Park signs to keep adults off playgrounds: 'People were afraid to bring their children here'
Signs at Governor's Park and Sonny Lawson Park near Five Points are among the parks warning adults to stay out of the playgrounds unless accompanied by a minor.
Scott Gilmore, deputy executive for Denver Parks and Recreation, believes this is an important effort to protect residents.
"What we want is families and children to come into this space and feel safe because we have been challenged with bad behavior, adults engaging in bad behavior," said Gilmore.
It's an attempt to discourage that bad behavior such as illegal drug use, crime and more from happening in these public spaces.
"My park staff would come out every day, clean the parks, that is their daily task," Gilmore said. "My park staff was starting to find needles and then there was a day my staff found 40 hypodermic needles in this playground."
Needles weren't the only thing they would find at these parks. Human feces was among other things that were found.
This evidently led to the closure of several parks, including Governor's Park, for about a year.
But, after re-opening the parks a couple of months ago, signs are being noticed by neighbors.
Richard Wilson, a resident of the area, says before, the parks were almost unbearable to be around.
"I think it is a great idea … for a long time it felt like the parks in the neighborhood had been taken away from us … for a long time, people were afraid to bring their children here," said Wilson.
They were right to feel that way, but now the city of Denver hopes people respect this safety preventive measure.
" This is a rule that we put up, that we are not really going to enforce unless engage in illegal or bad behavior," said Gimore.
Other states have enforced this law and even served tickets to those who break this rule, Denver is taking a lighter approach, but hopes they don't have to enforce stricter rules.
