Lessons Learned from the Trouble in Newton
Newton is currently running a 9-month trial of legal off-leash recreation at Cold Spring Park. According to this article in the Boston Globe, there are a number of problems, including unhappy neighbors. The neighbors complain about increased traffic and on-street parking, dog owners not obeying the rules, and people coming to the park from all over the area. There appear to be conflicting users of the area as well – dog owners, runners, and soccer players.
What can MayDOG learn from these problems?
First, an important ingredient for a successful dog park is adherence to reasonable rules by dog owners. Having a park be the end result of a community-wide effort, and requiring paid permits to use the area once it is established, may help create a sense of ownership of the park. A strong sense of ownership leads to people taking better care of the park and applying peer pressure on other park users to do the same.
Second, taking a part of an established park as a dog park can cause conflict. Luckily, the area where MayDOG hopes to establish a park is not currently used by any other constituencies.
Third, parking and traffic need to be accomodated at any park. In this case, it sounds like there isn’t enough parking at the park, and the street sounds like it was a quiet residential street before the park was made official. In our case, the landfill is on a major road with few close-by houses, and there seems to be adequate space for plenty of parking to be created off the street.
Fourth, the Cold Spring off-leash area is not fenced. This is a major impediment to a successful park, and one that will not apply to our park.
Finally, the neighbors complain that most of the visitors to the park aren’t from the neighborhood. In our case, Maynard is small and we’re all in the same neighborhood. Increased visitors from out of town may be good for our local economy. And again, requiring paid permits may reduce the number of casual visitors.
Hopefully, the Friends of Cold Spring Park can work through these issues and end up with a wonderful amenity that is around for years to come. And hopefully, the lessons from the conflicts in other communities will help us find better solutions here in Maynard.
