On September 13, police commanders and the mayor went to tour the park and listen, once again, to the complaints of neighbors of Capitol Hill's Cal Anderson Park. Homeless men on benches, drug users in the bathrooms, and a spate of violence in the summer months led to a frenzy of demands for official intervention. Most specifically, they were upset that a 65-year-old man was stabbed in June and another man allegedly pepper-sprayed strangers.

Park rangers attribute the violence to an influx of out-of-town drifters. In response, city officials have begun sweeping the park's two square blocks at 6:00 a.m., and despite a tight budget and fewer staff, parks maintenance crews changed public bathroom lights to discourage drug use (some bulbs hide veins, making it harder for users to shoot up), enhanced the lighting in the Bobby Morris playfield, cut hedges to remove hiding places, and made plans to remove some benches where homeless people congregate.

But the underlying tension between residents and city officials was over how to homeless-proof the park rather than just make it safer.

"I am not some anti-homeless yuppie," said Laura Stockwell. She repeatedly told the story of a man who spoke to her kids even though she didn't want anyone talking to her kids, and how she found a homeless man sleeping in the playground on a Sunday morning. "In New York, playgrounds are typically locked up," she said.

Kay Rood, a board member of the Cal Anderson Park Alliance, noted during the tour that a power outlet was being used to charge a homeless woman's phone, saying the power outlet "shouldn't be there, I think."

"We need to draw a distinction between being homeless and being uncivil," cautioned Lieutenant Joel Guay. "Being homeless itself isn't the issue—being homeless in a park is not a crime."