editor

“Can we all get along?”

Back in May, I published an editorial from a local mom which called for enforcing the ban on dogs in Gantry Park.  In hearing her reasons and then reviewing her letter, I thought she made a pretty rational case for the ban.  At the conclusion of the letter, I tacked on my own addendum with a few more points on the subject, followed by my usual self-promoting solution:

Fortunately, there is a partial solution.  As anyone who has been by the QueensWest Field in the last year knows, there is an unofficial dog run just north of it by the picnic tables.  The solution is to get rid of the never-used tables, fence it all in, and make it an official dog-run.  That should take about 72 hours.  As a token of your appreciation for dispensing my Solomonic wisdom, you can call it the LICtalk Dog Run.

Lo and behold, it seems that the powers-that-be were actually in the midst of implementing my brilliant idea, when a movement began to quash it based on it’s proximity to a newly built school!  Thus, I feel compelled to defend this future monument to LICtalk.

The main arguments for not putting in the dog run, center around children’s safety, distraction of kids in class, and filth from excrement.  Well guess what?  We live in an urban environment, kids are subject to all of the above no matter where the dog run is located.  They are in close proximity to dogs everywhere they go: the sidewalks of Center Boulevard, the hallways of their apartment buildings, not to mention the elevators!  As for the distractions of a dog run, as anyone in LIC knows, there’s no one around between 9am and 5pm Monday thru Fridays anyway.  Also, most dogs owned by residents of the local shoeboxes surrounding the proposed run, are little yappers.  As for dog poop, this is a zero-sum game, as there certainly won’t be any less surrounding Queens West Field.  It’ll just move to 5th Street, where many owners currently curb their dogs, and 98% of them clean up after them.  Plus, after being a de-facto dog run for the last year, do you really think owners are going to stop using the area as such?  There are eight dog-friendly towers containing 3200 apartments within 200 yards of the dog run, with no other place to let them run free.  The reality is they are not going to schlep them every single day, more than a quarter of a mile each way, to access the other dog runs.  It ain’t gonna happen.  Instead, you will have an “open” dog run replete with all the aforementioned problems.  The current space was previously an underutilized sliver of poorly planned picnic tables, made redundant by those actually in the park.

As for the thought of putting it somewhere else in Gantry, there is nowhere else, and if there was, then you would be back to square one of having dogs in, and all over, Gantry Park!  Furthermore, based on the pace of current local projects, by the time all the studies were done, all the politicians signed off on it, and it were to be completed, there’s a good chance Obama would no longer be our president.  So let’s stick with the original plan, and keep the LICtalk Dog Run exactly where it is.

Hey dog owners, mans best friend can’t speak or write, only you can.  If you want a dog run on the northern part of Center Blvd., you better make your voice heard: Councilman Van Bramer’s office 718-383-9566 or jvanbramer@council.nyc.gov

10 Years On, a High Rise Hood in LIC – now that it’s completed, TF Cornerstone looks back.  Plus, a HUGE restaurant surprise: Trattoria L’Incontro is coming to Center Boulevard!

TF Cornerstone Tops Out It’s Last High Rise on Center Blvd

5Pointz Mural Painting at John Brown Smokehouse – now sporting 5Pointz colors on their patio, as if you needed another reason to go