Parks & Recreation

So, about two years ago, I donated graphic design services to a very nice lady who was running for the city council. During the course of the campaign, I mentioned to this very nice lady who happens to have a very cute Boxer dog that it sure would be nifty if our town had a dog park. She agreed! And when she got elected, she proposed a dog park for the city, and the city approved it. Yay!

Obviously, I loooooooove the dog park to which we take Dudley and Zelda, but it is a half hour drive each way, for two dogs who combined have about 15 minutes of stamina. So it would be very nice to have a dog park closer to home.

Now, I'm not going to say that our little town in this lovely state with the terrible garbage governor is slow to get things done, ahem, but that dog park, which was going to be converted from an existing but unused baseball field to which water pipes were already run, was supposed to be finished last spring. Then last fall. Then this April. And it's still not done.

Mama Shakes heard from the very nice lady on the city council last month that it's now scheduled to be done this month.

A few minutes ago, I decided to call the Parks Department and see if it's finished yet. The woman to whom I spoke was very nice.

Me: Hi, I was wondering if you could tell me if the dog park at Bleepbloop Park is open yet.

Nice Woman: No, it's not open yet.:-(

Me: Oh, okay. Do you know when it's scheduled to open?

Nice Woman: Nooooooo???:-/???...!?

[long pause]

Me: Um, okay, well, I heard it was scheduled to open this month. Do you know if that's correct?

Nice Woman: I would hope it's going to be this month!:-)!!!

Me: [deep breath] Yep, me too. Anyway, I am looking at the city website right now—

[which, as an aside, is one glittering gif and a "Greensleeves" midi file away from a Geocities site created by Jukt Micronics]

—and I can't find any information—

[about ANYTHING!]

—on the dog park; is there someplace that I can go for updates so I don't have to keep driving over there heh heh or bothering you heh heh to see if it's open?

Nice Woman: You're probably better off just calling us…:-/

Me: Okay, thank you so much for your help, goodbye!

* * *

Mind you, there is an almost entirely fenced-in, rather large, and extremely beautiful park almost directly behind our house which would have made a perfect city dog park. Especially since the park is almost entirely disused by everyone but the addicts who do heroin there, one of whom recently died of an overdose in the Port-a-Potty inexplicably sat in the park. Oh, and also Iain and me and the very nice city council lady who also walks her very cute Boxer there.

But the city reportedly did not want to put a dog park in that park because addicts use it since it's basically a huge abandoned park and are you following this awesome logic of not reclaiming a neglected space because it's gotten scary in the void created by inattention?

Anyway. We still don't have a dog park.