RUFF held its monthly parks cleanup this Sunday morning at 9am. The group met and cleaned up the Prado, Charter St. Park and the ball fields. They also hung RUFF signs at several locations to remind dog owners of their responsibilities to the community.
RUFF stands for Responsible Urbanites for Fido and welcomes dog owners in and around the North End. Check out their Facebook page for the latest on upcoming meetings and events.
Pictured left to right are Dave, Jenna, pugs Carmelo and Jackson, Tim, Amy and dog Jake.
As a dog owner who picks up after his dog 100% of the time and follows the rules regarding where he is allowed, I have a few thoughts.
This neighborhood needs more trashcans. I find it absolutely ridiculous when I come across bags of dog crap on the side of the road. Why go through the trouble of bagging it, then just leave it there? One reason – as stupid and silly as it sounds – there aren’t nearby trashcans.
A few spots come to mind – the park on Charter street, salem street area near the old north church, and year-round trash cans near the ballfields. I understand dogs aren’t “allowed” at the fields, but people frequently either ignore that rule or are simply unaware of it. That’s not going to change overnight, so put a couple of permanent trashcans there so that well meaning dogowners who frequent that area have a reasonably convenient place to get rid of their dog waste.
I love the idea of a permanent dog park in the north end, as many have suggested, but having surveyed the area – I don’t see a viable option. The park on Richmond street is far too small and pretty disgusting – and as I understand it, the neighboring owners wouldn’t be thrilled by the idea anyway.
A plan for temporary, rotating fenced off areas designated for dogs was recently proposed for boston common. What if we could get something comparable for Columbus park? And/OR at the greenway? Where rotating fenced off sections of land would be designated for off leash dog use for 30-60 days at a time? It could be started on a trial basis, perhaps with RUFF volunteers helping out with clean up and coordination of the moving of temporary fencing. If done properly, it would cost very little to start up and I’m sure volunteers would be willing to maintain it.
It would be a lot easier to dissuade people from using the ballfields if there was another comparable option for off leash dog play nearby.
Just my two cents. Many thanks to RUFF and all they’ve done.
Love this idea of rotating fencing. Snow fencing would work. When I was walking with Bear the other day, it occur red to me that the areas adjacent to the ball fields(ie. there is already fencing on one side) could be ideal for dog areas. PLD
Why don’t the dog owners make the Richmond Street park nice? Take some time and effort and make it yours.
I do agree with your suggestion that the neighborhood NEEDS more trash cans. The area on Salem between Prince & Old North is deplorable (largely because of BOVA’s drunk customers) and it is a highly travelled tourist area. The least we can do is look good for guests (let alone the rest of the ‘hood!!!).
Have you been to the Richmond Street park? First of all, it’s tiny, so there is not enough room for dogs to run and play. Second, it’s crammed right between a couple 5 story buildings and the tunnel entrance. Third, it is dark & sketchy, and anyone going there at night is putting themselves in danger.
But other than that, yeah let’s just have dog owners “make it nice”. Why should we be segregated into a tiny afterthought of a park? There are 3 baseball fields plus other grassy areas along the waterfront, lots of park space in Columbus, and lots of space in the Greenway. Between these spots we should be able to find enough room to designate a decent dog park.
It’s not nice because pee and poop ruin grass and plants. Duh? What do you want to ruin all the other grassy areas with animal waste? Why should anyone make it nice? So it can be ruined with dog pee and poop? Yeah right!
Parcel 12 on the Rose Kennedy Greenway would be a good location for a fenced dog park. This is the parcel with the off ramps at North Street and Atlantic Ave. It is barren land across the street from the Dock Sq. garage.
Owned and controlled by MA DOT. Cannot just put a dog park there. Who will pay to design, build and maintain it?
The nice thing about a dog park is that it doesn’t take much in the way of design or build (just build fences around the grassy area with a double-gated entrance). As for maintenance, maybe RUFF can work with the Greenway to figure that out, but again it’s not a lot of maintenance required. These are issues that should be really easy to solve, although with our esteemed city/state government being involved maybe not.
The Greenway is for the People, not animals. . There is very little green space for PEOPLE as it is, and we should not sacrifice what little we have left for the DOGs.
You could make the same argument for the sidewalks, streets and ballparks that are riddled with dog waste. Also, last time I checked – the DOGs are owned and enjoyed by PEOPLE.
OK so your thought is that because there is not much green space in the neighborhood, we can’t set aside some for the people who own pets (because again, it’s not for the pets themselves, but for the PEOPLE who own the pets)? Thanks for letting us all know you are not a reasonable voice in this discussion.
There are clearly enough dog owners in this neighborhood to make a dog park a highly utilized piece of green space. Setting aside a place for us would have the added benefit of less dogs on the baseball fields and other parks, so you can call that a win-win.