ohmidog!

    As we told you Aug. 22, and then again on Sept. 5,  Baltimore will soon be announcing construction plans for its first city-sponsored dog park, at Latrobe Park in Locust Point. The official announcement — there’ll be a press conference at the park — is now scheduled for 5 p.m. Friday, October 10.
    It has been reported here that Mayor Sheila Dixon would like to see as many as four new dog parks in the city of Baltimore. While they have been a long time coming, and are still years in the future, I think the press conference might be a good time for dog owners, and dogs, to show their thanks.
    What if, say, 100 dogs showed up at the press conference, or 200 even, to show their appreciation for the city’s efforts to allow them some room to romp off leash?
    In addition to serving as a little reminder to the city’s elected officials that a lot of dogs live here — and that most of them have a registered voter or two as their caretakers — a mass turnout of dogs would get that message across to the rest of the city as well, assuming that the mainstream media (I can call it that now that I’ve left it) finally gets on to the story.
    Look at it as a mass thank you for finally recognizing the need — and a reminder that there are lots of other dogs and owners, including a good many around Patterson Park, that would like their dogs to have a place to run, too.

It would also be a way to show support for those citizen groups that have been working so hard for so many years to bring dog parks to Baltimore, such as the Patterson Park group and the Locust Point Dog Park organization.

The Locust Point Dog Park Committee, for example, has been raising money for a year and a half to get the dog park at Latrobe started — as did the citizens behind Baltimore’s only existing dog park in Canton. Up until now, the city has stayed out of creating dog parks, requiring not just that citizens raise the money, build and maintain them, but also that they negotiate a confusing bureaucracy to get city approval.

The city’s announcement is big news because the city has reversed its earlier stand and will be paying for construction of the dog park in Locust Point, and possibly more.

For the project at Latrobe Park, the city has met with a dog park designer and is thinking of a park modeled after the Chelsea Waterfront Dog Park in New York City.

I think we should bark our thanks, and show off our numbers, and let the city know that, in its better late than never way, it’s on the right track. How huge an impression would 100 or so leashed, well-behaved dogs (with owners that pick up after them) make? Not to mention making for some nice TV news footage.

Latrobe Park is easy to find. Just go down Fort Avenue like you’re going to Fort McHenry and look for the park on the right.

I’ll be there with Ace. Send me a comment if you and your dog will be, too.

Power to the pooches.