Pogonip Closure Brings Relief, Resignation
Written by Tara Leonard
SANTA CRUZ (September, 2009) -- Park regulars have responded to the closure of a portion of Pogonip with a mixture of relief and resignation. As details emerge about a thriving drug operation in the area, city agencies appear overwhelmed and under-funded in their fight to maintain control of the 640-acre city park. Meanwhile, park visitors wait and wonder what will happen next.
Pogonip is a scenic expanse of open meadows and woodlands situated between Highway 9 to the east, UCSC to the West, Henry Cowell State Park to the North, and the Harvey West area of Santa Cruz to the South. It features over nine miles of trails frequented by hikers, dog walkers, and runners. On Thursday, September 3, signs announced the closure of approximately one quarter of the park along its eastern border, including the popular Fern Trail. The closure notice cites Summary Nuisance Abatement under Municipal Code 2.20. This emergency preparedness code states that when there is an immediate threat to public health or safety, the director of emergency services has the right to order the area vacated.
Closure notices warn of a minimum $1,000 fine for trespassing.
The threat is two-fold according to Captain Steve Clark of the Santa Cruz City Police. “The issue is safety,” Clark said. “We’ve seen the drug problem just explode in that area. It has taken such a bad turn that it’s not a safe area for people to be in. The activity down there is also adding to an already high risk of wildfire.”
That concern is echoed by Mark Ramos, Division Chief, Santa Cruz City Fire Department. “The illegal activity in that area includes cooking drugs with open flames. This time of year, with the hot, dry weather, it creates a dangerous fire situation.”
While park users are happy to see the problem finally addressed, they’re frustrated by the timing and manner of the closure. Adam Boothe is the owner of Central Coast Running in downtown Santa Cruz, head coach of women’s cross county at UCSC, and a fixture on the local running scene. “The more hardcore runners in town saw this coming for some time,” Boothe said. “We’ve always felt that lower Pogonip isn’t the safest place. I talked to a ranger months and months ago about this issue and asked why it wasn’t being policed more. It’s amazing that it was allowed to get to this point.”
“This point” includes more than 100 arrests in lower Pogonip since May, primarily for possession of heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine. According to Clark, tens of thousands of dollars are crossing hands between drug buyers and dealers armed with handguns and knives. “Lower Pogonip contains the perfect storm for drugs deals,” he continued. “There are lots of places to hide your drugs, lots of places to run if the police come up there, and a very concealed location. You can be standing ten feet away from someone and not see them.”
“Pogonip offers a complete interface between urban and open space,” added Steve Hammack, Parks Superintendent for the City of Santa Cruz. “We’re talking acres and acres of space with multiple access points. We don’t have enough police to station at each and every entrance. We can try our best to alleviate the problem and mitigate it.”
Hearing about those challenges only fuels the concerns of Boothe, who asked, “Are they simply going to close the area and think the problem is solved? The people who are the problem aren’t going to care about a sign. And what’s next? Do you keep trails closed until it rains? Will they close more trails? What’s to keep the problem from simply moving to another area of the park?”
“You close it,” Hammack responded. “You enforce the closure. You clean it up. You monitor it and open it back up with an eye to keep monitoring it. How do you do that? It won’t be easy. We’ll need to focus a lot of our resources there. So guess what? We won’t be focusing elsewhere.”
That’s because the already strained city budget forces officials to prioritize limited resources, including man hours. (Ironically, initial calls and e-mails about this story went unanswered by city officials out on Friday furlough.)
For now, lower Pogonip will remain closed indefinitely while the police department, parks and recreation, and fire department assess the public nuisance and fire hazard, and evaluate resource damage that has already taken place.
The entire Eastern border of Pogonip is now closed to the public.
“There’s no desire to close other portions of the park at this time,” Clark assured. “We don’t want to have the current area closed any longer than necessary. But we need to take the time to make it safe and accessible. We need to hit it hard and get the problems out of there so it is once again usable for its intended purpose.”
Meanwhile, Hammack feel confident that, “The rest of the park is still safe, even safer, because we have more resources in the area than ever before.”
What will happen when those resources disappear is another question.
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