When Keith Vizina tried to leave his house in the 2100 block of Victory Parkway at 2:47 p.m. last Sunday, a car with four men blocked his driveway.
''I called the police and told them my car was blocked in,'' Mr. Vizina said. ''The police never came. At 3:22 p.m., the men drove away.''
The incident is part of a bigger problem in Eden Park on Sunday afternoons when park cruisers often park on side streets, preventing residents from parking near their homes or in their driveways.
Mr. Vizina, who lives two blocks from the park, is part of a new class of professionals who don't like the parking problems and don't like the noise coming from boomboxes as cars cruise through the park.
From 1980 to 1990, demographics in what the city calls Tract 19, the immediate area around Eden Park, show an influx of professionals, both African-Americans and whites.
While the African-American population dropped from 1,400 to 1,036 during the past decade, the number of whites rose from 468 to 750.
With the influx of professionals came a higher employment level. Managerial and professional specialty occupations jumped from 119 in 1980 to 515 in 1990, with 394 held by whites.
The median family income rose from $6,911 in 1980 to $27,179 in 1990. The mean family income for marrieds jumped from $14,309 to $42,090 in 10 years.
In 1980, no one who lived in the area had a salary over $50,000. In 1990, there were 176 who did.
The education level of this new class of people reflected a big change. In 1980, there were 125 college graduates living in the tract. In 1990, there were 555.
''The big influx of new people started with the development of high-rise apartments and the middle-income housing units,'' said Dev Segar, city planner.
Kenneth Bordwell, a city community-development analyst for Walnut Hills, thinks the new class of people has a different awareness of community values.
''When the people moved into the upscale apartments and the middle-income housing units, they heard the noise and decided they wouldn't put up with it,'' Mr. Bordwell said.
Mr. Bordwell said he isn't sure whether the problem is as much a class or an economic issue as it is racial. ''I doubt (that) if someone drove through playing Mozart music at the same noise level, we would get complaints,'' he said.
Mr. Vizina played down the racial issue. He is a 30-year-old white professional marketing specialist, who moved to the area in 1994.
''This is a mixed area, and we get along fine,'' he said. ''A mixed group went to City Hall to complain about the problem, so this is not necessarily a racial issue.''
Many professionals who have moved in acknowledge that Eden Park was part of the attraction. But many of them jumped at the chance to get older houses at reasonable prices in what they perceived as a good neighborhood, as did Mr. Vizina. He lives in the 2200 block of Francis Lane and owns property on Victory Parkway and Park Avenue, all near the park.
''This is ideal for me to live and make an investment,'' he said.
TROUBLE IN EDEN
PARK TRADITION EXTENDS ACROSS DECADES
