[RP TownTalk] "Dog Parks Are Becoming the Preferred Place to Meet and Greet" (WaPost)

[Dwight Holmes]

So (assuming this article is on to something) in the future, most
couples will have met at the dog park, and (I'm adding this from my
own observation) the toddlers will have spent their mornings or
afternoons hanging at Starbucks with one of their parents... ;-)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/27/AR2007102700598.html?hpid=artslot

Maybe Town Center needs a dog park to create foot (and paw) traffic??!?

(seriously, why not a dog park between the Northeast Branch trail and
the Elementary School playground, on the same level as the trail?)

For Canines (and People, Too)
Dog Parks Are Becoming the Preferred Place to Meet and Greet

By Daniela Deane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 28, 2007; C01

Sherrard Foster's marriage of 30 years broke up recently, and she's
now going through a painful divorce. Her elderly father died a few
weeks ago after a lengthy illness. And her multiple sclerosis is
advancing again after years of remission.

In the midst of all that heartache, though, there's still one thing
she looks forward to every day: spending a couple of hours with her
best friends, and her golden retriever Abby, at an Arlington County
dog park.

"I'd be suicidal if I didn't have this park," Foster, 62, said
recently as she sat on a picnic table surrounded by friends -- and
dogs -- at the Fort Ethan Allen park. "Coming here is the central part
of my day. I couldn't live without it."

The local dog park has found a permanent home in the Washington
region, evolving into a place where people can find and build a
community in a sprawling metropolitan area that offers few venues
outside the workplace to make friends, particularly for baby boomers
or for those who find themselves alone.

Once a bone of contention in some communities, local officials are
catching on to how important these parks have become, not so much for
dogs but for their owners. In recent years, two dozen have opened
across the region, including eight in Arlington, seven in Fairfax
County and three in Prince George's County. The District and Prince
William County, which have no designated public off-leash areas for
dogs, are set to get on board.

"At first, people questioned why we were building parks for dogs,"
said Tim White, acting director of the Fairfax County Park Authority,
which has opened seven dog parks since 2000. "But they're not for
dogs. They're for people. Saying you're building a dog park for dogs
is like saying you're building a golf course for golf balls."

In many instances, the dog park has become the equivalent of the
neighborhood bar for people looking to socialize, expand their circle
of friends -- or just have a pleasant conversation with someone after
work. Dog parks are usually busiest from 5 to 7 p.m.

"Some people go to happy hour and have drinks," said Mariesa Barros,
sitting at a picnic table recently with friends in Georgetown's Rose
Park. "I come here."

Barros, 46, got her current job and her apartment through friends she
made at her local dog park.

Like others in the city, though, her dog park isn't official, a fact
that scares the dozens of dog owners who use the park -- and depend on
it as a social lifeline.

Barros, who is single, said she goes to the park "365 days a year --
rain, sun, snow, sleet, whatever." She usually heads there right after
work. "I get all my socializing done here. Then I go home and have
dinner."

Barros recalls one couple who met at her dog park and later got
married. After the wedding, they showed up at the park in their
wedding clothes with champagne -- and their dogs -- for an impromptu
reception with their friends.

"She had a cocker spaniel, and he had two mastiffs," Barros said.
"They fell in love here."

Barros recently befriended Alexis Maurikakis, who moved to the
District from London with his partner over the summer.

Maurikakis, who's writing a book at home, said having the dog park
nearby for his boxer Daisy -- and himself -- has been "fantastic"
because his partner travels frequently for work and he didn't know
anyone in the area.

"Everybody I've met in D.C., I've met at the dog park," Maurikakis
said. "For people whining about being alone, I say, 'Get a dog.' You
meet far more people very quickly."

Arlington is a dog-park pioneer among area jurisdictions. It opened
its first "community canine area" 10 years ago.

"We realized a long time ago that these parks weren't about the dogs
so much but about people coming together and building communities,"
said Steve Temmermand, division chief for Arlington Parks, Recreation
and Cultural Resources. "There are potluck supper clubs, book clubs,
people exchange movies, all kinds of stuff. It's an entire social
network. People have met their boyfriends, girlfriends and spouses at
these parks."

Temmermand said a 2002 survey commissioned by the county found that
more people use its dog parks than soccer fields.

In the survey, 9 percent of those who frequently use county facilities
put dog parks at the top of the list. "That means 18,000 people in
Arlington use these dog parks frequently," Temmermand said, noting
that the county has 30,000 registered dogs. "That tells you just how
very popular they are." The Shirlington dog park has a group just for
pugs, with owners and their dogs meeting there one Saturday a month.

Temmermand said the Arlington parks tend to attract an older,
professional and highly educated crowd.

Kelli Holsendolph, a spokeswoman for Montgomery County's Department of
Parks, said the county's planning board recently decided to
incorporate dog parks into its park system. The county's first dog
park opened in Wheaton in 2003 as a pilot project, she said. Now there
are three, with two more planned.

In Prince George's, there is one official dog park in College Park,
plus two municipal ones in the cities of Bowie and Greenbelt.

Prince William is scouting locations for its first after a countywide
survey showed that dog parks were the most frequently requested
amenity not currently provided, according to Rick Washco of the
county's Park Authority. Finding a location suitable to most people in
the area can be a lengthy process, he said.

"These parks seem to be a trend all over the country," said Anita
Pesses of the Prince George's Department of Parks and Recreation,
especially in more urban, rapidly developing areas, where housing is
close together and many people living in condominiums and apartments
have no place for their dogs to play outdoors.

Cathy Salgado, director of parks and recreation for the town of
Vienna, attributes the rise in popularity of dog parks in part to
heightened awareness about pet care.

"People are expected to do all kinds of things for their dogs these
days," she said. "It's blossomed into a whole industry now, with pet
spas, grooming places, doggie day care, specialty care places. When I
was growing up, my mother would kick the dog out the back door and
say, 'Go do your business.' "

Salgado said Vienna has one of the best dog parks around -- set in the
woods, with shaded areas and benches for the pet owners and water
spouts and a wading pool for the dogs.

The one urban jurisdiction conspicuously behind is the District, but
that's about to change, according to Clark Ray, the city's parks
director. Ray said the District is in the process of opening some dog
parks, an action approved by the City Council in 2005.

He said authorities realize there are already de facto dog parks in
the city. "We're going to try to make the de facto parks official,"
Ray said. "We've set up a task force to see where we can open these
parks. We're not going to be at the end of the line for very much
longer."

Most dog parks in the region are established, funded and cared for by
dog owners, who form groups such as RestonDogs, for example, which
sponsored the dog park at Baron Cameron Park in Fairfax.

Judy Pedersen of the Fairfax County Park Authority said the sponsoring
groups raise funds to build the parks, write matching grants if needed
and then make sure rules are enforced, including that owners pick up
their dogs' poop.

"We've got a system that manages itself and works very well," Pedersen
said. "There is such a passion for these parks that these groups
really take care of them. We don't get a lot of complaints about the
dog parks."

The dog owners seem to do a pretty good job of taking care of one another, too.

Sherrard Foster's dog park friends recently helped her arrange her
dad's funeral reception. And because her MS means she has difficulty
walking, someone always helps her get Abby into the car before she
goes home.

When she feels low about the demise of her long marriage, she also
turns to the friends she has made at Fort Ethan Allen park.

"Someone's always there with a sympathetic ear," she said. "They know
what I've been through. These are all my best friends."

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