Angry Retirees March on Park, Protest Drugs : Urban policy: They demand a crackdown on dealers, prostitutes and transients in the open space near City Hall in Santa Ana.

As a brigade of senior citizens marched through Birch Park on Saturday morning to protest against the drug dealers, prostitutes and transients who frequent the park, most of the three dozen homeless people fled.

But the senior citizens--many of them residents at the neighboring Santa Ana Towers retirement center--were sure that the problems would return as soon as they left. So they rallied with the hope of getting long-term solutions.

“Clean it up or close it down!” they shouted as they came upon the unsuspecting transients in the park two blocks from City Hall.

From the front door of the retirement center to the park next door, about 55 senior citizens walked in the cool, damp weather, some carrying canes, other holding protest signs that read: “Seniors Want to Use the Park Too,” “Golden Years Not Crime and Fears” and “Go Away Drug Dealers and Users.”

As one group of homeless quickly gathered their belongings, including a blanket and boom-box radio, one woman angrily responded to the protesters, “They don’t know what it’s like to be homeless.”

A companion added, “There’s no place to go. You can’t go anyplace else.”

Santa Ana resident James Parten, 60, happened to be in the park and expressed sympathy for both sides.

“I am a retired citizen too, and I like to enjoy life,” Parten said. “But what are the homeless going to do? I was born in Santa Ana, and I have seen it going downhill too.”

After circling the park--which is bounded by Birch, 1st, Ross and 3rd streets--the retirement center residents listed their complaints for City Councilman Robert L. Richardson, city Recreation and Community Services Executive Director Allen Doby--and anyone else who would listen.

From her ninth-floor window bordering the park, said Sydney Serville, 57, she has a clear view of activity in the park. She spoke of one recent scene.

“By the grass, this man and this woman were going to town with the sex,” Serville said.

Another resident, Marie Jaeger, 77, complained of the noise and frequent drug dealing.

“I have seen them using needles in their arms,” Jaeger said. “I have seen them passing money and stuff to one another.”

Lauretta Dancause, 83, remembered what the park was like when she first moved into the retirement center 14 years ago.

“I used to come out here and bring my grandchildren,” Dancause said. “But I am afraid to even walk through here anymore.”

Others said that drugs are hidden in the shrubbery and that a homeless woman urinated in front of a group of senior citizens holding an exercise class in the park.

Saying that the problem is worsening and that city officials are not paying enough attention, resident Audrey Campbell, 73, decided to organize the protest.

“Seniors don’t need to put up with this kind of stuff,” Campbell said. “We are getting up in our age, and we want to enjoy our lives, and why should we let them have the park?”

After witnessing an early morning drug sale from one apartment window, Richardson agreed that something needs to be done.

“If they are here to do drugs,” the councilman said, “if they are here to fornicate, if they are here to drink beer, they are not welcome. Period.”

Richardson said possible solutions, such as increased security lighting, will be considered this week at a meeting with police and park officials.

But Doby, the parks director, said the city cannot limit access.

“It being a park,” he said, “it’s for people, and it has to be open.”

He described the issue as a “perceived problem of crime,” adding that no crimes have been committed in the park against senior citizens during the past nine months.

A review of police records also showed that 25 drug-related arrests were made there in recent months, Doby said.

In a bid to fight illegal activity, he said, the park is patrolled more frequently and the city is sponsoring more outdoor activities for seniors, including the exercise program, picnics and bazaars.

“Once we utilize the park, then the other people leave,” Doby said.