A Dog Park, Nipping at Our Heels Again

Apparently, there's been some talk among participants of Nextdoor Biscayne Park, regarding a dog park in Biscayne Park.  For whatever reason, two people have brought it to my attention, and neither has a clear memory of the dog park in BP story.  So here's the most recent of it.

I moved here in the middle of 2005.  Not long after that, and apparently already ongoing, there was public discussion of a dog park here.  The spokesman/ringleader was John Ise, who eventually moved to Miami Shores.  I see him at one place or another from time to time.  Anyway, John represented a small(?) group of BP residents who wanted a dog park in the Park, and somehow, John was proposing to raise money to create one.  I'm told, by the way, that this effort was not the first here.

It's unclear to me what the money was intended for, unless it was to erect necessary fences, or maybe create a water supply, too.  In any event, John and his partners did not succeed in raising the money, and the issue receded.  There was an appeal to the then Commission, presumably for permission to establish such a park, if the funding was successful, and the Commission did not disagree.

A few years later, when I was on the Foundation, we were talking about possible goals for fund-raising-- that is, possible special projects and Village enhancements for which we could raise money-- and the matter of a dog park was reintroduced.  John and his family had already moved to MSV by then, so he himself was not a principal advocate.  A couple of other people were, though, but I can't remember who they were.

The Foundation accepted this project, and we agreed that this would be our stated fund-raising goal.  First, though, we had to specify where this dog park was to be.  We needed a specific site, for advertising and interest-inducing purposes, and we needed to know how large a proposed site would be, so we would know how much fencing, for example, we would have to buy.

We had some meetings, very open to the public, to entertain ideas as to where a dog park could be installed.  One proposal was the triangle bordered by Griffing Boulevard, 6th Avenue, and 15th Street.  It's the area known as Griffing Park, and it's where two sculptures now are.  We had doubts about that spot, because of concern regarding access.  It would be a bit treacherous to walk there, and there wasn't a good and ready place to park.  We were also concerned that a dog park in that part of the Park, where our grandest entrance is, might not be attractive.  So we dismissed that site as a possibility.

There were also, at the time, two vacant lots either of which the Foundation could have purchased to convert into a dog park.  And there are several large medians in various places in the Village.  We could have converted one of those into a dog park.  These were the kinds of sites we considered.

Before we could take the idea to the Commission, for approval, we had to choose a particular site.  This consideration was what the open meetings were for, apart from confirming that there was enthusiasm enough for the concept.

The Foundation discovered something interesting.  Several BP residents wanted there to be a dog park here, in the Park.  They said they would like to walk or drive their dog(s) to such a park.  But not one BP resident would agree to have a dog park next to his or her house, including in the median in his or her street.

That's where the last consideration of a dog park in BP died.  Great idea, love it, but "NIMBY"



PS: There are no more empty lots here.  Well, maybe there's still one near the top of Griffing, but it no longer has a for sale sign on it.  The Foundation could never have raised enough money to buy a house lot anyway.