If you’ve ever seen a nice dog park, you know what a great amenity it is, both for those wonderful social pets and for other park users who otherwise would be beset by off-leash animals.
Of course, you probably have not seen one in Boston, where the city government continues to obstinately refuse to create such amenities in a supposedly “world-class” city.
The Parks Department is claiming that, by City ordinance, dog park creation is residents’ responsibility. But that rarely happens because it is fundamentally about restricting and mitigating a high-impact park usage, making consensus difficult.
We note in turn that enforcing the leash law and managing the parks properly are the Parks Department’s responsibility. The best, smartest, simplest and outright fun way to do that is to create dog parks like many other cities have done.
Instead of hiding behind a dysfunctional law, the City needs to be proactive and create a dog park plan.
The underlying issue is the embarrassing underfunding of the Parks Department—a straight-up crime in a city awash in million-dollar condos and luxury hotels. Someone has the money, and plenty of other cities have model dog park plans.