Here’s the latest from the crackerjack (and, apparently, minority-watching) news hounds at 19 Action News: A downtown park has become a “cultural hangout” for Arabs. This is news. This is cause for investigation.

You won’t believe it, Ed Gallek and his bewildered investigative team report, but Arabs (and even Indians) are socializing at Perk Park at 10 and even 11 p.m., when the park is supposed to be closed by 9. What gives? 

After some hard-nosed, in-your-face investigating, Gallek ascertained that many Arab parents don’t mind letting their children hang out late when there’s no school the next day.

But 19 Action News sniffed out that bogus info. They checked (!!!) and determined that there was school the next day. Just what exactly is going on with all these Arabs at this Walnut Wednesday hangout? 

For now, they’re waiting for police to respond to questions about security, but we’ll be all over this one too. 

The video, if you’re curious what it looks like when some people stand around talking and a news team films them from a distance, can be found here.

This article appears in Sep 10-16, 2014.

Sam Allard is a former senior writer at Scene.

27 replies on “19 Action News Wants to Know Why All These Arabic People Are Hanging Out!”

  1. Must have been a really slow news day. So much for being Honest. Fair. Everywhere, Maybe time to change the name to brutally honest amiright?

  2. If they don’t mind them hanging out all night, take them home where they belong and let them !!! There’s a curfew… get off the streets !!

  3. Ms. Ahmed, children accompanied by parents/guardians are not subject to curfew.

    More importantly, many new Americans socialize during off hours because they work off hours as well – staffing emergency rooms and service businesses.

    This is a positive, community-building, family-welcoming use of Perk Park. It’s evidence that the park is well-designed and feels safe, even late at night. Hopefully, Cleveland recognizes that world-class cities meet the social and cultural needs of immigrants and will find a way to accommodate these families.

  4. AS a long time (30yrs) down town resident. This has been a long time problem and yes problem. The Chrserfield & RSQ are across from Perk Park and the NOISE is a problem and after midnight more so. The Park closes at 9:00 PM not 2 AM and the police have ignored this and no one will help. It is not an arab/Indian problem but a case of if the Perk Park closes at 9:00…it closes for every one. I wonder how many of the good people with the above comments would allow a party next to where they live

  5. Look at these families enjoying themselves at a beautiful, peaceful public park…Its terrible. Dont they know they are suppose to spend time with their family late at night parked in front of the televesion like everyone else. A pleasant walk outside after dinner, a chat with neighboors, enjoyment of public space…next thing you know these immigrants are going to ask for more green space, a functional public education, equitable justice system, and fair voting laws. Despicable.

  6. Are they serious? Its a park. People sit there, hang out with their kids, walk their dogs, talk, play checkers. No one is bothering anyone. I have ridden my bike past there many times and never saw anyone even acting up. People need to mind their own business. Live and let live.

  7. For those of you who don’t know, Channel 19 is right across the street and faces Perk Park. It is posted, that the Park closes at 9pm, probably due to the Park shooting years back when the park had walls hiding goings on. Now it’s mostly flat and the people hanging out are families and dog walkers. I walk through it all the time and have seen no issues. Why does the park need to close at all? If so, 11pm makes more sense. That’s not too late to go to bed.

  8. to the guy above who’s concerned about the noise – you live in the city. not only that, you live DOWNTOWN. and with the way it’s being developed more and more over there, it’s only going to get worse. so move to the ‘burbs if quiet is what you need.

  9. Are rules not for everyone here in cleveland? Park closes at 9, well thats all we need. RIGHT. Right¿ 🙁

  10. They turned what could have been a nice story about immigrant families building community by making good use of public space-into a kind of paranoid and insulting commentary. People all over the world gather at night (in fact activities as such foster neighborhood security) but they made it a point to REALLY point out Arabs, which in itself shows how insulting this piece was. If I am not mistaken, the folks that LIVE near this park ARE Arabs and Southeast Asian and the primarily white women just WORK here…which would explain the change in crowd during the day.

  11. If the park closes at 9, then it closes at 9. Disregard for the rules is straight ignorance, from all involved. When we used to hang at the parks after they closed as a kid we got kicked out of them. Just kick them out and be done with it….

  15. Color of skin not important. Park closes at 9. That’s 9pm . When the Park is closed to the Public.

  16. I have a hilarious story. Get a cup of coffee and prepare. Ready?

    I grew up in the East Cleveland part of Rochester NY, and I am white. I was about 75/95 lbs and 5 ft 7 in when I graduated HS. The street smarts on me are world-class.

    Bulima and such are bullshit. Get a thugette to bitch-slap the stupid out of a child of yours that tries this on.

    But I digress……

    I could not get a job after college, and was living in Detroit. 1971-ish. So I went across 8 MIle and waitressed in a bar. Y’all MUST know even the cops would not go? This was only a few years after The Riots….ask your Grandparents, if not.

    But I digress…..

    I LOATHE a man putting his hands on me without my permission. Black men and Arabic men were HORRIBLE with the grab ass, so I cried on one about the other and they all left me alone.

    I made a goddamn fortune in tips.

    *Applause Sign*

    NO ONE needs welfare.

    Daddy, not the Government since like fucking Adam and Eve.

    LMAO!

  17. Madeline, can I have a hit off that doobie you’re smoking? TWI is not a good idea.

    Was that a typo in one of the earlier posts? If not, I love it…NeighBOORS. That’s EXACTLY what they are.

    Ever live by a problem park? Across from a halfway house? With yells and screams from the all-night smokers? Or where little thugs and thugettes used the slide and the swings as bongo drums and steel drums? I’ve dealt with both kinds of parks. The latter park was called Darky Park for a reason. The city…not Cleveland, not in Ohio…was forced to rip out the equipment and re-do the whole shebang, at taxpayer expense.

    Until the ordinance is changed, the park closes at NINE. Not 11 or 2. Deal with it. This is not Manhattan or Brooklyn. Get the law changed or get the fuck off the street.

    Chuckles the Clown

  18. How do you know if they are plotting over there… anyone hanging out at big groups on certain days,sounds like they are getting together for a reason.

  20. If you want to admit it or not, there is a cultural issue here. There is a consistency with lack of manners coming from their children, lack of respect towards women and in your face disregard of rules and laws. These are facts. In Westlake we see this every day. It is time to say something and stand up to the bad behavior. It is time to throw PC out the window.

  22. Is that the park on East 4th Street across from the Arcade? I’ve seen people out there all hours and the cops did nothing. Maybe I wasn’t offended because I go back to the time before home air conditioning and families slept in the parks all night during super hot July weather. That’s one of the childhood joys that today’s kids won’t remember. By the way,Gallek did not say what schools those kids attend when he checked to see of they were open.

  23. Oh Mr. Allard; you’re so witty. That’s why you write for a free weekly rag. So you and a lot of the folks here think it’s perfectly fine for small kids, and I mean 8 years old and younger, to be running around in the park after 11pm at night. On a school night. I live there and have witnessed it many times. I guess you’re the same people who think it’s fine to take 4 & 5 year olds to R rated movies with foul language

  24. I think that everyone and their brother has been in a park after hours at one time or another. If they’re not vandalizing anything or doing anything wrong, what’s the fuss?

    On a side note, if you’re in a park after hours, tsk tsk and shame shame on you. Beware the strict consequences, which may include (gasp) a verbal warning!!!

  25. As someone that lives on Perk Park in a recently redone building, the people at the park late at night are no problem at all, are not loud in the least bit, and very engaging. Some of my best moments in Cleveland have been walking home after a night out and kicking the soccer ball around with some of the lil guys playing at the park. Fox 19 leave them alone!

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