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I am here in Madison on a three day business trip. This is my first time to Madison. Whenever I travel on business to new places I like to walk for exercise and to get the feel of the localle. I am staying at a hotel near the park and after dinner with a colleague I took a short walk alone up the bike trail that circles Lake Wanona. I passed Olin-Turville park and curious I walked in and read some of the signs about the park’s history. I walked up the hill to see more of the park and there were several cars parked in a parking lot at the top of the small rise. One of the vehicles was a large van. When I walked by a man jumped out of the van completely naked except for a T-shirt. He certainly wasn’t shy because he strolled out into the middle of the parking lot, trying to pick me up I suppose. I mean this was a pretty brazen act. I was quite startled and immediately realized this was a gay pick-up place. I felt real uneasy. I do not necessarily have anything against gay people, but this was very wierd. I left the park as quickly as I could. I found this article about the park on-line when I got back to the hotel. It seems as though the 2007 Police sting was quite ineffective.

I’ve never had this kind of thing happen to me before (and I’m 53) in a public park. I guess there is a first time for everything. This park is not far out of the city center and adjacent to a main thoroughfare. It seems to me that if the police really wanted to stop this kind of activity they could do so easily. It must be that the police do not think this is important enough to put a stop to the activity. I am the father of two grown girls and I know if I had small children I wouldn’t bring them to this park. Gays are going to do what they want to do, but in public is another thing altogether. It is completely inappropriate. Certainly this type of activity would ruin the use of the park for many people.