Neighbors clash over loose dogs and day drinkers in Charleston historic park

Charleston’s bustling East Side mingles newcomers with long-timers in a neighborhood crowned by a pre-Revolutionary War jewel: Hampstead Mall.

The city’s oldest park, older than America itself, in essence is four parks tucked together at the intersection of America and Columbus streets. The quadrants are bordered on the outside by Aiken Street, Hampden Court, N. Hampstead Court and E. Hampstead Court. The urban oasis of green lawn and shade trees is surrounded by frame houses painted white and pastel colors, a former church, a school and public housing projects.

But now clashes have surfaced over two different problems occurring in two different sections: unleashed dogs and day drinkers. And many East Side residents wonder whether a racial divide complicates potential solutions.

The quad controlled by the Charleston County School District was behind a locked fence for years. Volunteers last year labored under the broiling sun to plant sod, water plants and nurture new trees for a grand reopening of the park for the public last August, when school wasn’t in session.

Recently, though, complaints about how the park was being used began simmering.

Many of the complaints focused on residents unleashing their dogs, a violation of posted park rules. Signs listing the rules, including the requirement that dogs be leashed at all times, have been vandalized. Rumors recently flew that the park, which is closed during school hours and after dark, may be closed if dog owners keep violating the rules.

During four park visits over three weeks, a reporter saw three owners unleashed small- to medium-sized dogs, who gamboled across the grass, sniffed trees, chased a squirrel for a minute then gave up.

Just across Columbus Street in the quad called Philip Simmons Park, complaints revolve around people gathering for day drinking. A statue of the namesake stands in the center, a depiction of the renowned blacksmith wielding a hammer and standing behind an anvil.

When asked by The Post and Courier, the dog walkers detailed concerns about the day drinkers crowding the walkways, cursing during games, and littering beer cans and broken glass.

But no one in either park would go on the record, citing fears of retaliation like vandalism to their cars or yards, or getting a beer can thrown at them or being snubbed by neighbors.

On a sunny March day, a crowd of more than a dozen men laughed loudly and playfully argued as they sipped from beer bottles and cans. They crowded around two men on a bench playing checkers. Most were elderly, with the rest looking to be in their 20s. A cool breeze ruffled the warm day.

Toward noon, another group of men clustered around four men playing cards. Louder than the other group, they cursed with joyful gusto.

The weather also drew others outside, including one mom with a stroller. They walked around — not through — Simmons Park. When asked why, no one wanted to be quoted by name for fear of angering some neighbors. But all confided they felt uncomfortable walking past the men. Women worried about toddlers getting cut on beer cans or broken bottles.

“A lot of those guys are nice and funny when they’ve been drinking,” said a young female East Sider. “The older gentlemen sometimes tip their hats or say hello. But booze changes people.”

No one in this decidedly unscientific sample could recall a violent interaction with the day drinkers, and statistics depict Hampstead Mall and Simmons parks as safe and peaceful. Charleston Police Lt. Anthony Gibson pulled statistics for a year period to March 11. The most common charge was trespassing. There were three simple assault charges and 15 open container charges, both misdemeanors.

Steve Hamer oversees CCSD facilities management, including the Hampstead Mall quad where dogs sometimes run. Folks email him photos of dogs running in the park all the time. Thankfully, he said, he has no record of anyone being bitten or of any scary encounters between a child and a dog. But he understands that the park’s quadrants clearly mean so much to so many people, that the perception of being unwelcome and uncomfortable there may be a problem that needs to be solved.

And as City Councilman Robert Mitchell notes, even unleashing a harmless dog or sipping a beer quietly in the park are against city ordinances.

Mitchell said he understands and sympathizes when folks share their concerns about the parks. He has seen the East Side’s evolution through decades.

He also knows this park gathering is a decades-old tradition and social nourishment that the elderly retirees crave as much, or more, than the cold beer. He sees the park as a longtime hub for daily conversation and fresh-air friendships.

Dating at least back to the Jim Crow era, the tradition flourished when Charleston taverns and bars did not welcome Black people. When crime and bad economics forced grocers and other businesses to close in the 1970s and 1980s, the guys in the park were a rare sign of life in the abandoned neighborhood.

Earl Brown, a beloved East Sider and retired Burke High School coach, sees the guys in the park as men who care enough for the community to help him host Thanksgiving cookouts that feed the homeless.

“Those guys also help put together toys and bikes for my Christmas toy giveaway to neighborhood kids,” Brown told The Post and Courier. “Some of them are homeless. A couple may sleep overnight in the park.”

Struggling to find middle ground

Mitchell said that in its long history, the park served as almost an extension of the front porch for those older men who gather there. He knows many of them. He notices that a lot of them now live in North Charleston and take the bus to hang out on the East Side where they grew up. 

But Mitchell and Brown realize that the times — and the neighborhood — are changing, and the gatherings strike folks differently now. Mitchell knows how much the park’s social hub means to them but gently tries to explain that day drinking worries other neighbors who love the space.

“I explain how they need to be sure ladies and little kids feel safe enjoying the park,” Mitchell said. “Yes, I do think they, the older guys, care. But they’ve seen the park as a place to socialize for decades. I’m not saying it’s right. The times have changed. They haven’t. You’ve got to be very, very careful, even the police officers, when you clean that area up and do it slowly or you’ll get a fight.”

Mitchell doesn’t know the younger men who have joined the elderly men in Simmons.

“You got to watch yourself with those younger guys. I even have to watch myself because I don’t know them,” Mitchell said.

Eastside Community Development Corporation leader Vernon Drayton, who’s trying to resolve the loose dog complaints, doesn’t know the younger guys either and thinks they may come from outside the neighborhood. But whether their worry is day drinking or dogs, his neighbors tell him they hesitate to call the police about problems that don’t involve shootings, robberies or violent crimes.

Like Mitchell, Drayton tried to talk with the folks taking their dogs off the leash. He’s exasperated.

“I have nothing against dogs, but this isn’t a dog park and leashes are required by law,” Drayton told The Post and Courier. “To me, it’s a health issue for children playing here.”

He recalled helping the ECDC decorate the park for Christmas, and “there was dog poop everywhere. It was stinking.”

He said that most of the owners are unleashing their dogs are White. When he asks them to leash their pets in accordance with the law, they point toward the day drinkers, who tend to be mostly Black.

“Dog owners argue with me and say, ‘My dog doesn’t bite and you won’t let him run free but you’ll let those men drink. That’s against the law, but you only enforce the law with me,’ ” Drayton said, sighing deeply. “And I try to explain, ‘But you’re acting like them, breaking the rules, so now there are two parks uncomfortable for children and elderly women instead of just one.’ Simmons Park is under the city’s jurisdiction so police need to step up and talk with the guys.”

Drayton said he’s stung by criticism from a few White residents who say the ECDC isn’t responsive to their concerns. He said that he welcomes all residents to talk with him.

“I love my community. I love the kids here, Black and White … I don’t want to see the parks close due to contention.”

Drayton and Mitchell plan to talk with the police chief about how law enforcement can help. Drayton thinks having police drop by both parks monthly to hand out warning tickets for loitering, public drinking and unleashed dogs might greatly reduce the tension. Mitchell said many residents suggest that opening a dog park somewhere nearby would be helpful. But he’s not sure there’s a park big enough to let dogs run free.

A man with a vision

Brown is a Charleston icon who played a unique role as a neighborhood leader who created a sort of outdoor “man cave” and social club for those who loved their community and invested in it. As a teenager, he worked in the Shoe Shine Parlor by what’s now Simmons Park to earn pocket money. As an adult, he bought the parlor and transformed it into “a poor man’s country club,” Brown said, laughing.

It had an outdoor space in back and room to watch a ball game, play cards, have a drink and talk. Brown’s social club included members who were doctors, lawyers, a four-star general and iron artist Philip Simmons, the park’s namesake. Membership also included some of the guys who now play cards and checkers while sipping a beer in the park.

Members donated a few bucks to keep the lights and the cable on. They mentored neighborhood kids, Brown remembers, offering a dollar for a good or improved report card grade. They hosted the Thanksgiving cookout and Christmas toy giveaway. Police were so supportive that one Christmas they surprised Brown’s club with 200 bikes to give to children. 

The club was a social hub “where any time anyone came home after being out of Charleston awhile and they wanted to find somebody, a friend or colleague, that’s where they stopped, from all over the country and all over the world,” Brown said.

Brown closed the club during the COVID pandemic. Many of his friends have died since then. But Brown would love to restart the club with a new generation who share his love for the neighborhood. He knows not all of the men in Simmons Park would be interested, but he feels sure some of them would be.

It’s a vision that would give the day drinkers a private place to socialize and renew their purpose within the community.

Meanwhile, are no plans to close any part of Hampstead Mall. Hamer even believes the situation is improving.

“I have no plans to close the park, although that could be an option,” said Hamer, whose visits have convinced him more dog owners are leashing their pets.

“I haven’t drawn a line in the sand or issued an ultimatum,” Hamer said, sounding optimistic that the goal of letting as many residents enjoy the park as possible, is going to happen.