May 3, 2005
Charlesgate Dog Run
via e-mail
From its website, you would never know that the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) maintains a dog run. And, indeed they do not maintain it.
DogFriendly.com includes the Charlesgate Dog Run (at the Southwest corner of the Harvard--a.k.a. Mass. Ave--Bridge) in their City Guide for Boston, Massachusetts.
Here's a recent picture, taken by a local resident:
The photographer has contacted the DCR and has sent the photo to the Boston Globe's Photo Desk. He observes that the park, has "become a dump and has been like this for months. It is an ugly contrast with Storrow Drive, The Bridge and the Esplanade and hardly enhances the new banners put up for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater."
"This is an example of a dog run designed to fail," says Penny Cherubino, a back bay resident and dog owner. "The run is too small, has no group to support or maintain it and was designed without a plan for trash removal. What you are seeing in that photo is from the homeless people who drove the dog owners out of there. The waste is human waste. There is a homeless community under the nearby bridge and they use the park as their bathroom and trash bin."
The stated mission of the Department of Conservation and Recreation is "to protect, promote and enhance our common wealth of natural, cultural and recreational resources for the well being of all." Judging by the recent photo of the Charlesgate Dog Run, I would say that, in this case, the DCR is not fulfilling its mission.
Can the Charlesgate Dog Run be saved? Certainly: with creative and combined efforts of not only the DCR and local dog owners but also, perhaps, other organizations that share an interest in issue, for example, the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless and the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay.
Posted by Canis Major at May 3, 2005 8:39 AM in the following categories: Massachusetts , Off-Leash Recreational Areas—i.e. "Dog Parks"