Tailgate-area residents feeling DUMPED ON

The start of the Hoosiers' football season might be months away, but law student Arthur Traynor and some of his neighbors on North Woodlawn Avenue are already worried. \nThey say public drunkenness during tailgating in the grassy parking area between Fess Street and North Woodlawn Avenue has caused problems in recent years. \nChief among their concerns are instances of public urination, when they say unruly tailgaters trespass and urinate wherever they please. \n"I might want to leave town on a weekend, I might want to study," Traynor said. "When people are peeing all over the yard and the compost garden where we grow food in, it's a serious problem, a serious health problem." \nIn the past year, Traynor said football fans have urinated on the side of his two-bedroom house, on his air conditioning unit, on the front porch and on the compost pile. \n"These people are so drunk they're not even thinking straight," he said. \nTo fight back, Traynor spent home football game days patrolling his yard, attempting to keep people out, he said. Some of the tailgaters became verbally abusive, while others simply ignored his requests. \nDuring more popular games -- like the Nov. 19 matchup against Purdue -- the sheer number of people coming into his yard made enforcement difficult, he said. Traynor estimates hundreds of people trespassed. \nColleen Cleary, who's lived on North Woodlawn since 1973, said she agreed that trespassing is a problem. She enjoys her property, she said, but tailgaters encouraged her to begin spending weekends out of the city.\n"It's a beautiful neighborhood, I absolutely love it there, (it has) lots of green space, but then it's totally invaded on weekends," Cleary said. "There's just absolutely no concern (by tailgaters) for us who live there day in and day out." \nCleary and Traynor, along with eight other residents on the street, signed a petition Jan. 18 asking for help from the University. The residents represent five properties near the field.\nThe neighbors want barricades to protect their property and two officers assigned to prevent trespassing. They also want IU Police Department officers trained to better protect their property, Traynor said. \nBut IUPD Capt. Keith Cash said the problems are complex, and that some solutions -- like barricades or police tape -- wouldn't help solve the issues. Tailgaters could cut them down or urinate through them, he said. Cash has addressed the group in letter.\nHe said better, targeted enforcement from existing officers in the area would be the best solution to the problem.\n"We've now been alerted to a problem that's obviously bigger than we imagined, and we've said we'll do more targeted enforcement of that area," he said. "We already have every officer working, so it will just mean they'll hit that area with more frequency." \nCash said officers received no phone calls resulting in arrests from a resident near the 1200 block of Woodlawn during the 2005 football season.\nTraynor said residents made many calls to IUPD complaining of trespassers and public urination. Cash said he did not recall cases when residents called the police for help.\nDuring games, IUPD officers are assigned to the grassy parking area, Cash said, adding that Bloomington Police Department officers and Indiana State Police are also there on duty. \n"We've got more than enough officers that patrol that lot," Cash said. \nBut Traynor said the University's lack of specific patrols places the burden of protection in the hands of neighborhood residents.\n"I definitely made phone calls (to the police) and told them about this ... (The officers) were only effective while they were standing there," he said. "This is a problem that needs prevention, not response." \nHe said unless guards or police stand in the area along property lines, they are not a deterrent to trespassing and other activities. And he said residents should not have to be around or on alert -- that they shouldn't have to call IUPD -- to feel their property is protected. \nTraynor said he would like to see funds used from the athletics department's $10 parking fee, which fans pay to enter the lot, in order to employ private security guards. \nThe IU Athletics Department media relations office did not respond to e-mail requests for interviews. The office also did not answer specific questions relating to the parking fee and its uses, or other matters relating to the tailgating issues.\nDean of Students Dick McKaig said the University understands the issues affecting residents of the area, and is working to improve the situation. Specifically, he said IU administrators try to add more toilets as the number of tailgaters increase.\nRecent regulations have been implemented that ban kegs from the area, restrict the use of tents and large trucks and require all tailgaters to have tickets to the games, McKaig said.\nBut he noted the inherent demands on police officers' time during sporting events, and said that law enforcement could only go so far in protecting neighbors. \n"I don't know if it's possible to have as many police officers in a single area that the residents might hope for and that's why we've also got to have some community agreement that certain behaviors aren't acceptable," McKaig said. "Clearly, it's an issue of enforcement, but it's also an issue of community support." \nComplicating matters for Traynor, though, is the fact that he rents his house from the University, which also provides his education. IU owns most, but not all, of the houses on the street, he said. \n"Normally if this situation was different, I would be able to move out of my house and cease paying rent ... because I would be able to claim that I was constructively evicted," he said. "(But) if I withhold paying rent, they'll hold my transcripts."\nTraynor says he's not against the University or the athletics department, and appreciates their efforts to clean up the garbage from the area after games. But he said further changes need to be made.\n"It wouldn't be correct to say that I want all the tailgating to stop, or I hate IU football," he said. "I'm not against the idea of the tailgating, I'm just upset that the University doesn't fix all the problems that it causes."\nTraynor's goal, he says, is for him and his wife to simply live in their house, without disturbances, because they have made long-term investments in the house. Traynor said he and his wife would not have planted a garden, bought a dog and built custom furniture if they had not planned to stay.\n"In every regard this has been a perfect fit with the exception of this issue," he said.