Public Funds and Public Open Space
Public open space truly serves the public interest when our parks welcome all our neighbors.
Two letters to the editor of the Somerville Journal, both from residents of Ward Five, address the issue of public open space that accommodates the many and diverse needs all residents. Today's letters respond to the unneighborly letter last week from Joe Lynch, who criticized the Somerville Mayor and the Ward Five Alderman for recent improvements that make the Community Path welcome to more members of the community.
In his letter, "A million priorities for a million dollars" Lynch wrote,
While we continue to spend precious city manpower and resources discussing and maintaining dog parks and quietly installing city-paid-for signs allowing on-leash dogs on the busy bike and pedestrian community path, the youths who use the half-court basketball courts have been patiently waiting for the city to reconfigure the courts to a full court. And the city’s suggestion that the organizers of that effort hold bake sales to help fund the reconfiguration is just plain asinine. Call me crazy, but it is my belief that keeping teens and 20-something basketball players constructively occupied and physically healthy trumps a dog’s need to socialization and to run free every time.
Rebecca Rogers shares Lynch's interest in improving the municipal park system in general and Lexington Park and the Community Path in particular. Rogers also appreciates the new signage that welcomes families to enjoy the Community Path together with their dogs ("Looking for city commitment to parks"). She understands that park users in Somerville include different groups who have a shared interest in public open space:
I do not think that it was a mistake for the city to have purchase[d] a handful of signs clarifying its policy that dogs remain on-leash in city parks. I am optimistic that Somerville can serve the interests of both youths and dog owners in Ward 5. Both groups are active users of Lexington Park and the Community Path, and both groups deserve to be represented in any money the city might spend on improvements to the city’s parks.
Indeed, the new signs inform Somerville park users: "All Dogs Must Be On A Leash And Clean Up After Your Dog." These informative and welcoming signs are a much more responsible use of public funds than the old, exclusionary signs—many of which remain posted in municipal parks—prohibiting neighbors from enjoying our parks together with our pets.
In another letter, Pat Dains observes that, despite their demonstrated commitment to public open space, residents with dogs remain underserved by municipal parks in Ward Five ("Sadly, some aren’t satisfied"). Pointing to the happy results in Ward Three of the successful cooperation of the City Administration and Somerville residents, Dains reasons:
The success of the Nunziato Field off-leash recreation area proves that more, and not less, consideration should be given to creating dog-friendly areas in the city before providing more money for renovating a park that doesn’t need it.
People who own dogs use public open space together in the company of our dogs more than alone. Let's be honest, to exclude dogs from public open space is to exclude people—neighbors, citizens, taxpayers and voters—from public open space.
Access to the dog park will be off Rte. 28, about 50 yards beyond the entrance to the Sheepfold: Fire gate #25. This picture is taken from the entrance of the access road looking south: You can see the entrance to I-93 and a mini van waiting to pull out of the Sheepfold access road.
The access road leads to an old bathhouse that will be demolished: a gazebo with picnic tables is proposed in its place.
Ledge, looking to the SW from the bathhouse.
Ledge, to the NE of the bathhouse.