RESIDENTS SAY DRUGS PERSIST AT DOLORES PARK

San Francisco police have beefed up patrols at Dolores Park. Prosecutors
have stiffened penalties. And residents have formed neighborhood watch
groups.

But nothing, most local residents agree, has kept drug dealers from
returning to the more secluded, tree-shrouded areas of the 13- acre park in
the Mission District.

``Dealers in the western two acres of the park . . . have marked the
sidewalks, bridge and retaining walls with their identities,'' Donald Bird,
co-creator of Friends of Dolores Park, said yesterday. ``We have found
brass knuckles, knives, screwdrivers, razor blades, claw hammers, metal
spikes, sharp hardwood sticks and bullet slugs. Recently, we've seen them
with slingshots.''

Even folks in Peoria found out a while back how easy it is to buy pot in
the park, thanks to a reference in Garry Trudeau's ``Doonesbury'' comic
strip.

``It breaks my heart to read in `Doonesbury' that we have national
recognition as the place to buy pot,'' said executive director Raquel
Medina of the Mission Economic Development Association, which plans to open
a cafe in the park next year.

Medina was among more than a dozen speakers at a special hearing at the
Supervisors' Parks and Recreation Committee yesterday urging for more
financial, political and police help to make Dolores Park a safer place.
Supervisor Gavin Newsom called for the meeting after one resident said a
drug dealer threatened him with a knife. Though many ideas were tossed out,
Newsom agreed that the best ways to try to drive the druggies from the park
would be by increasing police patrols to 12 hours a day and forcing dealers
arrested in the park to stay away in the future.

Mission Station police Captain Greg Suhr acknowledged that 12- hour patrols
would help, but he said it would require overtime, and that could be
expensive. Police now pass through the park at least a dozen times a day
and make more than 100 arrests a month.

Residents say police are doing a better job, but they add that the
criminals hide in the more shadowy areas of the park.

``Mission police are doing an excellent job of addressing the situation,''
Bird said. ``But as great as these efforts have been, the dealing,
harassment, threats and violence continue.''

Joel Robinson, director of the Recreation and Park Department, acknowledged
that some of the more secluded areas in the park make it easy for dealers
to hide. But he believes that good landscaping can solve some of the
problem.

``As we speak, crews are pruning the trees and removing the underbrush all
the way down to 19th Street,'' Robinson said. ``It is being completely
opened up.''

Another solution, Suhr suggested, is to penalize anyone -- not just the
dealer -- who is caught in the park with even the slightest amount of
marijuana.

``There would be a straight-up, voluntary fine for any possession of
marijuana, except medicinal marijuana,'' Suhr said. ``Right now, there's no
downside to having less than an ounce of marijuana. That needs to change.''

Dolores Park, once a Jewish cemetery, was sold to San Francisco in 1905 for
nearly $300,000, according to historical accounts compiled by the
Neighborhood Parks Council. For a time, the land was used to house 50,000
people left homeless by the 1906 earthquake.

Since then, the park has become an urban haven for dog owners, tennis
players and families.

Dolores Park has also become a popular spot for buying and selling drugs,
mainly marijuana. In 1993, the lack of funding for greater police presence
prompted some residents to form their own vigilante- style street patrol. A
recent increase in funding has allowed police to beef up patrols, but the
drug dealers and buyers keep coming back.

One resident said she intends to ask Mayor Willie Brown to intervene.

``Frankly, it's the only way to get the drug dealers to stay out,'' she said.

1998 San Francisco Chronicle Page A15

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)