Parks for Pups WITH JUST A LITTLE PUBLIC SPACE, EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY
BY R.E.GRASWICH
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f anyone is responsible for the upheavals that will soon take place at University Park in Campus Commons, blame Sophia. Sophia is an elegant combination of Italian greyhound and Chihuahua with very long, brown legs and a slender figure and highly sociable disposition. The neighborly disposition is what gave her human companion, Ann Harriman, a big idea about University Park. “There is really no place close by within walking distance where she can go and meet other dogs,” says Harriman. “Then some of us who love dogs and live nearby, we got to thinking about this little portion of University Park, and we realized it was the perfect place for a dog park.” Monumental transformations of urban planning don’t always require eminent domain lawsuits and the destruction of faded shopping malls. Sometimes, a brilliantly innovative idea for improving a community can be reflected in the bright eyes of an Italian greyhound. The proposed dog park at University Park is one example of the small ways in which Sacramento residents find creative ways to keep themselves and their canines happy and well socialized. Another example is the monthly pop-up dog park in Midtown, a temporary affair that corresponds with the Second Saturday farmers market in the vicinity of 20th and J streets. The two dog parks have been driven by neighborhood desire, not bureaucratic decree or governmental whimsy.
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Ann Harriman and Sophia, center, among two-legged and four-legged friends
The pop-up park, which serves petite breeds (there’s a 30-pound weight limit; Sophia would qualify twice), was triumphantly funded by crowdsourcing and has become a monthly Midtown mainstay. “Our pop-up park is only about 300 square feet, so we have to limit the size of the dogs,” says Midtown Business Association executive director Emily Baime Michaels. “I’m not familiar with anyone else doing the same sort of thing, but we’d love to be an inspiration to other places.”
While it remains a gleam in Sophia’s eye, the University Park dog corral may ultimately serve as the classic dissertation on what happens when small-scale civic involvement seeks to solve the dilemma of fourlegged urban leash laws. In Sacramento and most other cities, it’s illegal to allow a dog off leash in a public place. The owner of an off-leash dog can be ticketed and fined. If an off-leash dog attacks a person or animal, the consequences can be severe, even fatal.
But as anyone who has visited a neighborhood park can attest, some dog owners can’t resist the temptation to ignore the rules and unclasp their dog’s leash, if only to let Scraps chase a tennis ball for a few uninhibited minutes. It’s a dumb move. This is where dog parks come in. Behind the sturdy fences and waived liabilities of a dog park, leashes are freed—along with the territorial aggression that leashes can encourage, some dog experts claim. It’s every dog for herself.