New York As Amsterdam For Dogs

The experiment in legalization known as “dog runs,” those canine red-light districts, have in the long run failed. Today, dog owners feel more entitled than ever to appropriate valuable public space for the sole purpose of letting their animals poop:

Seravalli Playground is a half-block of concrete just off Hudson Street between Gansevoort and Horatio Streets, planted with a dozen skinny trees. For the most part, the playground is a model of coexistence. Older children race around the fenced-in yard, toddlers clamber around a brightly painted play set, and homeless people occasionally slumber on the benches. In the mornings and evenings, people walk their dogs.

But now the playground is due for a $2 million redesign, a prospect that has exposed sharp divisions among its users. In particular, dog owners who want a dog run in the playground have sparred with toddlers’ parents who say the dog run will take up needed play space and possibly endanger children. The Parks Department will draft a plan this winter and plans to start work next summer; in the meantime, both camps have been feverishly recruiting supporters.

Both sides showed up in force at a community meeting Monday, where the tone was set by a neon-green hand-lettered poster that read, “Keep Our Park Dog-Free.”

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. . . [A] cluster of people, most of whom appeared to be in their 20s, had formed toward the front. Some wore buttons from an organization called the New York City Council of Dog Owner Groups (motto: “At the Tail of Every Leash is a Voter”).

Dog owners who spoke during the meeting complained that no dog runs were located nearby, and said that many other city parks combined dog runs with play areas.

“The reason we want this is to get out of your space,” said Tod Wohlfarth, a board member of the dog owners’ group. And a woman who said she owned three dogs announced to the assembled parents, “These animals are as important to my life as your children are to your life.”

Parents, in turn, spoke of children who were scared of dogs, children who compulsively embraced dogs, and toddlers who ate whatever they found on the ground, a potential problem if dogs were nearby. A local parent named Kevin McKiernan was greeted by wild applause when he said, “My kids are a higher priority to me than pets and their exercise.”