[Mintwood-place] Kalorama ROAD Dog Park

Sat Apr 14 09:47:37 PDT 2007

Dear Jim, There may be an elegant resolution to this mil-storm.  The Adams Morgan Transportation study, proposed uniting  Kalorama Park with the orphaned triangle park.  If just that small leg of Kalorama Road were converted into park and used for the dog run, it would provide more dog run space then any other Kalorama Park location now under Constitution.  In addition there would be more parking spaces since the six legal spaces on Kalorama Road would be replaced by 8 on either side of the closed road. 

  Certainly there may be a down side.  
  1)  I think the first step would be a transportation study to examine what impact closing the road would have on neighborhood and emergency vehicle traffic. 
  2)  What could be done to lower the impact on adjacent neighbors who although separated by Columbia and 19Th Street may still have reservation..  
  3)  How would the park be designed to have the least environmental impact - dealing with waste and run off. 

  You also might use your influence at WMATA to make the Walter Pierce Dog run far more attractive.  Can you get WMATA to figured out a way to stop the buses from idling and to return the Totle house into a locally run outdoor cafe patronized by bus drivers, dog owners, commuters and park patrons.  With much appreciation and thanks in advance.  Eddie

  Cc Mintwood and AllforKaloramaPark

Menda Fife <farmgirldc at yahoo.com> wrote:
    Folks,

  For those of you not on the latest Kalorama Park list re:  what to do about kids and dogs, I wanted you to have my latest response.  The email address for the Kalorama Park list is:  AllforKaloramaPark at yahoogroups.com.

  Thanks.

  Menda

Menda Fife <farmgirldc at yahoo.com> wrote:
  To: AllforKaloramaPark at yahoogroups.com, mintwood.place at lists.mutualaid.org
From: Menda Fife <farmgirldc at yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2007 06:27:58 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: [AllforKaloramaPark] back to the agenda for Apr 21

          Regarding a dog park in Kalorama Park, I'm sorry to hear that our Councilman continues to consider putting a dog park immediately behind the residences of many of his constitutents.  If, and I remain opposed to any fenced-off dog park in Kalorama Park, a dog park is to be built in the park, it should be in a location as far away from the residences as possible due to the smell, dust, feces, rats, etc.

  There is an excellent dog park in WPP that does not impact anyone's backyard.

  I'm all for dogs in Kalorama Park, but will oppose and organize against any dog park/dog run in the area between the rec center and the basketball courts.

  Menda Fife 

Emily Mechner <anc1c02 at mechner.com> wrote:
        This morning Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham came to the park to take a look around and see for himself potential sites for a dog run.  We (a few ANC commissioners, DPR representatives, and community advocates) walked around the park and had a discussion afterwards.  Graham is planning to attend the forum on the 21st, and he would be interested in hearing us focus our attention on a small number of proposals, in particular possibilities for an actual dog run in Kalorama Park.  He seems to be very attracted to that possibility because it offers a relatively painless way to satisfy both the need of dogs for off-leash exercise and the need of the rest of the community and landscape for freedom from off-leash dogs.  

  Contrary to Lane Hudson's characterization, the upshot of the discussion was not that there "will be" a dog run in Kalorama Park, but rather that that would be a first choice solution, and discussion of other alternatives should wait until the (still quite open) question of the feasibility of a dog run is settled.

  Four sites were considered, of which two remained on the table after discussion.  They are
  (1) The north lawn, between the ball courts and the rec center, between the path and the backyards of the houses on Mintwood Place
  (2) Some part of the upper oval, not entirely specified, probably about a third of it

  The arguments for and against each being different, it makes sense to treat those as two separate proposals.  

  The possibility of a shared time solution was met with skepticism by people who had been involved in the controversy and negotiation last time such a compromise was agreed upon--and then broken.  

  The topic of "self-policing" did not come up, and I am no longer sure that it should have a prominent place on the agenda of the April 21st meeting.  But I would still be interested in hearing what everyone here has to say about it.  I am not sure I even know what is meant--does it refer to voluntary compliance, enforced by mutual consent, or is it a euphemism for non-compliance?  When I hear people use the phrase, I have two questions: (1) what about those who *don't* self-police and need to kept in line by others (is the local community capable of policing everyone who comes to the park, and not just itself?); and (2) what does this mean to someone who regularly runs their dog off-leash in violation of the law, and wishes to continue doing so? 

  Emily

    ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: tenspro 
  To: AllforKaloramaPark at yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Friday, April 13, 2007 10:07 AM
  Subject: Re: [AllforKaloramaPark] back to the agenda for Apr 21

    Emily,

A couple of comments about the agenda. 

First, I think it makes a lot of sense to start with the topic of self-policing. I'm not sure the header is right, but in the end this discussion should set the tone for the remainder of the forum, since really this topic should stress the importance of dog owners, non dog owners, and park people all working together to self monitor and manage whatever solution we end up with in the end. It's critical that everyone be involved in the implementation and enforcement, and I believe it is a good way to start the meeting by encouraging and promoting joint efforts. 

Second, just to throw an idea and/or concept out there which people on the list can feel free to comment about and on if is should be an agenda item, what about discussing the idea of having occasional community education events at KP, related to dogs? For example, you can have some education seminars for dog owners on what the proper way is to introduce their dogs to individuals, etc. and for non dog owners and/or parents you can have educational seminars on how they and their children should approach a dog, etc. Or even education seminars on what to do if you see a stray animal at the park (cat, dog, raccoon, whatever). It doesn't matter if dogs are on leash or off leash, these are important processes and issues which in helping educate the masses could eliminate some future problems. 

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Mike

Emily Mechner <anc1c02 at mechner.com> wrote:       Getting back to the question of what's on the agenda for the April 
21 Forum, I have reposted my sketch of a tentative list of topics as 
a file at 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AllforKaloramaPark/files/

I have edited it slightly from my original e-mail to reflect the 
suggestions that I have heard from subsequent discussion here. 

Each topic needs people to volunteer to (1) flesh out the details of 
the proposal (how will it work) and (2) argue for its advantages--
why should the community accept it. If anyone also wants to (3) 
prepare arguments against the proposal, that would be helpful, too.

If nobody is willing to speak about or for a given topic, it will 
drop off the agenda. Needless to say, I am particularly interested 
in getting people to speak up for the compromise proposals, although 
I think it may also be valuable for people to hear arguments for the 
more extreme positions. 

Emily

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