image courtesy of local artist Miguel José Matos

 

 

If that playground in Bushnell Park is not happening, maybe we could use the space for a dog run instead. It seems there are more dogs than children living in downtown Hartford and there is a playground on Pulaski Mall between South Prospect Street and Columbus Boulevard, so the tiny humans would not be left with no place to exercise.

There are no official dog parks in Hartford. Most people do not have large, enclosed yards. Dogs need exercise, but letting them run off-leash down city streets means running the risk of cars striking the animals. While there are nice dog parks in nearby towns, many residents do not have vehicles allowing them to easily pack up the pooch and travel.

We do not need anything elaborate. A utilitarian fenced and gated space would be enough. Install a few signs with regulations. Provide some bowls for water. Install a waste bag dispenser and trash can, or, go the compost bin route. People have successfully crowdfunded for causes less important than this.

image courtesy of local artist Miguel José Matos

General maintenance is a concern, as with anything. User education can prevent the nightmare poop situations people worry about. Maybe some downtown businesses and apartment buildings could sponsor an endeavor that would make living here more attractive. Nobody should have to feel pulled toward the suburbs because their BFF is getting fat and slow due to lack of exercise.

People fret about change, even when those possibilities have been done well in many other places already. A look at existing dog parks/runs elsewhere show that these are not filthy pits of chaos. The Wethersfield Dog Park, while much larger than anything we would need, is smartly divided into two sections: one for all dogs and one for small or scaredy-cat dogs. To use the park, people need to have voice control over their animals and are limited to how many dogs they can bring at a time. There are no restrictions on breed, but aggressive dogs are not permitted. Dogs using the park need to be licensed and vaccinated. Hartford residents are exceptionally bad at registering their dogs with the town; a dog run where there are sporadic visits from Animal Control might encourage dog owners to cough up the money, which amounts to about $20 per dog each year.

There are those who fear the sight of dogs running off-leash, an activity that should be mitigated by allowing this behavior in a controlled, separated environment.

Besides that currently unused segment of Bushnell Park by the carousel, nearly all city parks have space where a dog run could be installed if that is what people in the neighborhood desired. Another underutilized space that comes to mind is the park at Wyllys and Groton Streets which is overdue for transformation and sits within a residential area.

Installing two or three dog runs in Hartford feels like a no-brainer, where the largest question should be what to name these newly dedicated spaces.