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Vandalism and shady goings-on at community commons worry neighbors, who say they are harder-hit than the city's more prominent parks. But police say it's a matter of being closer to the problem.
 Playground equipment is in poor condition, marked with black paint used to cover graffiti at Huck Park in southeastern Tracy. Glenn Moore/Tracy Press
Police, however, maintain that the growing worry stems more from a perception problem than an actual spike in criminal activity at small parks.
Statistically, the bigger parks bring in more people, and thus more problems, Tracy Police Department Capt. John Espinoza said today.
"Everything has its context."
But a quick survey of eight neighborhood parks supported many neighbors’ claims that the quaint play areas are many times neglected or defaced.
With the exception of the neatly kept Golden Spike Park off Petrig and Kearn streets, each one looked like a target for vandals.
 Spray-paint mars the blacktop area of Fisher Park off Tracy Boulevard. Glenn Moore/Tracy Press
Every park, whether in south, east or west Tracy, was empty.
"I wouldn’t let my daughter play in there," said 19-year-old Veronica Quiroz, who lives a door down from the heavily vandalized Hoyt Park, off Third Street and Dale O’Dell Drive. "It’s crap. It’s nasty."
Even if some tagging got a quick-fix cover-up from the city’s graffiti patrol, the fixes are obvious — big gray or black splotches on fences, soundwalls, basketball courts, benches and playground sets.
And some neighbors spoken to today say the bandaged patches are ugly, too, just less offensive than what they cover.
Espinoza said people might think the problem is worse than it is because they’re closer to it. But really, bigger parks are no better than the smaller ones, he said, adding that pedestrians have an inherent advantage over patrolling cop cars. They can simply see more.
"If you’re walking around in a park every day, you’ll notice more problems," he said. "But we (police) can’t always see everything when we drive around. There might be a little barrier or something that blocks graffiti that someone would see on foot."
Police rely on residents to report tagging, drug use or underage drinking in some of the city’s less prominent parks, he said.
"If people don’t let us know, then we’re never going to be able to monitor the activities people complain about," Espinoza said. "The only ones that really come to our attention are at the bigger parks. That’s just going off reported crimes, which is really all we can do."
Also, not all the vandalism and graffiti at city parks are gang-related, he said.
Tracy has 65 parks covering 252 acres, most of which are smaller and are considered neighborhood parks.
The city has a graffiti hotline and employs a handful of workers who respond to reports of tagging, most of which involve city parks, police said.
• City of Tracy
Graffiti Hotline, 831-4583
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