This document has been circulating around City Council and the relevant parties for the past month or two. Council Member Lowenstein referred to it during the conversation about the ordinance change at the last meeting.
It is a set of frequently asked questions about off-leash hours in parks in New York. I have expressed reservations before about off-leash hours and I haven't changed my position on that, but it is still a likely partial solution for us. Also, this FAQ deals with more general issues of community relations, public benefit, etc.
I'm glad to see that this is floating around the powers that be since I think it is a nice, even-handed treatment of the issues. There are a few things that I would change, but it's worth perusing if you are still unsure about the wisdom of off-leash areas or if you want to be better prepared to speak with people who are.
Thanks to Vanessa for passing this along to me!
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3 comments:
I like number 6
You know, ideally (IMHO) there would be a combination of a dog park and off-leash hours in AA. What we're hitting up against is the diversity of dogs and what their owners like to do with them. Your dogs can't just run off leash in an unfenced area. My crotchety old dogs aren't that big on playing with frisbees and/or other dogs.
I do think that once we get one thing established, it'll be easier to get the other one set up. What I do worry about a little bit is if only one gets set up, that'll be used as an argument against the other...
Of course a great solution would be to have a giant dog park that has areas for different kinds of recreation. This may seem like an unrealistic dream, but is reality in many other places.
Yeah, I think eventually we'll see some combination of solutions. That really would be the ideal.
I also think that your concern about getting one solution and finding inertia is a real one. But the optimist in me is hoping that once there is an example of a well-run and problem-free off-leash area somewhere in the city it will be easier to convince people that off-leash dogs can be safe and beneficial to the neighborhood. Right now one of the biggest problems we face is unfamiliarity so hopefully getting something in place will cure that.
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