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Strummer offers a playbow to Rusty on the occasion of his being featured as "Mr. November" on the MyCorgi.com 2008 Wall Calendar.
Rusty is a Cambridge dog; Strummer knows him from Norton's Woods at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (map).
via e-mail
The Newton Board of Aldermen has voted to establish an advisory committee that is responsible for recommending to the City's Parks and Recreation Commission and Conservation Commission possible sites for designated off-leash recreation. It is up to citizen groups to submit proposals for off-leash recreation at specific locations. The committee will not make any specific recommendations until it has received different proposals from several citizen groups.
Newton's "off-leash" ordinance is bad legislation. Unless organized citizen groups are waiting in the wings with proposals, two years will pass quickly without any areas being designated for off-leash recreation. What is especially insidious is that, even if there were a citizen group organized on behalf of off-leash recreation at one park, without similar organization at other parks, its hands are tied.
The new legislation was drafted by an off-leash task force on which only disinterested parties were invited to serve. Members of Newton's dog owner group, NewtonDogs, were were specifically excluded from the task force. Excluding interested parties from the process of crafting legislation guarantees an unsatisfactory outcome and, moreover, demonstrates a profound misunderstanding of what democracy is.
A Newton resident provided somerville dog with some historical background:
When developing this ordinance, the task force was concerned that designating only one or two areas for off-leash activity would be problematic in a city the size of Newton. Their intent was that the advisory committee would need to receive proposals for off-leash areas in a number of different wards or neighborhoods before they made a recommendation to either of the commissions, in order to avoid overuse of a limited number of legal areas. This means that before any off-leash areas are designated a number of citizen groups must come forward with proposals before any areas will be considered.There is a two year sunset clause on the ordinance. Within the next 18 months the off-leash advisory committee must prepare a report on how well the program has worked, and if the aldermen do not vote to extend or make permanent the ordinance before the end of two years then the ordinance becomes obsolete and the current laws are reinstated.
Newton dog owners have four options:
Newton residents interested in the issue of off-leash recreation are welcome to join the Newton dog owners group's e-mail discussion group: NewDogsChat at: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/NewDogsChat/.
