(From DCist contributor Andrew Noyes)

A violent mugging and other recent crimes in and around an abandoned park in Columbia Heights have re-energized longstanding complaints by neighbors for police to take swift action. In the most recent instance, a man was mugged for just 41 cents on the way to buy a newspaper from the BP gas station yards away from his home.

Justice Park is situated on a prime piece of real estate at 14th and Euclid streets NW with new condos and apartments, like the Villaggio, springing up around it. But it remains a haven for fights and drug trafficking day and night, and residents are complaining. Since the park is above eye-level from the road, it is impossible for officers doing rounds to monitor goings on inside.

Residents pressed the city to turn the lights on in the park at night to discourage people from congregating there but some say it has simply flushed them out onto the sidewalk where they loiter, litter, deface property and panhandle.