OK, trying to relate this to a design blog is a stretch (Piedmont Park is an awesome F.L.O. Sr.-designed park in the middle of midtown Atlanta – it even has a Noguchi playground in it), but I received the following police report from my safety-conscious neighbor and I had to share it with SOMEONE – it just gets more and more bizarre with each paragraph, especially paragraph three. I’m off to rent “Paris is Burning” and forward this to Creative Loafing…

ISSUES IN PIEDMONT PARK

Chris Nelson of the Piedmont Park Conservancy was in attendance at the meeting and told about a serious problem in the park. As this problem has been presented to us this is probably the most dangerous ongoing situation we have encountered so far…

Every Sunday evening there is a large and unruly crowd ranging from 500 to over 1000 people who gather at the 12th Street entrance. Among this crowd are people engaging in fights and other violent behavior, and various illegal activities such as drug use and public indecency. The problem continues to escalate weekly and we fear that if some concrete solutions are not found, someone will be seriously injured or even killed. Needless to say, most regular park visitors are afraid to use this area of the Park on Sunday evenings. An off-duty officer was struck by a car on Father’s Day Sunday when he tried to stop someone for some kind of disorderly conduct. The managers of Willy’s and Quattro were quoted as saying this has become a serious problem for his businesses. There have also been reports of someone being injured by a thrown brick, and another who was cut in the face with a knife.

This is somehow tied in with a group that has been meeting there for several years. They are organized to some degree into groups, known as ‘houses,’ and into something known as “vogue dancing.” We are told the movie Paris is Burning would shed more light on them. We don’t fully understand what this group is but we do not think there is anything problematic about the group’s intentions or philosophy – and certainly nothing problematic about vogue dancing – but some bad elements are definitely coming into their midst. As we understand it, it is apparently somewhere between a fraternity and a sub-culture of mostly African-American gay men and transgenders. We would love to hear from someone who could explain this fully to us.

We will be looking more into this situation but please share your experiences and observations with us.

Madonna photo by Herb Ritts