After a surge of complaints about an unsavory element this summer in Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill, the mayor and police commanders took community leaders on a tour of the two-square block expanse of greenery. The tour began with an explanation of how the parks department and police are addressing recent incidents of violence and "general feelings of unease in the park," as concerned mother Laura Stockwell put it.

"Do I not get to grow up and have a house?" Stockwell asked rhetorically. "It feels like kids aren't welcome on Capitol Hill."

Stockwell, parks lover Kay Rood, and Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce executive director Michael Wells noted problems with benches outside the park on East Pine Street where homeless people congregate (at the time, four African American men occupied sat in the benches as Wells noted that once somebody in the Oddfellows building said there was "activity" in the area), that people sometimes sleep in the park, and that once a man spoke to Stockwell's kids even though she didn't want anyone talking to her kids. "It feels like it's off limits to me," Stockwell said about the park when unusual people are hanging out in it.

The mayor and police listened.

Park rangers have begun sweeping the park at 6:00 a.m., and despite a tight budget and fewer staff in the parks department, maintenance crews have enhanced the lighting in the Bobby Morris play field, changed public bathroom lights to discourage drug use (some bulbs hide veins, making it more difficult for drug users to shoot up), cut hedges to remove hiding places, and replaced long park benches with those that have arm rests, to deter people from sleeping on them. More talks are underway to cut the costs of renting the park's community center, clean up graffiti more frequently, and perhaps even hire a full-time park busker (much like Westlake Center and Pioneer Square employ) to program activities in the park.

But the underlying tension between city officials like superintendent Christopher Williams and East Precinct Lieutenant Joel Guay, and concerned Capitol Hill residents like Stockwell, was about people feeling unsafe rather than a specific illegal acts—or rather, how to homeless-proof the space rather than activate it.

"I am not some anti-homeless yuppie," stressed Stockwell. "But in New York, playgrounds are typically locked up. It's just a thought."

"That electrical outlet is one of our problems," said Rood, pointing to an electrical outlet near the basketball courts where men have been documented offering free outdoor tattoos and where, last night, a man was charging his phone. "They use that outlet all the time. Sometimes they plug in boom boxes and have rock-and-roll concerts."

"It shouldn't be there, I think," Rood said about the power outlet.

At that moment, a woman with purple hair and fishnet stockings interrupted the tour. "Yes, there are homeless people in this neighborhood," said the woman, who introduced herself as Laudette. "We're looking for jobs. We need a way to charge our phones—it's a necessity for me. I understand it's an eyesore to you people, but it's important for me."

Others on the tour described a "gauntlet" of unsavory people loitering and sleeping on the benches along Pine Street and narrow parts of the park, which made passersby uncomfortable and caused business owners to complain.

"I think there's a desire to link the benches to specific behavior and I think that's wrong," Williams said.

"We need to draw a distinction between homeless and being uncivil," added Lt. Guay. "Being homeless itself isn't the issue—being homeless in a park is not a crime. It's selling weed next to the kiddie pools that's bad." Regardless, the benches are being removed.

After the tour, Laudette approached me again. "I come here every morning and take a bath in the bathroom," she said. "My kids and I hang out here because it's safe—cops patrol and my kids can play. If they take that away from us, it'll put us in unsafe situations, like in alleys or the jungle. People like that one uptight mom forget that we're part of the community. If they really want to help, they'll put up a bulletin board with job listings."