Info I got from Park Police while walking there on Sunday also. I was outraged:<br><br>A party obtained a permit for 100 people. Alcohol is not permitted and the violation was noted. The party secured the use of the park with a $500 deposit which is confiscated, considering the countless violations this event produced. The Park Police RAN OUT OF TICKETS!!!<br><br>The damage done to the side of the trails and the trash left after the event was incredible. Clean up cannot happen until - at the earliest - the next day, so with windy condition or rain, you can imagine where the trash ends: our beloved waterways.<br><br>There is also a problem with the ball players there, but it is certainly not as bad as it was Sunday.<br><br>Anne<br><br><br><b><i>Dwight Holmes <dwightrholmes@gmail.com></i></b> wrote:<blockquote class="replbq" style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"> We finally dusted the bikes off and got out on the trails
yesterday -<br>at least 3 months too late, but better late than never.<br><br>As usual we headed up Riverdale to the NE Branch trail, sped under E-W<br>Highway and into Anacostia River Park, headed north towards College<br>Park and Lake Artemesia. (This was around 5 or 5:30 pm on Sunday)<br><br>Being a weekend afternoon, you expect the park to be busy. But we've<br>never seen it like this.<br><br>The park was absolutely full of people and vehicles, from where the<br>playgrounds begin on the south end to well north of the "NO VEHICLES<br>BEYOND THIS POINT" sign up by the River Rd. bridge. The trail itself<br>was completely blocked by people, adults and kids. No adults were<br>ceding the path to bell-ringing bicyclists, nor were they encouraging<br>their kids to let the cyclists through either. When we got to the fork<br>where the bike trail veers right and the park road/parking veers left,<br>we opted left simply because with the wider pavement, there was a<br>better
chance of getting through at all. Basically, we tiptoed our<br>bikes through the crowds the entire length of the park.<br><br> It appeared to be a very large and organized event. The music was<br>loud and there were announcements over a PA system. Parking spilled<br>over everywhere (which, coupled with the recent heavy rains, means a<br>lot of grass was torn up. Maybe we need a "PLEASE REPLACE YOUR<br>DIVOTS" sign. ;-) )<br><br>As we passed the park entrance road and the "NO VEHICLES BEYOND THIS<br>POINT" sign headed onwards toward the airport, and were still passing<br>cars parked on both sides of the trail, I said to Michelle, "somewhere<br>there there's got to be a violation, starting with parking where there<br>aren't supposed to be any cars."<br><br>On the way home 45 minutes later, lo and behold there were two<br>Maryland-National Capital Park Police cars there, and the troopers<br>were ticketing all those cars parked where no cars should be. A good<br>revenue day
for the county, I suppose. We avoided some of the most<br>congested area by taking a right by the baseball field and exiting<br>onto Somerset Rd, and coming home via Lafayette.<br><br>I know some of these issues have been brought up before on this list.<br>My search skills have proved lacking in trying to pull them up.<br>In my own mind, I wrestle with where the line is between use of the<br>park -- obviously a good and welcome thing; that's why we have them,<br>to be enjoyed -- and abuse.<br><br>It brings up some policy/legal questions I don't know the answers to:<br>1. Is alcohol permitted or not in the M-NCPP parks?<br>2. Is parking allowed on the grass anywhere?<br>3. If organizing a party of, say 500 people there (I'm guessing there<br>were more than that, actually - there must have been several hundred<br>cars at least), is any kind of permit required? If so, was it obtained<br>yesterday, and what is the holder of the permit accountable for?<br><br>I never wanted to
be the neighbor who called the police with a<br>complaint about loud neighbors (haven't ever had to do that,<br>thankfully). But what are the criteria on which both citizens and law<br>enforcement should act? That is the question.<br><br>Thoughts?<br><br>Dwight Holmes<br><br>--<br>"A budget is a moral document." --Jim Wallis<br>"Don't tell me what you value, show me your budget, and I'll tell you<br>what you value." --Sen. Joe Biden<br>_______________________________________________<br>TownTalk mailing list<br>To post to the list, send mail to TownTalk@riverdale-park.org<br>TownTalk-request@riverdale-park.org is for automated subscription processing only<br>http://riverdale-park.org/mailman/listinfo/towntalk<br><br>For more information about Riverdale Park, visit http://www.ci.riverdale-park.md.us<br></blockquote><br>