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UPDATE 28 May 2010: Raleigh was reunited with his person this morning!
Please help this dog get home! He was found in Foss Park this morning with no collar. A caring Somerville Dog Owner has taken him home. Contact me if you know whom he belongs to!
In 1978 the American Academy of Arts and Sciences was granted a variance to the Zoning Ordinance of the City of Cambridge to allow construction of a new building. One of the conditions for the variance was that the Academy "permit reasonable access to and use of the open space portions for responsible members of the neighboring community." Construction of the House of the Academy on the former Sachs Estate, now Norton's Woods, was completed in 1981.
Fast forward to 2010. About two weeks ago brand new blue signs were posted at all the entrances to Norton’s Woods listing prohibited activities. The first item on the new signs is “No Pets.”
Since then Strummer and I have been stopped by Harvard police officers twice and told that dogs are no longer allowed in Norton's Woods.
To ban pets from open space is to ban people with pets from open space. There is nothing prima facie unreasonable about access to and use of open space by families with pets.
Since I adopted Strummer in the spring of 2004, we have been walking through Norton's Woods on our way to and from my office every day. The Woods have always had blue signs posted at all of the entrances listing prohibited activities. The first item on the old signs used to be “No Dogs,” but, shortly after we started visiting Norton's Woods, "No Dogs" was painted over.
The community of people who enjoy Norton’s Woods together with their dogs already won the battle five years ago to get the American Academy of Arts and Sciences to allow families with dogs access to and use of Norton’s Woods. So, what's with the new signs?
Yesterday the Cambridge City Council heard two hours of public comment, about half of which was dedicated to new restrictions on public access to Norton's Woods, according to an article today in Cambridge Day, "Restrictions anger neighbors used to walking academy’s woods," by Marc Levy. City Councillor Marjorie Decker had a Policy Order on the City Council Agenda:
That the City Manager is requested to report back to the City Council on the property known as the Norton Woods that has been reopened after being closed due to flooding with a newly instituted no dogs policy.
Vice Mayor Davis, Councillor Kelley, Mayor Maher, Councillor Reeves, Councillor Seidel, Councillor Simmons and Councillor Toomey also signed the order.
Here in Somerville we celebrated the groundbreaking for Somerville's next community park and off-leash recreational area at 0 New Washington Street on Monday.
In Arlington, dog owners are celebrating a bylaw change, which will allow for early morning off-leash hours at certain, as yet undetermined, parks.
And in Newton, there will be a public hearing on June 14 where residents will have a chance to comment on a proposal for off-leash recreational areas at three parks, in addition to the existing OLRA at Old Cold Spring Park:
Being a dog owner in greater Boston keeps getting better and better!
Marshall, Kate, Strummer and I went to Boston's brand new dog recreation space at Ronan Park in Dorchester, yesterday. We missed the grand-opening ceremony earlier yesterday morning but we got to se all the nifty amenities the the off-leash area has for people and especially their pets!
A Ronan Park dog owner made a video showing the transformation of the an underused area of Ronan Park into a beautiful space for people and pets:
