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Boston City Councilor says southern half of city needs dog parks
By adamg on Thu, 03/11/2021 - 10:25am
The City Council yesterday approved a request by Councilor Ricardo Arroyo (Roslindale, Hyde Park, Mattapan) to look into how to get the city to build dog parks south of the Fenway, where he said dog-owning residents deserve the same facilities as those in the South End, the North End, Dorchester and other neighborhoods that already have dog parks.
As Arroyo began to talk about a hearing on the matter, one of his dogs started barking in the background. "My dog seems to have heard I'm speaking on this now," he said.
Arroyo said he was speaking in particular of his three neighborhoods and neighboring West Roxbury, but said Roxbury and Brighton also don't have dog parks. Jamaica Plain is also currently bereft of a dog park.
He said that dog parks not only provide a place for community to grow - both among owners and dogs - but would cut down on complaints about unleashed dogs in parks meant for people (he did not mention Medal of Honor Park in South Boston, however).
In recent years, the state DCR, which owns considerable parkland in Jamaica Plain, Hyde Park, Roslindale and West Roxbury, has proposed dog parks in both Stony Brook Reservation and the Southwest Corridor only to abandon the plans. At a meeting on the city-owned Millennium Park in West Roxbury last month, one city parks planner said Boston is committed to putting a dog park in every neighborhood.
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Comments
How to build a dog park
1) Acquire land
2) Clear obstructions from it
What am I missing?
I wish.
3) Spend 6-7 figures on years-long "impact studies" and other shit like that -- naturally we need to slow things down and run up the cost, people need to get paid, NIMBYs gotta have their space to NIMBY even if it still winds up getting built.
https://www.youtube.com/watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSLscJ2cY04
You'd think.
There were a couple of groups in my neighborhood that were trying to get official city approval for a couple of de facto dog parks for YEARS.
These are small pieces of city green space that don't have any playground/sports equipment, both within a block of a park with a playground, and the dog folks let people know through posting flyers and whatnot that they're going to have their dog playdates from 6-7 am or whatever the case is and are happy to leave if anyone objects. Pretty much no one in the neighborhood gives a fuck that they do this, in a very politically active neighborhood. The only one that was met with really any opposition was the one that was proposed for a space with a cultural statue in it.
I believe it's no longer an active project and they've mostly given up on it, because the city made it a huge pain in the ass.
Like you, I don't see the issue. I don't have a dog, and I don't even particularly like most of them, but I'm all for there being recommended/sanctioned dog parks so people using the park for kids and sports can let the off-leash dog people know there's a dog park down the block, instead of how we currently just tell them they're inconsiderate assholes.
Good, good
Let the Libertarianism flow through you.
Of course
The real answer is that we should let anyone who wants to let their dogs off their leash anywhere they want to and those dogs should do whatever it is they want to (because obviously any kind of limits on this would be governmental overreach). What could possibly go wrong?
A fence
.
he said dog-owning residents
Why does this have to phrased as an equity issue? If there's a need for a dog park in a certain area, then just say there's demand for a new park, or changing an existing park. Why try to rile things up?
Because fake populism
Is how he keeps his six-figure job.
Same reason that clergyman this week was in my FB feed for talking about women being in the kitchen: He works for donations, and people with money like to hear that kind of talk.
Poets, priests, and politicians have words to thank for their positions.
Except it isn't fake
This is for real.
Of course the elephant in the room is the state rep who pulled shit to keep a park from happening despite popular support because financial supporters >>>>> constituents.
As a non dog owning constituent of his
I think that he is right to call out the Parks department as to why District 5 doesn’t have spaces for dogs to roam free (as opposed to places bad dog owners have decided their pets can roam free) while other parts of the city have such facilities. That’s his job, to advocate for the area he represents.
Yep
It will also be great when, after the park is built, that people stop letting their dogs shit all over Fallon Field and keep kids from using it due to constant unleashed dogs jumping on them.
Oh wait, those assholes won't change their behavior at all.
In the South End, it has been
In the South End, it has been a LOT of work to get these spaces. They've essentially come about because neighborhood groups proposed them and came up with a plan that the Parks Department would agree upon, but they are essentially run by the neighborhood parks friends groups.
What really needs to happen is for the Parks Department to have a standard procedure/process for creating dog parks that neighborhoods can easily plug into. The reason why you are only seeing them in the northern part of the City is because people there have a lot of resources and free time to petition and work to create these spaces. Not every neighborhood has the same resources and political pull.
Not just that
But also make it a matter of citywide policy to reduce the power of NIMBYs to block the creation of dog parks in neighborhoods which lack them.
He's serving his constituents
People in his district have been complaining about this issue for years - some even raised $10,000 to design a dog park at Stony Brook that was then wasted because the state rep pulled a sneaky move at the last moment that got the plan killed.
Wouldn't you want your city councilor to fight for issues that are important to you even if nobody in the rest of the city cares about them?
Disclaimer: I live in his district, and so have been following the issue for years even if, ahem, I don't have a dog in this fight.
Cue the "NOT WITH MY TAXES"
Cue the "NOT WITH MY TAXES" people whilst they enjoy public education, parks, playgrounds, tennis courts, basketball courts, hockey rinks in 3,2,1....
There's a line.
Maybe dog parks are on the other side of it.
honestly
If it moves some obnoxious dogs/owners out of the parks I want to frequent, it's a good use of my taxes.
I find it funny that so many
I find it funny that so many people on UHUB think there are so many obnoxious dog owners. No more than obnoxious parents, obnoxious singles, obnoxious old people, obnoxious ppl that complain about dog poop as they thrown their garbage in the streets...
You've never been to Millennium Park, I take it
I've mostly stopped going there for a walk because I got tired of being confronted on the path along the river by stupid dogs who think I'm infringing on their territory (especially those stupid little yap dogs). The owners are mostly apologetic, but I shouldn't even have to worry about their loose pets, let alone ponder how far they'd wind up in the river if I kicked them hard enough.
Today, I ran some errands, got something to eat and headed up there to eat lunch, on one of the benches that's behind the little-kid playground, because hardly anybody ever goes there.
It overlooks lower and upper soccer fields. On the lower field, there was some dog walker who'd unleashed most of the seven dogs she had with her. OK, it's not a dog park so none of them should have been unleashed, but it's not like there was anybody else on the fields, so the dogs had a grand old time running around and being in a pack.
On the upper field, there was a mother with a little kid and a baby. She took out a mat or blanket or something, spread it out and the three of them sat there enjoying the nice day.
And then the friskiest member of the pack ran up the hill between the two areas and began nosing around the baby. Another quickly followed and soon the entire pack was on its way as the mother was forced to pick up her baby and protect the kid from the dogs. The dog walker quickly came up the hill as well and began getting the dogs away and leashing them up and getting them up to the even higher set of soccer fields. No physical harm done, the dog walker seemed apologetic, but: A parent shouldn't even have to be worrying about something like this.
So in conclusion: I don't have problems in parks with kids or old people or anybody else. Just dogs. And that's why I now mostly go for walks around Jamaica Pond. The dogs there are either on leashes or are so superannuated they're not going to cause a problem.
I have two dogs, even though
I have two dogs, even though I probably won't go to the dog parks, we need them. It is just another area where the outer neighborhoods are lagging behind the downtown areas. There is more than one dog park in the South End and there are no parks at all in all of Southwest Boston.
Ronan Park in Dorchester has
Ronan Park in Dorchester has had a dog park for 10+ years. I agree that more of them are needed, but I'm not so sure their claim that none exist is accurate.
There are none in Hyde Park,
There are none in Hyde Park, West Roxbury and Roslindale.
Dog-owning residents deserve
Dog-owning residents deserve the same facilities as those in South Boston.
A modest proposal
Just convert some community gardens (which cede public land to private 'owners') into dog parks, which are open for all residents. Imagine if that big lot off of Cummins Hwy was being used 12 months a year instead of just 6!
Don't @ me, this is not a real suggestion.
I totally thought you were
I totally thought you were going to suggest we eat the dogs. Now THAT would be a modest proposal.
As a trained USAF Dog handler
My advice is to get a longer leash and learn how to use it. Your dog will be happier.