The Seattle Parks and Recreation Department will be rolling out a few changes to downtown Ballard's three parks in the coming months in the hopes of increasing safety and allaying the concerns of neighbors.

At an Aug. 6 park safety meeting in Ballard, Dan Iverson, the department's recreation program coordinator, announced that Bergen Place and Marvin's Garden will soon have new tenants.

Last month, the city issued a permit for a hotdog vendor to set up in Bergen Place. Iverson said the hotdog cart will ideally open Aug. 8.

Thaiku, the restaurant adjacent to Marvin's Garden, will be opening a takeout window and setting up chairs and tables in the park for use by the public, Iverson said.

He said there will be more events in the parks, such as the band Tre Norske performing with dancers Aug. 11 in Bergen Place and a dog festival Aug. 23 in Ballard Commons.

The Parks and Recreation Department is working with the city's technology department to set up wireless internet in Bergen Place and Marvin's Garden, Iverson said.

Parks and Recreation Superintendent Tim Gallagher said the idea is to increase the feeling of safety for those people using the parks in a positive way.

The Aug. 6 meeting served as a follow-up to meeting in early June in which Bergen Place, Marvin's Garden and Ballard Commons were turned into a park exclusion zone, meaning someone banned from one park will be banned from all three parks.

Since that time, police have stepped up bicycle patrols and citations in Ballard, said Sgt. Dianne Newsom of the North Precinct Community Police Team.

In the time since the first meeting, the police have issued one citation for park camping in Ballard, 13 Ballard park exclusions and 36 tickets for drinking in Ballard parks, Newsom said.

Newsom said the troublemakers are becoming more aware of the police patrols. She said they were complaining that bicycle patrols were making them drink too much water during the heat wave and have taken to sitting back-to-back to keep an eye out for patrols.

"I really think it's working," Newsom said.

Ballard residents who attended the meeting were not necessarily satisfied with the police's progress in Ballard's parks.

One man has received five tickets for drinking in the park but is still in the neighborhood.

Some east Ballard residents were upset about the increase in perceived criminal behavior in Gilman Park, which they attributed to displacement from the three downtown Ballard parks.

Neighbors also couldn't come to an agreement with the police over how big a problem drugs are in the parks.

Residents said they find needles in the parks and see drug deals and use on a regular basis in the parks and in front of their businesses.

Newsom said the police did not make any drug arrests, and plain-clothes officers from her department and narcotics could not buy drugs from anyone in the parks.

"We had our plain-clothes guys out here," she said. "And, they couldn't find any drugs."

Aaron Bert, resource manager for parks in north Seattle, said he hasn't heard of any needles found in Ballard parks by his maintenance crews.

Gallagher said he wanted to remind Ballard residents that the problems they are dealing with in parks aren't new or unique. All the police and park events won't solve the problems, there are societal issues that need to be addressed, he said.

Victoria Sangrey Hunter, of Friends of Bergen Place, said she wants to make sure the parks department and the police are focusing on crime and drugs, because that is what decreases safety, not the homeless sleeping on benches.

Gallagher said he would like to schedule another park safety meeting for April before the weather turns nice again.