New Trend in Off-Leash Urban Dog Parks
By Joe Wilkes
One of the latest exciting trends in urban development is the addition of dog parks to the city landscape. Growing faster than any other type of city park, dog parks have grown in number by 34 percent in the last five years—that’s almost 600 in the nation’s largest 100 cities, according to USA Today.
Dog parks have increasingly become community centers for urban dog owners. As the number of households with dogs has overtaken households with children over the recent past, the difference is popping up in green areas across our cityscapes.
In West Hollywood, CA, the William S. Hart off-leash dog park is situated just off the Sunset Strip between the House of Blues and hotel-to-the-stars Chateau Marmont. The valuable real estate was left to the city by silent western film star William S. Hart’s estate. It was turned into an off-leash dog park and occasionally a voting precinct by the city council.
It maintains special hours for large and small dogs and provides a well-groomed area, complete with drinking water and waste disposal bags. It has become a great community resource for West Hollywood’s many dog lovers. Many residents schedule playdates for their pooches and there are also bulletin boards in the park for people to exchange messages about lost and found dogs and offer grooming and walking services. You can see the former Starbucks residents seated around the park with their laptops and cell phones who’ve made the move from caffeine to canine energy.
