Crowds causing unease
As published on page one of the Sept. 8, 2011 edition of The Keene Sentinel, and online.
More and more people are loitering in public places downtown, some Keene residents say, and that has them concerned.
Residents from apartments overlooking and near the Wells Street parking deck attended the meeting of the City Council's municipal services, facilities and infrastructure committee Wednesday to ask that the city do more to limit skateboarding, fighting, urinating and drunken socializing in and near the two-story parking facility. The deck is a block off Main Street, near Railroad Square and downtown businesses, apartments and two hotels.
But Peter Crowell and Gwen Ames, Church Street residents whose letter to the council launched the discussion, added that they feel the real issue is bigger than Wells Street.
"We have two lovely (gathering) areas in Keene ... Railroad Square and Central Square, and I won't go into either of them," Ames said during a break in the meeting.
Slovenly loiterers detract from the character of the downtown, she said.
"What's so cute, what's so quaint when you've got this crowd of foul-mouthed, rude people?" she asked.
The offenders at the parking deck fall into two broad groups, according to Ames and Crowell: older people patronizing Keene's bars, and people too young for the bars who spend time downtown.
Crowell suggested the community ask about root causes of disruptive behavior.
"Where do you think these kids come from? Where are their parents? Why are they allowed to spend all day in Central Square?" he asked. "There are kids in Central Square who look to me to not even be teenagers, and they're associating with people in their 20s."
He drew a connection to the fatal stabbing in July of Craig Metivier of Marlborough, a Keene High School student.
"We had a 17-year-old murdered downtown and all we've talked about is how sad everyone is," Crowell said. "Where's the community rising up to say 'how can this happen?' "
After an impromptu brainstorming session and airing of grievances among the residents, councilors and city staff, the municipal services committee asked the city manager and police chief to report back in 30 days on ways the city can address the range of topics raised -- from maintenance at the parking deck to the concerns of business owners and residents who report they are intimidated to walk through Central Square at night.
Committee Chairwoman Pamela Russell Slack compared these concerns with complaints the city received several years ago about college students.
The committee worked to changed that dynamic, she said, and the conversation at Wednesday's meeting suggested a new but similar project.
Slack encouraged Crowell, Ames and the other residents who attended the meeting to form a neighborhood group similar to those that were developed in neighborhoods with large student populations.
City Manager John A. MacLean told the committee and assembled residents that he had already scheduled a meeting with people who contacted him to complain about loitering and disruptive behavior in Central Square, and invited everyone to attend.
The meeting will be Monday at 5 p.m. in City Hall.
tagged with: Keene's Central Square, loitering, public space
<< Brattleboro focuses on rebuilding after devastation The day everything changed >>