Why dogs are the best thing that can happen to your neighborhood park (a true story)
Yesterday evening, after dark, at about 6:45, Nunziato Field was abandoned except for two women and their two dogs. The women watched as a young man deposited, through the equipment-access gate on Putnam Street, a clattering bundle of metal curtain rods and returned to a house on Summer Street. He and another young man were moving items from the house to the driveway. The women, with their dogs, confronted the young men on the sidewalk, in front of their driveway and asked if they were moving. They were not moving, it turned out; they were just throwing out some trash. The women explained that they had just watched the boys toss a bunch of curtain rods into the park across the street: "That's your neighborhood park. You can look out your windows and enjoy that park! Wouldn't it be a nicer place if you didn't throw your trash on the ground there?" To the women's pleasant surprise, one of the young men returned to the park and removed the curtain rods. They thanked him.
People who care about their neighborhood parks can have a great influence on the respect that a park gets from the community at large. People who both care about their neighborhood parks and visit their neighborhood parks after dark are often people with dogs. It is a shame for Somerville's parks that the community has succeeded in banning people from visiting our neighborhood parks with our dogs.