The Times They Are A Changin'

In case you didn't already know....Sunrise Wednesday is at 7:07 and sunset is at 6:54. So, if your "shared" park is near a school, you have exactly 53 minutes in which to exercise with your dog. Probably want to do the full 53 minutes, because that's all you're going to get. You're pooch won't get any evening time. So please, PLEASE don't oversleep!
Oh, and on Thursday? Two minutes less.

Picking up Poop in Seattle

I've long believed that this whole issue really boils down to scooping poop. Everyone has at least one vivid memory of stepping in some, and it's a not-too-pleasant memory, either. And it's very tempting to spot it on the ground and want to attribute it to the first dog you see. It wasn't until I read an story in the Austin American-Statesman that I discovered that Seattle requires owners to carry visible poop-scooping bags. I think it's a fine idea.

In Seattle, for example, dog owners in city parks must visibly carry scooping equipment and can be ticketed $50 for not having it. And people do get ticketed, said Dewey Potter, communications manager for the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department.

More Dark Days

The rains have returned to Portland. In a city of people who love parks, you'd never know it this time of year. Playscapes (all 110 of which are inspected daily by Parks) are wet and unused. Soccer and baseball fields are soggy at best, mudpits at worse. No matter where you are, your neighborhood park will continue to be, er, underutilized for the next 6 months (or more!), save for the occasional non-rainy day. But there is a sizable group of users who will be doggedly continue to be at parks, rain or shine. In many parks, dogs and their owners are often the only park visitors on dark, rainy days. (And if it wasn't enough fun to get out in the rain and mud twice a day, many Portlanders will have the added joy of driving back and forth to parks with their wet and muddy pets because the empty park down the street is not available.)

So, given these conditions and the fact that off-leash hours don't actually start until 30 minutes after dark, surely Parks will correct their mistakes and at least move the evening hours to a time that's actually before dark? No. Several dog owners endured a boring OLAC meeting on Tuesday for a chance to politely plead to fix this policy oversight. Said one: "who do I need to talk to to get this changed, because it needs to be changed right away, like tomorrow." Parks told them in no uncertain terms that neither this, nor anything else would be changed until the "test" period is over, which won't be until next year at the earliest. Wait a minute. We've been told repeatedly that this was a 1-year trial. We're already 14 months into this one-year trial and now we're informed that no matter how boneheaded it is, it'll continue for another 4 months?

For dog owners, Parks has no sympathy.

Reminder: Meeting Tonight

Please come to the Off-Leash Advisory Committee meeting tonight at 5:30. It's a chance to speak up about your park usage to the citizen's board that will make recommendations to the Council about what to do going forward.

They Ruin the Ballfields!

One reason mentioned for excluding dogs from parks is damage done to the fields... It's true that there are a few areas used by dogs where the turf is getting a little thin this time of year. Since dogs are now forced to congregate in dense numbers, this is not surprising.

The same is true of every sports field in the city as soccer players and softball games have pounded and scraped sections of fields. But in Chapter 12 of "Do as we say, not as we do", the same Parks Bureau that wants a light footprint by dog users, feels free to make daily use of heavy trucks driven willy-nilly through the parks, including the sacred sports fields, because park employees apparently can't use a wagon or some other low-impact method to carry trash from cans to their truck.

The Parks Bureau will spend a lot of money and time in the off-season revitalizing these fields: aerating, seeding, mowing, and yes, smoothing out ruts caused by sports users and Parks' trucks. But when was the last time you heard the suggestion that fields shouldn't be used by softball teams because they might be damaged by them?

If the Parks Bureau can determine that the labor hours saved in using heavy vehicles to retrieve bags of trash offsets the cost of the damage done by the trucks, then I'll take their word for it, but why are dog owners the only users held to the highest standard?

Here are some recent pictures (taken at 8:10 last Thursday morning) from Sewallcrest park.

And at another park a few weeks back.

Don't Cross This Imaginary Line

If the City passed a law that said you can only walk on your right foot or else pay a large fine, how many people do you think would follow it? To me, the leash laws are a lot like that. Yet surprisingly, most people are willing to obey even unreasonable laws. You have to click on the photo below to see the large version...notice the cluster of dog owners at Sewellcrest Park on last Thursday morning at 7:50 a.m. The field is entirely empty save for a few crows, yet the dog owners (it looks like they're in jail) are all in their small allotted space. This is a typical scene during "dog hours" ... the only people using the park are there with their dog(s). I see it a lot and it's both humorous and sad at the same time. This demonstrates how arbitrary the time and space requirements are. I'm all for giving preference to human sports teams and human picnickers, but why do we have to give preference to crows?? More importantly, it shows that if a set of reasonable regulations were actually presented (No dogs in play scape areas, groomed ballfields; pick up after pets, etc.), we could expect dog owners to follow them.

Willamette Park Meat Was Laced

If you haven't heard already, it was announced today that lab tests confirmed that the meat (including nine whole chickens) left in Willamette Park was laced. Strangely, the meat contained high levels of caffeine (which can be poisonous to dogs and cats in high dosage).

As times goes on, it's becoming clearer and clearer that the small number of folks who are anti-dog are tightly clustered on the wack-o end of the spectrum of opinion.

OLAC Meeting on Tuesday, September 14

The next meeting of the Off-Leash Advisory Committee will be on Tuesday, Sept. 14 in the Portland Building at 5:30. There will be a chance for public input (2 minutes per person). The topics for discussion include reviewing the natural areas study and the survey results. Please come.

(The Portland building is at 1120 SW Fifth.)

"I've gained 10 pounds in the last 3 months."

That's a comment I overheard at a park last night. The lady who made the quote was referring to the fact that because she can no longer use any of the 3 parks within walking distance of her house, she has had to drive to a park twice a day. Like many dog owners, she actually uses parks for exercise, and that includes the process of getting there and back. Isn't that a primary use of parks...exercise? This has got to be the first time in years that the City has developed a program that actually encourages Portlanders to drive more. Mayor Katz, why would you encourage driving when you pride yourself on getting around by foot in this "walkable city"?

Sunset today is at 7:44 P.M.

Tonight's sunset is at 7:44 P.M., yet off-leash hours don't start until 8 P.M. Boy how the City has bent over backwards to share a common resource. If you don't like exercising in a dark park, I guess you're just ungrateful.

All this generosity despite the fact that most parks are demonstrably almost empty all day long this time of year..."shared" parks and non-shared parks alike.

I've been told that hours at Irving Park have been extended to start at 6 p.m. instead of 8 p.m. This whole mess started when a small number of people complained loudly and often. It's pretty obvious what it will take to get usage of our parks back...