Melissa Bailey Photo
“It doesn’t matter if you’re drinking or not. … You’re going to have to piss on the wall. It’s a normal bodily function.”
So “Wild Bill” explained his daily behavior at downtown’s “pocket park” on Chapel Street near Orange. Some are less convinced: A crackdown has begun on public drinking and public urination there.
Wild Bill and his girlfriend are among a slew of people police have ticketed lately as they step up enforcement at a spot that’s long been known for attracting illicit behavior. The city-owned lot at 812 Chapel St., known simply as The Lot, was developed in 2005 as a public square on the grave of the demolished Phoenix Building. Open 24 hours per day, the 8,000 square-foot space is home to public art installations organized by ArtSpace — and a lot of people hanging out, night and day.
It’s a “drug area, an alcoholic park, a pill park — whatever you want,” said one man who was selling bootleg DVDs Tuesday afternoon at the bus stop at the park’s edge.
Nearby business owners say they’ve seen an uptick in intoxicated people loitering in the park this year, detracting from the art, the adjacent buildings, the views out the windows of nearby bar, and the new projects popping up among the storefronts in the 9th Square.
Covered-up graffiti on one of the walls of The Lot.
Alex Marathas, who manages a parking garage next door to the pocket park, is set to meet Wednesday with city officials about a litany of quality-of-life complaints detracting from the neighborhood as well as his property.
Marathas works for Mid Block Development, which is eyeing long-term development on properties next to the pocket park on the site of a 2007 devastating fire.
In a five-page missive to city officials on June 7, he ticked off a list of “maintenance and management” issues in The Lot.
At the top of his list: “Urination.” He said it happens daily on the The Lot alley wall, the former wig shop at the corner of Orange and Chapel, and on the walls of the former Grant building, which Marathas manages.
Wild Bill (at right in photo), a regular at The Lot, acknowledged the behavior.
Wild Bill is also known around town as “Santa Claus” on account of his white beard. He lives around the corner at Liberty Safe Haven, which offers permanent housing for the homeless. He said he spent 17 years homeless before landing there four years ago. He said he goes to the park to spend time with his girlfriend, Dottie (at left in photo). On Tuesday afternoon they talked and read a book together on a bench under the shade of a young oak tree.
As they sat there, a man approached offering drugs: “You want percs?”
The stench of alcohol permeated from the line of benches under the trees a short distance away from the busy bus stop.
“Hey miss — I got 86 arrests!” boasted the DVD-seller, who sat down nearby on the bench.
Dottie said they choose that spot for the company. The place is abuzz with visitors, some peddling drugs or bootleg material, others enjoying beer out of a paper bag. Will Bill said there’s a lot of public drinking. He was asked if he participates, too.
“Do we drink here?” asked Wild Bill. He unzipped his purple Jansport backpack and pulled out a handle of Ruble Vodka. He took a swig then dumped a generous pour into his girlfriend’s blue plastic mug.
Wild Bill said there used to be a Porta Potty in the lot, until the city took it out. Now the there’s no public bathroom immediately nearby. City Hall’s bathroom is a few blocks away. The closest spot is the Golden Rock pizza joint, where if you want to use the restroom, “you have to buy a soda.”
“If you’re drinking or not, where are you going to go to use the bathroom?” Bill asked. “You’re going to have to piss on the wall. It’s a normal bodily function.”
Bill said people make comments when he relieves himself on the wall. He would stop doing it if the city brought back the portable toilet, he offered.
Marathas said the city removed the Porta Potty because people had been smoking crack inside.
The public peeing has become a frequent problem for the Central Steakhouse at 99 Orange St., said co-owner Bill Christian.
“A lot of our customers are sitting at the bar, and they look across the street, and there’s public urination,” Christian said. “It’s a little disconcerting.”
In the last few weeks, things have improved dramatically” thanks to police enforcement in The Lot, he said.
Bill has noticed, too. He said he’s confronted daily by a downtown patrol cop named Officer Jeffrey Fletcher.
Fletcher (pictured, talking to Bill and Dottie a block away recently) returned to the downtown beat about seven months ago. He makes daily rounds through the Lot and the New Haven Green checking up on people who might be selling drugs or drinking in public.
Bill said Fletcher comes through The Lot several times a day. About a week ago, he spotted Bill and Dottie on a bench on Orange Street. Under the bench was a bottle of vodka. Fletcher slapped them each with a $91 ticket for public drinking — a charge the pair denies. (Bill said the bottle wasn’t theirs.)
Bill said the stepped-up enforcement amounts to “harassment.”
A woman standing at the nearby bus stop, meanwhile, said she was relieved by the crackdown. She stood at the bus stop with two sons, ages 10 and 12.
“There’s a lot of women who come here with their kids,” said the woman, who declined to give her name. She said kids are exposed to “swearing, drinking, and carrying on.”
Bill said other people in the park can get loud, throwing cans and mouthing off. “They ruin it for the rest of us.”
He said now that there’s so much police presence, the couple will spend more time at other spots like Wooster Square Park.
Meanwhile, Marathas plans to ask city officials to address a host of other pocket park issues: poor drainage, poor lighting, graffiti, buckled asphalt, and “the regular public verbal abuse of bus stop riders by ne’er do wells who think that the bus stop is their own personal Jerry Springer Show.”
“I have stopped 2 people who were shouting obscenities and threatened to kill each other in front of 20 riders who were too scared to say a word publicly during the incident,” Marathas wrote in his June 7 letter.
Rob Smuts, the city’s chief administrative officer, is one of the city officials planning to meet with Marathas Wednesday.
“I know we’ve been aware of the issues around that park for a while,” Smuts said. Downtown top cop Lt. Rebecca Sweeney “has been diligently trying to make a difference there,” he said, but the drug-dealing and drinking has been “a constant issue” that tends to recur even after a bust.
In the end, Smuts said, “the solution is not going to be enforcement, as much as it is displacement.” He said the city will need to “find positive uses” for the space that will drive out the negative behavior.
One nearby arts organization has found a positive way to use the space.
Artspace has arranged temporary art installations in The Lot since 1999. The latest is an “Homage to Guerrilla Gardening (pictured)” featuring “a community garden using donated household materials from throughout New England.”
“I think folks are enjoying it, but it’s maybe not large enough or significant enough to send the signal: ‘Do not abuse me,’” said Helen Kauder, director of Artspace.
Kauder said so far this year she’s seen an uptick in the number of “clearly intoxicated” people in the park. “That makes it difficult on everybody,” she said.
Artspace staff find empty pill bottles among the trash in the area, Kauder said. The Town Green Special Services District “clean team” makes routine visits to the space, she added. “We’re all trying to work at it.”
Next week, Artspace will bring teenage summer interns to work in The Lot.
“We’re obviously anxious” about using the space, Kauder said. “We want it to be as safe as possible.”
Wild Bill and his friend, Dottie, clearly want it every which way but Sunday- they want to be able to enjoy the outdoor space, and yet boldly pour Vodka into their cups while talking to the reporter when they know public drinking is not allowed; then, they complain about harassment and yet urinate in public, another illegal activity.
Don't they take any pride in their "space.' Why aren't they disgusted by all the drug sellers. What's the matter with these people?
As I said, they want it all and be able to also, do what THEY want to do in a public space. ...