Mayor Adrian M. Fenty went last week to 39th and Newark streets Northwest, where he and public facilities czar Allen Lew intend to construct a dog park. The price tag for the project could be as much as $600,000.
Quick, get the straitjacket. The chief executive and his folks have lost their ever-loving minds.
The District has a current deficit of more than $200 million, which is likely to rise as revenues further decrease. In 2011, the problem mushrooms to more than a half-billion dollars. Last week, City Administrator Neil Albert told the D.C. Council the administration plans major budget cuts. He warned things could get ugly — already thousands of workers have lost jobs, and key government services have been reduced or eliminated.
With such fiscal woes, can the city really afford to build any dog parks?
District officials make the distinction between operating and capital budgets; dog park expenses are paid out of the latter. Regardless of the pot from which the money comes, it’s all taxpayer funds. Many residents have said during these tight economic times, they prefer public money is spent saving jobs and serving the city’s most vulnerable.
Several years ago, above the objections of numerous citizens, the council approved the creation of dog exercise areas, stealing recreation land from kids. Each project was budgeted to cost not more than $80,000. But with the construction of each exercise area that price has escalated, and the problems associated with “dog parks” have exploded.
Last November, the Current newspaper reported the 17th and S streets dog park seemed to have created disharmony in that community. Many residents living near the park called it a “significant public nuisance.” They complained about the number of dogs using the facility, the incessant barking and the mounds of poop that hadn’t been removed by the sponsors of the site, creating a health hazard.
By law, exercise areas were to be the responsibility of community groups that had been approved by the Department of Parks and Recreation to lease and manage them. But increasingly, government agencies have had to step in. That has raised questions about who would be liable should an accident or serious injury occur on those sites
The proposed Newark Street dog exercise area, for example, is sandwiched between a children’s playground, one of the oldest and most successful community gardens, and public tennis courts. Residents near the site — the majority of whom oppose the project — are concerned about environmental and safety issues created by such proximity. (I’ve been told no objective study of their concerns was ever conducted.)
But it’s election season. Interestingly, the mayor and Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh have decided to ignore the majority. Instead, they have chosen to respond to the demands of a few vocal, influential and highly organized individuals who support dog parks — safety concerns and city finances be damned.
Let’s hope the sanity of our elected officials returns, soon.
Jonetta Rose Barras, host of WPFW’s “D.C. Politics With Jonetta,” can be reached at [email protected].
