A weekly problem with crowds leaving Eden Park and congregating in Corryville has left neighbors and police frustrated after two unprovoked attacks Sunday against women driving through the area.
Both cases were racially motivated, police said. In each case, the women reported large crowds of young black men blocked their paths and threatened them.
Corryville Community Council President T. Clyde Nowlin said the problem has gone on for years. ''I'm surprised it's taken this long to come out.''
It was nearly midnight Sunday when Christy Schumacher, 25, of Lebanon approached a stop sign at Euclid Avenue on her way to Children's Hospital Medical Center. Her mind was on her daughter, Kristin, 3, who was sick with an earache.
Ms. Schumacher was driving a rented green Plymouth Neon because her car was in the shop. About 20 young men blocked her path. She heard a crash and looked back to see her daughter covered with glass.
''My first instinct was to get out and make sure she wasn't injured,'' she said. As she went to leave, she confronted the man who dented her car and smashed the window.
''I'm screaming at the top of my lungs, 'What in the hell did you do that for?''' she said. He responded with a racial slur, then said, '''What are you doing here? You don't belong in the ghetto,''' she said.
Bystanders laughed, she said, as she held Kristin and yelled for police.
Then she heard another man calling profanities and saying, ''Let's just go get her money.'' So she put her daughter in the front seat and took off.
Officers came to take her report at the hospital, where Kristin was treated for minor injuries.
The attack came 1 1/2 hours after an 18-year-old white woman reported a crowd blocked her car, shouted ''Here's one!'' pounded on the car and threw a bottle through her open window and hit her arm.
The problem is crowds who hang out once they're kicked out of the park, said Marty Angiulli, who has closed his Martino's restaurant on Short Vine Street the last three Sundays because of it.
Police estimate a crowd of 500 gathered in Corryville after Eden Park closed Sunday night.
''You can't make this a race issue,'' he said. ''You've got to make this a child issue,'' Mr. Angiulli said.
The community has tried to stop cruising by barricading streets. But to solve this problem, it is working with the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission.
''I think we've taken the right steps,'' said Paul Goebel, a partner in the Holy Grail neighborhood bar. ''It's just an inordinate amount of people gathering.''
