A community group in Centretown is trying to make Dundonald Park on Somerset Street West a safer place to be.

Mohamed Farah said he has lived in the neighbourhood for two years, and often sees people drinking and doing drugs at Dundonald Park. (CBC)

The park, which has existed for more than 100 years, was rated by Ottawa police as one of the least safe community spaces.

The heritage park sits right across the street from a Beer Store.

The Centretown Community Health Centre is trying to attract more residents into the park with daily activities such as yoga, outdoor movies and community gardening.

"The more people that use the park, the safer you feel," said Elizabeth Chin, who works with the health centre.

Calls to police haven't gone down

Resident Mohamed Farah, who has two children, said a lot of things that happen at the park make him uncomfortable. He and his family have been living in the neighbourhood for two years.

"They're drinking out there, smoking crack and doing bad stuff, which is not good for the children watching them do that," Farah said. "They're drinking in front of the children. So it was really bad and the children were really scared."

Suzanne Harding has lived across the street from the park for 26 years. She said it's unrealistic to expect that all bad activities can be eliminated from downtown parks. (CBC)

An Ottawa police officer who patrols the area regularly said the number of calls haven't gone down since the activities entered the park.

Longtime resident Suzanne Harding said that's never going to change.

"It will always happen. We're a downtown city park," Harding said. "The idea that this will never happen is completely unrealistic. I think what it does is, as you bring more people into the park that are not engaged in those activities, we just outnumber them. And so it becomes less noticeable. It doesn't go away, it will never go away; that's not realistic."

A report on the park's progress will be released in the fall.