A beautiful Wednesday afternoon, and Long's Park is bustling with families walking around the lake, kids scampering across the playgrounds.

Then there are the individual males sitting in their cars, which have been backed into parking spaces.

Some of them are likely there to enjoy the spring sunshine. Others, however, may be there to enjoy one another.

Long's Park, along with several other locations in Lancaster County, has long been a haven for "cruisers," men who are looking for sex with other men. The issue came to a head in the mid-1990s, say police, when the activity, spurred by word-of-mouth and postings on the Internet, seemed to be getting out of control. Police began running enforcement details and making periodic arrests; some of those arrested turned out to be prominent citizens.

The cruisers have never really gone away; last Wednesday afternoon nine men were parked facing out in various locations, most of them at the park's western edge, by Route 30. But some things have changed. The bathrooms where much of the sexual activity took place are now kept locked.

And, say police, the very thing that fueled the rise of cruising at Long's Park may be fueling its demise.

Specifically, says Lancaster Sgt. Bill Gleason, word that the cops are watching gets posted on Internet sites dedicated to "cruising" — and that, he says, has led to a significant decrease in sexual activity at the park. There is some evidence to back this up.

The district justice who handles citations issued for "open lewdness" and similar offenses says she hasn't seen a citation in more than a year. But, police acknowledge, they haven't run many details recently. With the warmer weather, that will change.

"At one time, Long's Park was listed [on the Internet] as the place to go," said Gleason.

"But it's nowhere near the problem it used to be."

Men watching men
It is still occurring. On a Thursday afternoon in late April, there were 17 cars backed into parking spaces, men sitting in the driver's seats, reading newspapers, carefully watching cars passing by. One such vehicle, with a driver who appeared very elderly, was parked right next to the main wooden playground in the park.

Police say these men aren't a danger to kids. "I've been doing these details for 10 to 15 years and I have never come across males trying to lure children," said Gleason.

Rather, they're trying to lure one another. It's no crime to cruise for sexual partners at the park, or anywhere else; what worries the cops is when sexual activity takes place in public spaces. "We see it as a problem to have sexual activity that can be visible," said Capt. Pete Anders. "When it's 1 in the afternoon, [Long's Park] is not an area that should be happening. Find somewhere else to go."

A decade ago, activity was on the rise. The Sunday News detailed the phenomenon in a 1993 investigative piece; Long's Park, Lancaster County Park and certain bathrooms in Park City Center were places where men would "get together," for sex.

Prior to the rise of the Internet, those interested in these so-called "pickle parks" often found out about them through word of mouth. The Internet, said Gleason, made it a lot easier to find the action; and he attributes the spike of activity in Long's Park and elsewhere to that.

If anything, Web sites listing good "cruising" spots are even more ubiquitous today. One, cruisingforsex.com, lists several local areas, including a Sicoserve Truck Stop on Lincoln Highway East several miles east of Lancaster, which has a "cruisy toilet." Long's Park, noted one commenter in June 2006, is "a good place for after-dark" oral sex.

Some people just like the idea of anonymous, public sexual encounters, said one local gay man. "Honestly," he said, "I think there might be a mental health issue going on."

Double lives
There may indeed be, said Gerald Menaquale of T.W. Ponessa & Associates Counseling Services in Lancaster.

"Some of these men are living a double life that doesn't come to the surface" until they're caught by the police, said Menaquale. "It wouldn't be a crime if they would go out, find someone and go to a private place," but "there's a whole adrenaline rush in having sex in a very anonymous place, in a very secret way, and not getting caught," he said.

"It becomes a game of cat and mouse," he said. For some, that's the biggest thrill of all.

There's often a "code" involved, Menaquale said; the men often don't talk, instead "communicating" by gestures — the tapping of a foot beneath a stall, for example, or simply exposing one's self. "They go in, get their needs met, leave and go back to 'normal,'" said Menaquale.

And aside from this activity, they tend to be normal, said Sgt. Gleason. "People have a stereotype of who's doing this activity, but it's anybody and everybody. Some guys have really well-paying jobs. And many of the men out there are very elderly —70 and above, some well over 80.

"Fifty to 60 years ago," said Gleason, "you couldn't tell people you're gay."

Not all cruisers identify themselves as gay; some are bisexual, some — married — insist they're heterosexual, that it's just something they do. "It's not really about labeling," said Menaquale, "but I don't think anyone can deny that [these men] have sexual motivation for other males."

Closed bathrooms
When they meet in the park and go elsewhere, said Gleason, no problem. But the amount of sexual activity taking place in Long's Park bathrooms in particular, spurred police to action. Police details began in earnest, including undercover operations. And over the course of the past few years, said Charlotte Katzenmoyer, director of public works for the City of Lancaster, officials decided to close some of the restrooms that had been a particular problem. The one near Route 30 at the western edge of the park, for example, is now only open when major events are going on, or nearby pavilions are in use.

"It seemed that the participants of the 'activity' ... knew that the restrooms were opened and had very little foot traffic from the general public," said Katzenmoyer in an e-mail. "Therefore, they could come and go as they pleased with little oversight. Since the closing of the restrooms affected the public very little ... it was decided to close the restrooms that they frequented."

Word began getting around, said Gleason — thanks, in part, to the Internet.

"Arrests in the past several years have dropped significantly," he said, and he thinks that's because cruisers saw that the police were on patrol, and posted warnings online.

That has happened. In early 2001, one online posting noted, "In the past couple of weeks, the city police have been patrolling the park on a regular basis in the evening. I have been informed that the cop (supposedly a rookie) has been harassing suspicious loiterers (single guys who come into the park alone). I have been quoted by a reliable source that the city is running an undercover sting as well using a combination of city and undercover police. Police activity does not appear to be limited to just the evening, so best to give this place a rest for a while. For a park which was previously unbothered, this is not a good sign. Beware."

Another posting on another site from December 2004 noted that "Police surveillance has really put a damper on action here. Winter is dead."

Magisterial District Judge Mary Mongiovi Sponaugle, who handles citations issued at the park, said "I have seen very few recently, I'm thinking at least a year. But I don't know what that means"; specifically, "I only ever get them when [police] are doing details," and she's not sure how many have been conducted recently.

None since last year, Gleason admits, as winter is indeed usually "dead" at the park. But the warmer weather does tend to bring out more than the buds and flowers, so police were set to resume enforcement details this month.

"It's decreased so much that we do details now as a proactive thing," said Gleason.

"It's not like it's a haven anymore."

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Gil Smart is associate editor of the Sunday News. E-mail him at gsmart@lnpnews.com, or phone 291-8817.