My experiencew w/ the skate rats ahave not been all that bad. I politely ask them to go skate somewhere else as they are keeping me up (at night) and they leave.

The dopes that scream and yell at 3am in the park or along 5th street while they wait for their bus or their dealer are a worse problem....not to mention the tacky music that plays all day and night from the speakers in the ampitheater. Not everybody finds that sound very soothing - just the opposite. I do believe that would be considered torture under the Geneva Convention. Who decided that all that live along the park have to listen to it? Gee thanks "Friends of Mears Park"! ....not!

I absolutely agree about the issue of the skateboarders in Mears Park. We happened to be sitting on the low walls built for that purpose. The skateboarders were obviously annoyed by us using areas they wanted to do their trick boarding on, which is not legal. They even went so far as to make verbal threats about bringing their dog down to the park to kill our dogs. Which were a very well behaved Yorkie and Chihuahua. Small dogs that were not bothering anyone.They know the police consider them not worth dealing with, so if you do make a comment about it not being legal to skateboard in the park, you get belligerence and snotty remarks. I don't even feel safe going there anymore.

The skateboarding itself doesn't bother me. It's the attitude that comes with it. They know no one is going to do anything about it, and they are getting more aggressive every time we are in the park.

I'm a volunteer gardener in the park. It's very disturbing to see our hard work and personal money we put into the gardens and flowerpots being treated so badly when they vandalize them. If they were at least respectful it wouldn't be so bad, but when they act the way they do, it just takes the joy out of going to the park.