Courier-Tribune series on Asheboro’s “big city” problems. First up—‘hanging out’ in Bicentennial Park:
Claudia Ainsworth, who manages Morings, the Randolph Arts Guild gift shop on Sunset Avenue, has seen comings and goings in the park for years. She walks her dog in Bicentennial Park three or four times on weekdays.
“I’ve seen it gradually attract a rougher population,” she said last week. “There was a time you would see a lot of young joggers, a lot of young mothers with their children. I have heard comments about their presence causing people to go elsewhere.”
Ainsworth has seen families with children using the park, but she also has seen people go behind the trees to use the bathroom next to the railroad tracks that pass the park. She has seen men and women asleep, or passed out, on the stage and elsewhere in the park — even while others were using the stage to exercise.
“There’s often broken beer bottles and what appears to be liquor bottles abandoned,” she said. “I’ve also seen it littered with the tail ends of joints. I do know there are drug deals. I’ve seen that happen.
And don’t forget the panhandlers. What can you say big-city issues come with big-city status.
