The Uncertain Progress of the Dog Park

In October--on October 15, to be exact--Mayor Rick Rector held a public meeting, described as a "community conversation," about a new city park to be developed on the remediated brownfield at Dock and South Second streets which was once the site of Foster's Refrigerator.

The plan proposed repurposing the existing concrete slab in the middle of the site as a parking lot and developing the area east of the slab—in the front, bordered by North Second Street and Dock Street—as a public park and trail head for the Empire State Trail and the area west of the slab—at the back, abutting the rear of Craftech, the DPW garage, and the waste water treatment plant—as a dog park. At that meeting, no one raised any objections to siting the dog park in this location, except for one person who worried that there weren't enough trees on the site. Even Fourth Ward supervisor Linda Mussmann, who is credited with inspiring the opposition to siting the dog park in Charles Williams Park, seemed to support the proposed location.

Tonight, two months after that community conversation, a resolution was introduced at the Common Council meeting authorizing the mayor "to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with Hudson River Valley Greenway, the Hudson Parks Conservancy, and stakeholders for a dog park [full disclosure: Gossips is on the board of the Hudson Parks Conservancy and is one of the stakeholders for a dog park] to develop a plan for the design and operation of a dog park and trail head. . . ." After the resolution was introduced, Council president Tom DePietro asked if there was any discussion. Among Council members, there was none, but at this point DePietro, uncharacteristically (since he usually defers public comment to the end of the meeting), recognized a member of the audience: Second Ward supervisor Abdus Miah. 

Miah parroted the same things he said last year when protesting siting the dog park in Charles Williams Park: "The people don't want it. The people don't want a dog park in the Second Ward." Not to be outdone in concern for her constituents, Second Ward alderman Tiffany Garriga chimed in her concerns that "we need to hear from the people." Third Ward alderman Shershah Mizan concurred. 

DePietro pointed out, "We're talking about a location that cannot be used for housing." Fourth Ward alderman John Rosenthal noted, "It's far enough away from the houses." Fifth Ward alderman Dominic Merante, who was one of the few aldermen who had attended the mayor's meeting about the plan, told his colleagues that the proposal had been "very well received." He went on to say, "This seems to me the ideal area—far away from the houses, far away from the neighborhood."

City attorney Andy Howard then weighed in, telling the aldermen, "One thing you will have from this [the resolution] is a design, so the public can express their opinion." Garriga reiterated, "The people in that area have their concerns."

In the end, the aldermen voted unanimously to pass the resolution
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