Through the great efforts of many of you who helped to raise awareness and money for the hoped for Dog Park, here is great news.
Alderman Helen Shiller's office and the Chicago Park District have agreed to help make a Dog Park at Clarendon Park a reality. They are committing resources in the form of architectural plans and construction dollars to get it planned and built in the next year.
While many of us have been involved with the process of raising money and collecting petition signatures, we have never formalized a group to help oversee the construction and management of the Dog Park. The Park District requires every Dog Park to be overseen by a group of community volunteers, who help to ensure the Dog Park is well run and sufficiently funded to keep up with maintenance. Fear not, we have several local Dog Park Committees who can help us to quickly understand how they manage their DP, and what expenses we will need to meet through fundraising efforts.
What we need now are community residents willing to serve on the Dog park Committee. The responsibilities of time and effort will not be very great. Please pass this along to every dog owner in your building, and respond to us to let us know you are interested in participating.
This Dog Park will help make our neighborhood safer by increasing traffic in the park and providing a space for neighbors to get to know each other better, as well as make our neighborhood cleaner by giving our ever-growing dog population a place to sniff butts and do their business. Thank you again to everyone who has supported us in the past, as well as those who hope to contribute in the future.
I guess there is your answer to "Will she or wont she run again?"
ReplyDeleteShiller isn't doing this out of the goodness of her heart, or some new-found consideration for dog owners.
ReplyDeleteLike anything and everything else in this city (and her office, specifically), there's a catch.
What park is this going into, again?
Exactly.
Yo is correctumundo.
ReplyDeleteCommunity groups support the new TIF and voila...........pooch park.
February 22, 2011.
Thirteen months and a week.
Then it's election day.
Vive la Resistance!
Don't get me w ... wrrrr .. wroon .... wrroonn ... um .... don't misunderstand me: Clarendon Park is an ideal location for a dog park (I even donated $ for one a few years back), and I think that if you cover one eye, you can view this as a very positive thing for the neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteIt's just that what the other eye doesn't see is wholly unacceptable.
I can understand CPNA's view on this - and to an extent: thank them for finally getting traction on a dog park; but, I'm curious as to what value they put on the soul of the neighborhood.
What's a dog park run ya?
Compare that to the amount of money which won't be going to city services for the next 23 years, and what's the real world value of this particular trade-off?
Speaking of parks for TIF support ..., this comes back to mind, for some odd reason.
How come - even when something good happens in Uptown, it's twisted around into something negative?
ReplyDeleteThe CPNA saw how the Margate Park dog park improved the safety in that area and thought it might improve an area in Claredon Park where gangbangers are known to congregate. That's it. Be happy for us, we finally got something we wanted.
Don't build it! There are at least two of them in the area.
ReplyDeleteThe more dog parks the merrier, actually.
ReplyDeleteA dog park at Clarendon Park is undeniably positive.
But, I read pablo's post and had to think about what he was saying.
Figured a good way to clear the mind would be to catch a Saturday matinee movie.
Maybe Avatar.
Maybe that new Clooney flick.
I'll decide when I get there.
So, I bundled up for the cold and headed over to the theaters at Wilson Yard.
Oh.
That's right.
Keep voting Shiller Pablo....its the naive voter that keeps this area down.
ReplyDeleteCoincidence that surrounding areas have grown and prospered in the last 20 years while Uptown consistently stays the same...I think not.
Politicians have made great careers betting on the fact that if you throw a bone to the voters before election time, they will forget all the negative things you have done the rest of your term (see Daleys moratorium on parking meter tickets, and his tax rebate).
Packing as many social services and downtrodden into one area (even though experts suggest it is a bad idea) so that you stay in office, constitutes a negative in my book.
Eye in Da Sky,
ReplyDeleteall Pablo really said is that the dog park is a good thang.
I agree. Pablo can still vote against Shiller.
There will plenty o candidates to choose from. Then a runoff between the top two contenders.
Thirteen months.......
I'm gonna start making bad videos again. It will be fun.
I even walked by Shiller's residence about a week ago. Fortunately for her she shoveled her snow. I was so ready to break out my digital camera if her walk had been snowbound.
You just gotta figure Shiller really hates the internet.
this is great news!
ReplyDeleteSorry....but is that the best she can do.....a dog park?
ReplyDeleteI love dogs. But what about 30 years of urine and BLIGHT at the Broadway & Wilson corner? (oddly enough, near her 'office')
Enough with dogs, and fish farms for that matter....I wish she'd address the more important matters up here.
All I was saying was there are a lot of problems in the park. Anything that might increase our presence there is needed.
ReplyDeleteIP I appreciate your ability to comprehend my statement and not read too much into it.
I mean somehow my comment about wanting to deter gangbangers in the park was turned into a pro-Shiller statement by others. Seriously?
Pick up your dogs poop please. It's nasty. Thanks
ReplyDeleteMarcus - I have a feeling that there are a lot of dog owners who think it's "natural fertilizer" and think that leaving it there is more "green" than wrapping it up in plastic and putting it in the garbage can.
ReplyDelete... was turned into a pro-Shiller statement by others.
ReplyDeleteCorrection: by "one" other.
CPNA wants the dog park to be at Wilson and Clarendon or at least the president I guess so its closer to his home? Ibeleive they so put it at Montrose and Claredon and to be honest so itsa closer to my home. Just being truthful here. But at Wilson and Clarendon its just three blocks form the other dog park at Lawrence and Marine.
ReplyDeleteGayle,
ReplyDeleteThat is a true excuse that lazy dog owners use. Doggy dodo is nothing more then rat food once it hits the ground. Owners need to clean up their poop.
Dacook