Johnson said. "How would people feel if I go out to west Little Rock and I see a bunch of white people in white and say y'all got a lot of white supremacists out here. We need to quit stereotyping."
Carolyn Floyd, who is black, said she has been trying to get the bathrooms at the park unlocked for years because she hosts an annual back-to-school bash there and also a Memorial Day celebration nearby.
"I used to be a former gang member. The same community I helped destroy when I was young, I'm out helping to build it back up. ... When we have activity over there, it's not gang violence. It's community building," she said.
City Director Erma Hendrix, whose Ward 1 includes Centennial Park, said she will do everything in her power to have the bathrooms open by Monday.
Many of Tuesday's comments revolved around the allegation that gang members hang out at the park. Dodds said in one email that the Crips gang is "reclaiming" the area.
"This needs concentrated, coordinated action or it will be a very long, hot summer in 'Criptennial Park,'" he wrote in closing one email to Adcock, Stodola and Moore.
Ward 2 City Director Ken Richardson, who is black and works with marginalized youth at his job with New Futures For Youth, said it is a disservice to label people as gang members based on sight.
"I don't know if they were singing gang songs or reading gang poems ... but we've done a fairly good job over the last several years to squash gang activity," Richardson said.
He said negative behavior in young people should be addressed by targeting unemployment and underemployment, and that sending police to monitor the park based on the one complaint was disturbing.
"It's even more disturbing given all the hoopla between police departments and minority communities, this may add fuel to that fire. I don't know if we want to send the message that people live in that community can't use that park in that community," Richardson said.
Amexem Shu Al-muur Bey told the board that city officials and residents needed to stop playing a color game. "People are not crayons," he said.
"We are teaching people when they are young they are white, black, brown. Then when they are 16 or 17 they know blue or red. Do you follow?" he added, referring to the colors of the rival Crips and Bloods gangs.
Moore said after the meeting that Dodds' email was the first complaint the city has received about the park and that he will treat it as he does every complaint by reviewing the circumstances. He said he's hesitant to add lighting as the mayor requested because like all city parks Centennial is closed at dusk.
Dodds addressed the board after the other residents' comments Tuesday. He said he understood their remarks and that he doesn't correlate a group of black men with gang violence or criminal behavior.
"I'm sorry to have ignited a firestorm," he said. "I look forward to having barbecues in Centennial Park with my neighbors."
Metro on 05/06/2015