\n\t\t\t\t\t\tResidents near Sacramento\u2019s Land Park say they are increasingly concerned about what they describe as drug use, lewd behavior and overnight camping in the park after dark. Land Park draws thousands of visitors on a typical weekend, but Kristina Rogers, president of the Land Park Community Association, said the park changes overnight.\u201cThe park is closed at sunset. It opens at sunrise,\u201d Rogers said. \u201cMost people are not in the park. They\u2019re at home. They\u2019re resting. They have no idea what\u2019s happening from 10 to 4 a.m.\u201dRogers said neighbors have reported multiple safety concerns and that volunteers who help clean the park have found evidence of illegal activity.\u201cNeighbors have found condoms and needles,\u201d Rogers said. \u201cIn fact, our Land Park Volunteer Corps, which cleans the park, they frequently find condoms and needles in specific parts of the park.\u201dDuring a visit to several areas of Land Park on Sunday, KCRA 3 saw numerous discarded beer and liquor bottles and also found a used contraceptive near a duck pond.Jim Randlett, a Land Park resident who said he has lived in the neighborhood for decades, said he avoids the park at night.\u201cWe stay out of the park at night,\u201d Randlett said. \u201cWe don\u2019t think it\u2019s safe here.\u201dRandlett said overnight encampments have become a growing concern. He pointed to two recurring areas where he said people often stay overnight, including the parking lot behind Fairytale Town.\u201cThere are two primary spots,\u201d Randlett said. \u201cI\u2019ve seen a number of cars, you know, set up in there overnight.\u201dHe also said he frequently sees signs of overnight activity in the morning.\u201cRight along that strip over there is where we walk the dog and we\u2019ll see, you know, beer bottles and stuff like that, and those things that you can\u2019t mention on TV,\u201d Randlett said.In April, the Sacramento City Council voted to ban overnight parking between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. at three locations, including Land Park. But neighbors said the park\u2019s gates are often left open.\u201cMany of these places, there are gates which have been left open at night,\u201d Rogers said. \u201cSo it allows people to drive in and sort of do whatever they want at night.\u201dResidents said they are now pushing for those gates to be closed overnight in hopes of reducing after-hours activity.\u201cWe don\u2019t have an invisible barrier around our park. We still have crime and it\u2019s still not OK, wherever it\u2019s going on,\u201d Rogers said. \u201cSo we\u2019re just trying in our neighborhood to be proactive about it and work with our City Council to help make things better for everybody, so when they wake up in the morning and come out and enjoy the park, it\u2019s clean, it\u2019s safe, it\u2019s comfortable.\u201dKCRA 3 reached out to the office of Councilmember Rick Jennings, who represents the area, for comment but did not receive a response. The community association said it has been working closely with Jennings on possible solutions.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel | Make KCRA a preferred news source in Google\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tSACRAMENTO, Calif. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Residents near Sacramento\u2019s Land Park say they are increasingly concerned about what they describe as drug use, lewd behavior and overnight camping in the park after dark. <\/p>\n
Land Park draws thousands of visitors on a typical weekend, but Kristina Rogers, president of the Land Park Community Association, said the park changes overnight.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe park is closed at sunset. It opens at sunrise,\u201d Rogers said. \u201cMost people are not in the park. They\u2019re at home. They\u2019re resting. They have no idea what\u2019s happening from 10 to 4 a.m.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rogers said neighbors have reported multiple safety concerns and that volunteers who help clean the park have found evidence of illegal activity.<\/p>\n
\u201cNeighbors have found condoms and needles,\u201d Rogers said. \u201cIn fact, our Land Park Volunteer Corps, which cleans the park, they frequently find condoms and needles in specific parts of the park.\u201d<\/p>\n
During a visit to several areas of Land Park on Sunday, KCRA 3 saw numerous discarded beer and liquor bottles and also found a used contraceptive near a duck pond.<\/p>\n
Jim Randlett, a Land Park resident who said he has lived in the neighborhood for decades, said he avoids the park at night.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe stay out of the park at night,\u201d Randlett said. \u201cWe don\u2019t think it\u2019s safe here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Randlett said overnight encampments have become a growing concern. He pointed to two recurring areas where he said people often stay overnight, including the parking lot behind Fairytale Town.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are two primary spots,\u201d Randlett said. \u201cI\u2019ve seen a number of cars, you know, set up in there overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also said he frequently sees signs of overnight activity in the morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight along that strip over there is where we walk the dog and we\u2019ll see, you know, beer bottles and stuff like that, and those things that you can\u2019t mention on TV,\u201d Randlett said.<\/p>\n
In April, the Sacramento City Council voted to ban overnight parking between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. at three locations, including Land Park. But neighbors said the park\u2019s gates are often left open.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany of these places, there are gates which have been left open at night,\u201d Rogers said. \u201cSo it allows people to drive in and sort of do whatever they want at night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Residents said they are now pushing for those gates to be closed overnight in hopes of reducing after-hours activity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have an invisible barrier around our park. We still have crime and it\u2019s still not OK, wherever it\u2019s going on,\u201d Rogers said. \u201cSo we\u2019re just trying in our neighborhood to be proactive about it and work with our City Council to help make things better for everybody, so when they wake up in the morning and come out and enjoy the park, it\u2019s clean, it\u2019s safe, it\u2019s comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n
KCRA 3 reached out to the office of Councilmember Rick Jennings, who represents the area, for comment but did not receive a response. The community association said it has been working closely with Jennings on possible solutions.<\/p>\n
See more coverage of top California stories here<\/a> | Download our app<\/a> | Subscribe to our morning newsletter<\/a> | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel<\/a> | Make KCRA a preferred news source in Google<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Residents near Sacramento\u2019s Land Park say they are increasingly concerned about what they describe as drug use, lewd…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[14852,1610,9770,159288,121,123,122],"class_list":["post-396331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-andres-valle","tag-city-council","tag-land-park","tag-overnight-camping","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}