At park, hope turns to sadness

[meegbear]

Activist's slaying sparks anger, calls for change

John Beresford and his partner decided to buy the quaint three-family house overlooking Dorchester's Ronan Park five years ago because they loved the sweeping views of Dorchester Bay. They did not love the drug deals and prostitute tricks that took place in a lower portion of the park, where thickets of brush offered shelter to thieves and muggers, so they set about changing it.

With a neighbor, Larysa Kulynych, they formed the Friends of Ronan Park. They cleared brush, orchestrated beautification projects, sports, and nighttime theatrical performances. They badgered City Hall for improvements to sagging fences and crumbling sidewalks. By many accounts, the once stately 11-acre field was on its way to a dramatic comeback.

But on the night before Mayor Thomas M. Menino was to visit the park to review the efforts, the 6-foot-1-inch Beresford was stabbed in the chest and killed after confronting two men believed to be muggers. Neighbors said Kulynych was the victim of the mugging.

The murder of the 40-year-old massage therapist has sparked rage and frustration in a city where crime appears to be on the rise once again. Yesterday, politicians including Menino and two of his challengers, Maura A. Hennigan and Gareth Saunders, crowded the park, along with neighborhood activists who demanded that something be done.

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http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/05/12/at_park_hope_turns_to_sadness/

[Kathy in Cambridge]

1. That's so sad-saw it on the news last night

:-(

I had the opportunity to buy a gorgeous Victorian about 8 yrs ago in that neighborhood, and we decided against i because of the crime. How sad that things haven't changed that much.