Dog owners form unified pack on West Side dog run

By Tabitha Earp

The Chelsea Dog Park Coalition, a newly formed group pressing for changes at the Chelsea Waterside Park dog run, took its case to Community Board 4 last Thursday night at a meeting held by the Waterfront and Parks committee.

Although the dog owners focused on the same issues they presented to Noreen Doyle, vice president of the Hudson River Park Trust, at the annual meeting of the Chelsea Waterside Park Association back in May, they are now a well-organized group with an established agenda. That discipline was on display Thursday, as assigned speakers took to the floor and presented an array of issues related to the dog run, while brandishing stickers that read: “Chelsea Dog Park Coalition.”

The Coalition appeared before the C.B. 4 committee to gain its support as it lobbies for changes with the Hudson River Park Trust, which is in charge of maintaining the dog run.

“No one has taken these complaints seriously before, but now we are very organized, and folks are beginning to listen,” August Costa, the Coalition’s self-appointed leader, said prior to the meeting.

With their new plan of action and a backing of 450 members, Coalition representatives walked into the meeting with four major areas of concern: dog run expansion, maintenance, safety and signage. They walked out with a promised letter of support regarding safety—one of the Coalition’s top concerns—which they will bring to the Trust to advance the changes they seek. However, the committee decided to wait on adding their support for dog run expansion, opting instead to write a note to the Trust merely recognizing the Coalition’s other top issue.

Just as during May’s meeting, the dog owners brought up the fence that rings the perimeter of the dog run, which at four feet high, is low enough for dogs to jump over. In fact, coalition members at the meeting cited incidences where dogs have launched themselves into the busy West Side Highway and gotten injured or killed.

The time around, the Coalition came prepared with Animal Medical Center veterinary technologist Denise Wilends to provide a firsthand medical account of the severity of the situation.

Wilends said she had personally seen dogs that have been hit by drivers on the West Side Highway after jumping over the short fence. “This is far beyond a maintenance issue,” Wilends said. “It is putting lives at danger on a daily basis.”

The Coalition also pressed for expansion of the dog run on Thursday, going so far as to present statistics that Garrett Rosso, chairman of the dog park committee of the New York Council of Dog Owner Groups, had prepared.

According to Rosso, while the Chelsea Waterside Park dog run stands at about 3,000 square feet, the recommended minimum size for a general dog run is at least 5,000 square feet. Coalition members used those statistics as well as warnings of the increasing dog population to back up their request for expansion.

Suzanne Handy, the owner of a mini schnauzer named Rocket, said as the population of Chelsea increases, so will the dog population. She noted that while there are many playgrounds in the community to accommodate children, there is only one dog park.

“With this massive increase, we really are in big trouble,” she warned.

While the expansion issue was not completely resolved, the board and Coalition did spend most of the meeting discussing possible solutions.

Just as in the May meeting, the Coalition continued to push for a shady green area directly beside the dog run as the best option to enlarge it. But Bob Trentlyon, the former C.W.P.A. president and C.B. 4 member, presented a brief history lesson on the park to help the Coalition better understand the importance of the shady area.

Trentlyon said that when landscape architect Thomas Balsey was originally designing the park, one of the main goals was to provide a space for everyone. He said Balsey was proud that he had been able to provide a place for the dogs as well as a shady area for the older people in the community to use as a resting area.

“We were trying to balance everyone,” Trentlyon said.

While Coalition members understood Trentyon’s point, they refuse to abandon what they see as the best option for expansion. Costa said he plans to have a friend survey the shady area to determine just how many people actually use the space—the group has argued that the space is used mainly by a smattering of homeless people. Costa hopes to use his findings to bolster the group’s position on the issue.

The committee also offered other possible solutions to the size problem, including expanding the dog run into the sidewalk along 11th Avenue, on the eastern side of the dog run, and creating a new sidewalk in the unused bus stop area. The possibility of creating off-leash hours at the end of Pier 62 was also discussed as way to increase area on the West Side in which dogs could run freely. While the Coalition appeared receptive to both of these options, the board did not choose to support any of the suggestions.

John Doswell, co-chair of the committee, said the board was “not ready to advocate for any specific type of expansion” without further discussion and deeper research.

Despite not getting the hoped-for letter of support for expansion, Costa said that the fact that the new group has managed to have their concerns seriously considered at all gives him hope. He added that the Coalition plans to continue their cause through lobbying and attending more meetings similar to the one on Thursday night.