darkness and intuition
the other day i left west berkeley later than usual, as i had been having happyhourfuntimes with jason and neva after work, and i got on my bike and just took the usual route back toward home, not really thinking about it. but as soon as i got into aquatic park, i realized it was WAY DARKER than i expected it to be, as the park runs between the freeway and lit streets (map) i expected there to be some ambient light, but i guess there are enough trees that there wasn’t, and the flimsy little headlight on my bike was doing almost nothing to light the path. but my eyes adjusted and i ride the path 2 times a day so i know where it goes and was pretty fine with riding in the dark.
until i started thinking about where i was. aquatic park is known as a casual sex hookup spot for gay men, and honestly, even though it creeps me out to see guys emerging from the bushes or awkwardly sitting in their cars at 9am, i have nothing against anonymous sex between consenting adults, and i never feel threatened by the presence of this activity in the daytime; mostly i feel sad for those men. but at night, i think the vibe gets a little different, and there’s a lot more drug activity and straight-up prostitution. and as i was thinking about this, i rounded a corner and there next to the path were the silhouettes of 3 large men, and for a brief second i was terrified as i imagined them tackling me, and later thought about the scary vibe they emitted (as opposed to the usual joggers/frisbee golfers/joggers/dog walkers i intercept in the daytime). but i just rode past, and soon afterward i was back on a regular street, telling myself never to ride through aquatic park again at night, despite the fact that it’s the fastest and easiest route home, and in the daylight, the safest because there is no car traffic.
then this morning when i approached the south entrance to the park, there were several cop cars and news vans (photo) and a big stretch of yellow POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS tape across the entrance and i had to turn around and loop back to take the regular streets. i was almost afraid to look it up on the news, but there it is: Slain Woman Found in Berkeley’s Aquatic Park.
assuming that the woman found was homeless or a prostitute (meaning, not someone who was randomly walking through and attacked) does not give me much comfort, and i’ll be riding a different route home until it’s light again.
i’m not sure what to more to suggest to the City about this known issue than has already been discussed for years (and now again in the comments on that news item). the park is technically “closed” at night, and so anyone entering there after dark is doing so “at their own risk”, and the city has historically looked the other way re: the sex exchanges. but perhaps installing night lighting along the paths would be a start? then at least those who do end up going through there aren’t completely left in the dark.
Filed in autobiographical, bay area gems, things you can do | Tagged with bicycling | Comment (0)Leave a Reply
