At least two city parks were vandalized in the past week, a situation that has inspired at least one alderman to meet with the Parks and Recreation Department, and has raised questions about how to tighten security at city parks.
The gazebo at Russell J. Halloran Sports & Recreation Complex on Albemarle Road was vandalized with graffiti on Aug. 10. Two weeks ago, residents say the light in the gazebo was knocked out and a small tree was bent down.
One resident said the park has been the site for a late-night game called "manhunt."
Margaret Doris, president of the Playground Project, a nonprofit community group, said she witnessed the game firsthand and that it's been occurring "all summer."
"When it's hot, I would go (to the park) at 11 p.m. at night to water the garden," Doris said. "So I would overhear a lot. It was mostly young men and some young women. I heard someone refer to it as 'manhunt,' and it appears to involve running, hiding, shrieking and finding."
Doris also said she's seen participants climb on top of the dugouts in the baseball field and broken limbs of trees.
"At first, I took it with a grain of salt," Doris said. "I can empathize that this is fun, running around in the dark. But it really has seemed to escalate, with the participants being more and more disinhibited."
Police have been by the area past midnight, which is when the park closes, but Doris said that the participants merely thank the officer, leave and then return.
Also, the Garden City blog posted photos of red marker graffiti at the Burr Playground on Pine Street that reportedly appeared over the weekend.
Fran Towle, Parks and Recreation commissioner, said to her knowledge, this was the first instance of graffiti at the Halloran Complex, and she had heard nothing about the "Manhunt" games.
"The police should be alerted to it," Towle said. "They probably have more information on that."
However, Newton Police said they haven't received a significant amount of noise complaints from the area. Doris said that the times she has seen the police, the kids leave only temporarily and then come back.
"One of the frustrating things is that when a problem is brought to the attention of the city, by either a citizen or a citizens' group, there's no way to follow through or be part of the solution to the problem," she said.
Doris said that park users see members of the Playground Project as the logical people to call to report problems, but that all she can do is bring it to the attention of the city.
"We have no authority," Doris said. "I don't know if we could help head off some of this vandalism. But I think I would feel a little better if I had some response acknowledging that there is a problem and some sort of inclusion about how we deal with this problem."
To help, Doris has reached out to Alderman Marcia Johnson, who also hadn't heard of the problems facing the city's parks.
"I have not been aware of the vandalism, and I've been on the board for 8 1/2 years," Johnson said. "I'm meeting with (Parks and Recreation Deputy Commissioner) Bob DeRubeis to look over what's happening."
Johnson stressed that the meeting would be informative and would look into the amount of police patrols in the area.
Residents should call the Newton Police Department's non-emergency phone number, 617-796-2100, to report noise complaints.
Francis Ma can be reached at fma@cnc.com.
