By NICK SLEPKO

It is no doubt easier for the media to portray angry, frustrated neighbors clashing with cute, cuddly homeless people and the Cowen Park situation has been treated no differently. Events like the recent shooting and a reputation that the park is a destination for run away youths have done much to exacerbate the problems that every urban park face.

While there are some neighbors that are fed up with the whole situation and have shifted all the blame and responsibility onto the City, others are quietly and methodically working to solve the situation.

Doug Thiel, a neighbor and participant in the Neighborhood Action Team (NATS), is working to coordinate the various agencies involved in turning the situation into a success story.

"Hopefully, when we're done, Cowen Park will be a model for other communities to follow," Thiel says. "Still, the situation is far more complex than anyone wants to admit."

Implementation of a volunteer patrol like one that's been formed in the Pioneer Square neighborhood is one of the many ideas that are being adopted.

Other neighbors, like Penny Eckert, head of Friends of Cowen Park, are laboring to improve the quality of the experience.

"There are peaceful, quiet homeless and peaceful, quiet housed: We should all be allowed to use the park unmolested under current rules any time the park is open without having to present proof of where we sleep at night," Eckert says. "We have put three years of attention, fundraising, and bureaucracy-navigating into the play activity area, and our efforts are on-going."

FCP and its parent group, the Roosevelt Neighborhood Association have already developed a Conceptual Plan for Cowen Park and have already begun to implement the 1996 document. On Jan. 28, a public meeting to discuss the situation which will also involve the Olmstead preservation groups will provide the framework for NATS and FCP (both representing RNA) to touch base and figure out where to go from here.

Already on the horizon, the Department of Parks and Recreation and NATS are going to be doing vegetative removal to deal with visibility and invasive vegetation issues. Friends will be right behind them, planting and pruning so that the park will be ready in the spring.

"If any of your readers are experienced in digging and mucking around in the winter, have them give us a call," Eckert says. "We'd love to have them."

Nick Slepko is associate editor of the Jet City Maven and a resident of the Roosevelt neighborhood.