At Last, Chicago’s South Side Fetching Dog Parks

A dog named Barry gets a drink in the Jackson Bark dog park in Chicago’s Jackson Park on Aug. 10, 2018. Jackson Bark – located in unused tennis courts – could be demolished by the proposed expansion of the golf driving range.  

Mayor Rahm Emanuel may not be a cat person after all.

 

South Side residents have been hounding officials for years about creating some open spaces for their pups, but with little luck. Of the city’s 25 dog parks, 23 are on the North Side. Just two are in the South Loop and none are south of 18th Street, a fact that prompted the Tribune Editorial Board to ask last year “Is Mayor Rahm Emanuel a cat person?”

 

But that’s starting to change. Five dog parks are either in the proposal or groundbreaking stage on the South Side.

 

The mayor is proposing three dog-friendly areas for the Oakland and Bronzeville neighborhoods. And two more – one in the city’s McKinley Park community, the other in the Calumet Park neighborhood – are in various stages of planning or construction, something one resident said was the result of neighbors banding together and pressing the issue.

 

“I think we started a trend,” said Bobby Loncar, president of the Southeast Chicago Dog Park Committee, which recently celebrated the groundbreaking of the first official dog-friendly area in the Southeast Side’s Calumet Park.

 

“And I think now other committees that are trying to do the same thing we’re working on, now they have a precedent,” he said.

 

Additionally, a city-owned parcel at 32nd and Halsted streets is being eyed as a dog-friendly area, according to the Chicago Park District.

 

Dog-friendly areas may be seen as a simple amenity, but pet owners say it’s an important part of community life. Critics say the issue points to yet another disparity in neighborhood comforts in North Side neighborhoods versus South and West Side communities. And designated dog parks are the only public areas on the South Side where canines can cavort off – leash without owners fetching a $300 ticket.

 

“Through significant community engagement with both our talking and barking residents, in coordination with (local aldermen), we are proud to expand these recreation options for our four-footed family members,” the mayor’s spokeswoman Lauren Markowitz wrote in an emailed statement.

 

The three dog parks proposed by the mayor would be located at 3906 S. Lake Park Ave., 3938 – 40 S. Indiana Ave. and 4149 – 53 S. Vincennes Ave., and will include amenities like synthetic turf, landscaping, lighting, fences, benches and water fountains.

 

Although the mayor and City Council have recently been more proactive about developing South Side dog parks – we are, after all, less than a year from the next city election – they are the result of years of residents lobbying hard to put one in their community, officials stress.

 

“This is something that’s been growing organically in the Bronzeville community for many years,” said Ald. Pat Dowell, whose 3rd Ward landed one of the parks. “I’m a dog owner who has seen an increase in the number of dogs in our community, and we are so looking forward to this amenity.”

 

Dowell credited the Bronzeville Association for Recreation with Canines, organized to develop dog-friendly spots in the neighborhood, with the recent success.

 

Ben Gerhold, a member of BARC’s board of directors, said the committee saw the need for dog parks, formed the community group and put the word out. Now, he says he’s cautiously optimistic that he and his two Labrador retrievers, Harp and Guinness, may soon have a dog park nearby.

 

“We’re not opening the Champagne just yet,” Gerhold said of his organization. “But I think it’s great progress.”

 

The manual also says the committee has to raise the funds to cover the cost and maintenance of the park – which the Park District estimates at more than $100,000.

 

Loncar, with the Southeast Chicago Dog Park Committee, said the pricey fundraising goal could prompt some groups to put their dog park plans on pause. But he hopes the Southeast Chicago Dog Park Committee’s experience and recent park proposals show other dog lovers that city funds are an option.

 

“The price of a dog park with the Chicago Park District is just astronomical,” said Loncar, about the fundraising involved in getting a park. “I would love to know why it costs so much. In theory you should just be able to put up a fence around a grassy area and call it a dog park.”

 

To be sure, the cost to build a dog-friendly area varies by site, said Park District spokeswoman Michele Lemons.

 

“Common elements for a dog friendly area are fencing, a water source, paving and a pea gravel area,” Lemons wrote in an email. “The community could also request other amenities such as artificial turf, additional seating, or a storage container. Costs for the new dog friendly area are based off these elements.”

 

Emanuel’s funding proposal for the three new parks still needs to be approved by the City Council, but it calls for the parks to be paid for using $1.8 million in tax increment financing money – tax dollars set aside for neighborhood development and job creation – as well as $92,000 in Open Space Impact Fees.

 

Many of the city’s dog parks are funded by TIFs, according to Park District records, but critics of TIFs have long raised concerns that the tax dollars are siphoned away from Chicago Public Schools.

 

The planned $185,000 dog-friendly area in Calumet Park will be paid for in part by $100,000 of 10th Ward Ald. Susan Sadlowski Garza’s menu funds – tax dollars set aside for each alderman who in turn has broad discretion to use the money for construction projects in their ward. Garza, who said the balance of the money will come from the park district, said she hopes the park will open before winter.

 

On the Southwest Side in McKinley Park, local Ald. George Cardenas, 12th, is working with neighboring Bridgeport Ald. Patrick Thompson, 11th, to fund the $400,000 dog park with TIFs.

 

“Bridgeport will supply the funds, and we will supply the land,” said Cardenas, who doesn’t have a dog but says he supports the park. “It’s the perfect combo to get this project done.”

 

Cardenas said he hopes it will open by spring 2019.

 

Matt Wilson, economic development planner at the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said he likes that the city is helping fund the parks, but echoed Dowell: Getting the parks was the result of some hard-fought grassroots efforts in the communities.

 

“There seems to constantly be battles for things on the South Side that people on the North Side might take for granted,” said Wilson.

 

Carina Trudell, co-president of the McKinley Dog Park Committee and a lifetime South Sider, said she’s “so excited” to have dog park options. She plans on taking her two dogs, Kingsley and Chopper, to the future dog-friendly area at McKinley Park.

 

“I’m actually considering moving closer to the location,” she said. “It means that much to me.”

 

“I’ve never felt at home visiting dog parks on the North Side or the Loop because I wasn’t local, and I think a lot of people can relate to that. We want a park we can call our own to build a rapport with neighbors,” Trudell added.

 

Although not officially designated as a dog-friendly area, Jackson Bark – located in unused tennis courts at Jackson Park – has provided man’s best friend with a place to play          fetch and even master an agility course south of the Loop for years. But the park could be demolished by the proposed northward expansion of the golf driving range.

 

When Loncar began organizing three years ago, he hoped for one local park where his two dogs, Rudy and Dobby, could play.

 

“They were up there in age. I knew the last three or four years that they might not be able to experience it,” he said. “But moving forward dog owners will have somewhere to go.”

 

And, if they’re on the South Side, they may finally have a few choices.