Oct 14 2008
Some Not Happy With Baltimore’s New Dog Park
Baltimore City recently announced it would fund a new dog park in Locust Point’s Latrobe Park. Read more about this in the Locust Point Civic Association’s October Newsletter. The park is the result of a lot of hard work by a group of dedicated volunteer neighbors who were able to raise $20,000 through fundraisers. But it seems some Baltimore Sun readers have a problem with it. Read their comments here. Most of them probably don’t know any of the details, but that hasn’t stopped anyone from throwing in their two cents. Here’s a link to the Sun’s original story on the dog park. I’m not a dog owner, but it seems there’s definitely worse ways to spend the city’s money. What I’m not clear on is the correlation of the $20,000 mentioned in the LPCA newsletter and the $150,000 mentioned in the Sun piece. Is the $20k part of the larger sum?
5 Comments to “Some Not Happy With Baltimore’s New Dog Park”
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Makes sense to me. Seems like many dog owners can’t seem to control or cleanup after their dogs. So might as well keep them in a designated area. A dog park to me is as much for non-dog owners, who don’t have to deal with the mutts and their owners. Seriously the other day I saw a guy walking his dog adjacent to Fed Hill Park. Dog drops a steamer on the sidewalk and the guy keeps on walking.
I live in Locust Point (a non-dog owner) and I have to say that the organizers for the Dog Park really worked hard in getting this in our neighborhood. There were many fundraisers throughout the last year and I have a feeling that the city probably saw them approaching their monetary goal and wanted to share in their success.
I’m not sure where they are getting the $150,000 number from. That is not what a single Dog Park will cost. Estimates were more like $40,000 to $50,000 and most of that was for the fencing around it. Maybe the $150,000 is for ALL the Dog Parks that are planned (this is just the first of several).
I would also like to note that the Mayor and her staff were celebrating with the neighborhood after the announcement, which was very nice to see.
Now, when are we going to see an announcement for the “Cat Park”?
The $150k is a conservative estimate of the amount the city plans to spend on the dog park. This was their plan after taking a field trip to a dog park in New York city (your tax dollars at work). The $20-50k is how much the valiant community organizers had raised (towards a far less expensive version of the dog park) before the city jumped on the band wagon.
According to some members of the community’s dog park committee, the City will most likely end up spending upwards of $250k on that single dog park.
While dog parks may be a good idea, spending $100-250k on a dog park while the school just 200 yards away can’t keep the interior temperature under 90 degrees during September (non-operational AC) seems foolish. Did you expect anything else from Baltimore City government? Believe, hon.
Hi Be,
I think you have some good points. Francis Scott Key does need some improvements. However, not building the dog park won’t automatically get them a new air conditioner. They are from different budgets and probably getting on the Department of Public Works (or whoever manages these things for schools) is probably an excellent first step. And I’m not going to be the champion for Baltimore Public schools since we all know they need a lot of help, but Baltimore City spends more money per child than any other county (if my research is correct).
$150,000 is a lot of money to individuals. That would be an EXCELLENT yearly salary for myself and probably 99% of the people who live in the city, but it really isn’t that much money with regards to the entire budget. It is actually a very inexpensive way to give people reasons to live in the city, which ultimately could lower taxes for all of us “city-folk”. This is no different than putting up a $200,000 park for kids. Just because the dog park isn’t inherently for kids doesn’t mean it shouldn’t made. There are plenty of non-family residents that would like to see some of their tax dollars give them something back.
You were correct. The dog park will cost about $150,000 and the neighborhood was nowhere near that number. The plan apparently was to do the dog park in steps, which I think would wind up costing more.
Again, I’m not a dog owner and my life isn’t affected either way, but I do think it is a nice thing for Locust Point. I can see how others may not share that opinion.
Agreed. $150k is a lot of money, but not when it’s put into perspective. I’m guessing it costs the city that much to repave 1 small city street, or install some new street lights. It’s all relative.