A Public Place for Fido

Forget mini-malls. Now, proposals to set aside a patch of grass for Fido to romp unfettered are provoking some of the most contentious land use battles in Los Angeles. The parks department’s efforts to create more off-leash exercise areas, as they are formally called, as well as new recreational facilities including roller hockey rinks and soccer fields, frequently run into nasty local opposition.

With so little park space citywide and so many competing needs, park neighbors often see themselves as the losers: In loud protests before the Recreation and Parks Commission in recent months and at community meetings, neighbors said they feared that new dog parks would create a nuisance, that more soccer fields would cause traffic jams on weekends and that new roller hockey rinks could draw rowdy teenagers bent on mischief.

This sort of NIMBYism exacerbates the disrepair and inadequacy of existing parks. Too often, residents seem reluctant to share the public parks in their neighborhoods with the public, and because of the resistance nothing gets improved or fixed.

There are now five dog parks in Los Angeles: at Laurel Canyon Park, Runyon Canyon Park, Sepulveda Basin, Silverlake Recreational Area and the Westminster Senior Citizens Center. A site will open soon in a corner of Griffith Park, and two more are under consideration, in Brentwood and near Lake Hollywood.

The goal is to create these fenced, off-leash parks by reclaiming vacant land rather than by taking away from existing parks. So, in Brentwood, city officials have their eye on a parcel that the Veterans Administration owns. In other parts of town, abandoned sites and lots owned by the Navy or by city departments are being considered.

Some residents wonder why the city needs to create dog parks at all. But dogs and people need separation. In other parks, as on the street, city ordinance requires dog owners to leash their pets and clean up after them. Most owners do, but when they don’t, their dogs can become unwelcome guests at picnics, disrupt ballgames or, in rare cases, cause serious injury. As the city grows denser--with more people and dogs--fenced exercise areas, while not a perfect solution, can help.

The picture is the same for other recreational activities. Skateboarders with no place where they can do kick-flips or Ollies with abandon will take over basketball courts or parking lots. Soccer players without adequate grounds will pound grassy baseball fields into hard-packed dirt.

The recreational space crunch is particularly severe in the older, poorer neighborhoods, where existing parks are disgracefully small and poorly equipped compared with those in the Valley and the Westside.

Throughout the city, creative new thinking is essential. The parks department, trying to accommodate everyone, has entered into joint-use agreements with some schools, allowing the public to use athletic fields during nonschool hours. It is also extending the use of athletic fields by installing lights and is developing pocket parks on recycled commercial sites.

The conflicts among soccer players, skateboarders, dog owners and park neighbors won’t be resolved without more open space. Meeting the need will also take continued ingenuity on the part of city officials and tolerance on the part of residents.