Sound and fury rattle a West Side neighborhood
It was quiet when I showed up on Creekwood Avenue, a serene street in a subdivision called the Villages of Parkwest that ends where the Petroglyph National Monument begins.
But neighbors say it’s not always quiet, not always serene. One neighbor described living here as like living in hell — a very loud hell.
“It’s just a continuous nuisance,” Adam Crosby said. “Me and others have called the cops about 20 times this year.”
Neighbors I spoke with reiterated, albeit timidly, Crosby’s sentiments. And they blame Crosby’s nextdoor neighbor Paul Price, who they say plays music so loud it rattles walls and posts large signs with homophobic messages that rattle Crosby, who is gay.
Price, however, said he believes the complaints against him are in retaliation for spurning Crosby and that he and his wife are being victimized by Crosby’s “progay” supporters.
One of the signs, strategically placed in Price’s front yard facing Crosby’s property, was splashed with the word “FAG.” Another read, “Welcome Home Jealous!!! Lying!!! Drama Queen.”
Earlier this week, the sign read, “Beware of Racist Lying Anti-Military Neighbors” and
was decorated with Christmas lights.
The signs, Crosby said, were the latest salvo in the ongoing dispute that escalated to the point at which an Albuquerque police officer who responded to a call-out on Nov. 14 noted in his report that he was forwarding the matter to the department’s Crisis Intervention Team — just in case.
What makes this all the more curious is that Price, a 42-year-old Army veteran, was the neighborhood association’s president for about eight months before it disbanded bitterly.
A letter submitted on Aug. 6, 2013, by Price to the city’s Office of Neighborhood Coordination blamed the dissolution on “overwhelming discord.” Two days later, a letter signed by the former Board of The Villages of Parkwest Neighborhood Association and distributed to members said that while Price had been a “vital driving force” in the neighborhood, he had also taken on a “me vs. them” mentality, making decisions without the board’s input.
Price, who responded in an email to my queries, said he was only trying to make the neighborhood a better, safer place.
“I volunteered to be the neighborhood association president, started a neighborhood watch, hosted many meetings at my home, paid for a surveillance sign for the neighborhood personally,” Price wrote. “I trim the trees at the neighborhood entrance.”
In more neighborly days, Crosby said, he and his partner, who also owns their home, attended gatherings at the Price home. But when Crosby, a registered nurse, began working nights at the University of New Mexico Hospital emergency room, the music booming from Price’s vehicles parked in the driveway or the open-door garage became so loud that Crosby could not sleep during the day.
Crosby’s request that Price lower the volume was met, he said, with an unprintable comment. The feud was on. Crosby said after that his property was vandalized, his doorbell was frequently rung and the music got louder. Then came the signs. Crosby kept calling police. Neighbors and others, especially in the LGBT community, posted their support for Crosby on Facebook.
Price said his feud with Crosby is not a “hate crime against gays” but the result of his rejection of Crosby’s sexual advance during a Christmas party at the Price home. Price also complained that because of Crosby he and his wife are being attacked on social media and receiving harassing calls from the “pro-gay community from all over the United States.”
“As a commissioned Army officer who served over 15 years to protect American’s freedoms, I do not condone any activities that jeopardize those freedoms and the liberty of others,” Price wrote. “It’s ironic that now my freedom to enjoy my life and property are now being inconvenienced due to this absurd behavior from Mr. Crosby.”
Crosby called Price’s allegations crazy, saying he never made a pass at Price and never attended a Christmas party at his home.
Price has now been charged with three counts of harassment and three counts of violating the city’s unreasonable noise ordinance in two separate cases filed this month in Metro Court. On Wednesday, state District Judge Valerie Huling issued a five-year restraining order against Price that demands he stay away from Crosby, turn down the music and take down the signs.
Neighborhood disputes are as old as the petroglyphs (I may be exaggerating). Sometimes a handshake across the fence cannot mend those fences, leaving the cops and the courts to step in to call an uneasy truce.
For now, the signs and the music are down. Let us hope it stays that way and that both sides find a way to live together in peace.