To the editor:

I have lived on the 1100 block of Vermont Street since 1981, and for 20 years have walked South Park daily at dawn and after dusk. I understand why some residents link fears about safety to the shelter, but years of living here tell me these issues are not linked to the shelter. Some problems were worse before the shelter; some are ongoing.

Summer always brought people homeless or not who spent the night drinking beer until they feel asleep. These groups urinated in the park, had sex and left trash. The new public bathroom has curtailed the urinating, and the shelter diminished the number of men drinking themselves to sleep.

South Park is the crossroads between the downtown bars and campus. The bar traffic, not the homeless, bring the late-night noise, scary yelling and serious vandalism to trees, cars, water fountains and trash cans.

Unlike my neighbor, I don’t believe increased calls to police are linked to the shelter. I call often: when a girl’s screaming wakes me, when loud noises suggest a fight or car vandalism, when drunken youth threaten to kill each other. I have never called because of the homeless.

I suggest the city install a streetlight near the benches on Vermont to make them less inviting at night. Patrol the park between midnight and 2 a.m. when bar traffic, noise and vandalism are highest. Enforce the park’s no-alcohol law.

Judith Galas,

Lawrence