There will be no Capitol Hill or Central District locations on the list of planned expansions for new off leash areas in Seattle.
Seattle Parks announced the results of its studies and selection process and has designated two new areas near West Seattle Stadium and Othello Park to be developed to include an official city “Off Leash Area.”
The parks department also named a roster of areas suitable for future off leash development when funding is available — none of those will include Central Seattle locations, either. Those future sites include Ravenna Park, Brighton Playfield, and East Queen Anne Playfield.
In the announcement, the parks department said MLK Way’s Powell Barnett Park was determined to be unsuitable for the addition of a new off leash area “based on community feedback and other existing uses.”
CHS reported here last June on Powell Barnett Park and the massive demand for dog-friendlier areas around Capitol Hill and the Central District that has turned many areas like Cal Anderson Park’s artificial turf sports field into de facto dog parks with beyond de facto packs of pooches and piles of poo.
“Map of current OLAs, approved OLA sites, and OLAs already in the planning stage”
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This has to be the stupidest thing. If the city won’t put in a off leash dog park in either Cal Anderson or Volunteer park then either Seattle Animal Control or SPD (whichever one has the authority to do it) needs to start ticketing owners at these parks who let their dogs off leash.
It’s just ridiculous at this point
Ticketing would be fine.
A off-leash area in Volunteer Park years ago badly damaged trees, and Parks has found that installing an off-leash area tends to increase, not decrease, illegal off-leash use in the same park.
Who are you or parks or SPD The blue band gang to say we can only have our dogs off leash at designated areas? How about I take my dog off leash wherever I want and your not gunna say shit about it? If I don’t have control of my dog then that’s on me. Not your business
“Who are you or parks or SPD The blue band gang to say we can only have our dogs off leash at designated areas?”
Well I think the big sign at the park that says “pets must be on a leash” indicates something different. Also it’s pet owners like yourself that give us all a bad name. I have a dog, the only time she goes off leash is at an off leash dog park. That even with my dog being an AKC certified “good citizen” and having a 100 ft recall.
Also if you have the view:
“How about I take my dog off leash wherever I want and your not gunna say shit about it?”
It just goes to show how selfish of a human you are and honestly I feel bad for your pet. Mostly that they are forced to live with a selfish human being.
“If I don’t have control of my dog then that’s on me.”
I’d really love to see this excuse to be tried in a court room.
Selfish jerk
Kind of a bummer that there’s not enough budget to put some proper dog-park fencing around the Cal Anderson fields — it’s already a dog park, whether official or not. But looking at that map, I can understand why those three spots got top priority. Especially Othello, which is so often neglected for projects like this.
Also, I walk through Cal Anderson just about every day, and I can’t say I’ve ever seen a problem with owners picking up after their pets. A very occasional mess maybe? But everyone’s pretty responsible. I see more garbage floating in the fountains than dog waste.
Dog fam here. The biggest problem with poop we have in cal Anderson is human poop! Walk past some daily, the dog sniffs it out and I have to guide him around em.
Bummer. I put in a pitch for a dog park/run at Bellevue Place Park (the greenspace along the highway between Melrose Ave and Lakeview Blvd East), and it was rejected by the city—upon submission. That park could be a nice little spot if the city would activate it with a dog park or P-patch. Instead, it’s an ongoing encampment for mail thieves and drug users who leave needles all over the Melrose Trail. Imagine how lovely it could be with a dog run! This corner of Capitol Hill is so, so dense with people and dogs. (And, yes, we can walk the half mile to Volunteer Park but you’re technically not supposed to run dogs there either so…)
What do you mean? Every park in cap hill is an off leash dog park – just ask any dog owner.
100%
Sad but true.
If you look at the map, it makes sense that these were chosen as their are none nearby. There is a dog park in capitol hill but it requires walking several minutes to get there so obviously the current capitol hill demographic would have to drive there.
Are you talking about Plymouth Pillars, which is just a small gravel pit on the shoulder of I-5, or Colonnade, which is a fluctuating homeless encampment?
The Plymouth Pillars dog park does…. exist, I guess, but it’s a dismal little strip of gravel and mud in the shadow of tall buildings, featuring a couple of deep holes, poop that gets buried in the gravel to surprise you if you take a wrong step, and a water fountain that doesn’t work. The next-closest one, Denny Substation, is maybe 400 square feet of astroturf that smells like piss. You have to drive for at least 25 minutes to get to a park that has any actual natural features like say, grass (Genesee and Woodland Park are the ones I take my dog to most often). Given the condition of the dog parks around here is it really surprising that people decide to go the de facto route at Cal?
It’s never surprising to me when capitol hill people do whatever they feel like and pretend no one else in the world exists but them.
There is a fenced, off leash dog area between Melrose and Boren off of Pine. Might not have the allure of letting your pet run wild at Cal but it’s there.
An off-leash area was trialed in Volunteer Park, it was discontinued due to the turf being destroyed and urine concentration endangering Park trees.
Would dog owners be satisfied with a small pebble-covered space in one of the parks?
Or would the space be given up AND dog owners would still let their pets have the run of the Park, tearing up the grass, leaving dirt patches and poop all over the lawns that the Parks Dept is trying to maintain?
(ask a Parks worker how they feel about your dog off leash dog sometime)
There just isn’t going to be a reality where an off leash park is conveniently located on everyone’s block, but Magnusson is amazing and worth the trip.
That’s why turning Bellevue Place Park into a dog run is ideal! (IMO) Residents don’t use it, because it’s filled with squatters and needles. If the lower section was turned into a dog run and the fence was repaired, it’d be perfect for dogs.
Honestly as a pet owner who keeps his dog on leash unless it’s an off leash dog park. This is what I would like:
Plymouth Pillars Dog Park to be closed, remove the gravel and replace it with turf. Kind of make it into how the Denny substation dog park
The section of Cal Anderson from the end of the playground to
Make Thomas Street mini Park a dog park. It’s never used.
they need to start ticketing then bc cal anderson is basically just for dogs now & it sucks. i see dogs chasing down kids and random people just trying to exist all the time- it is so selfish to just let your dog loose in a public space like that & it’s awful that it has become so normal
Our relationship with pets has become disturbing. Humans use them for their own emotional and social need, demand space and services for them at the expense of their fellow neighbors whom are in desperate need of social and emotional support. We’ve diverted our natural caring to a living stuffed animal rather than deal with the difficult real world problems around us…