My Dog Park's Better Than Yours....
According to my bible, The South End News, the Peter's Park Dog Facility Performing Arts Espresso Bar & Day Spa Complex is almost nearing completion. In addition to the $250,000 already raised, yuppie proponents of the facility expect to raise another $50,000 or so. That's $300,000. I'd bet my life that the contributors to this development, if asked for money to, say, pay for a local school educational program, would have picked up their pooches, Burberry leashes coiled around their fists, and high-tailed it outta there faster than you could say "oooh, I love your Uggs." According to the article, the park will be covered with something known as "Peastone," although my 3rd-grade level sense of humor compels me to insert some pun about "Pee" stone right about here. I am certainly waiting for the grand opening (or, "unleashing") (I'm not kidding, that's what they're calling it) of the new park sometime in October, as well as upcoming protests by other pet owners (one Rutland Square cat owner has already sought legal advice to require a certain amount of square-footage for cat owners and their cats).
Rumor has it that the park will include a dog bakery/cafe/bistro/boulangerie/espresso bar, a doggie spa, a doggie fountain, a doggie boutique and salon, dog therapists, a dog personal trainer service, a personal shopping service for dogs, a doggie amphitheater, and a state of the art wireless internet service for dogs. There will also be dog yoga and dog pilates classes, as well as "doggie and me" "dogrobics" classes for dog owners and their pets.
I'm quite certain that, as one of my readers once pointed out, that the Dog Park will bring together all of the different elements of the South End "Community." Translation: It'll bring together old yuppies, young yuppies, straight yuppies, and gay yuppies. If your kitchen isn't at least maple, granite and stainless steel, the honour of your presence is not requested.
posted by thesouthender at 11:07 AM
18 Comments:
Pretty f'ing funny.
hoping i could talk with you for a story i'm working on. can do anonymously, etc. if willing, email me at agiacobbe (at) bostonmagazine.com
Brilliant!
$250K for a dog park!? If the dog owners want to walk their pups so bad why don't they move (back) to the 'burbs? Kids don't have school books yet we are spending money on dog parks.
Does this money include partial funding for the piece of art that is going in the park? Someone mentioned that will cost $300K.
Peter's Park is a perfect example of how segregated the South End is. On the baseball field we have mostly brown and black kids and in the dog park we have mostly rich ass white folks. Same thing at the fancy restaurants. The dinners are mostly white and the folks washing the dishes and clearing the tables are mostly black and brown.
I love the South End’s diversity!
Please oh please tell me where you heard that a $300K sculpture is going to be installed in or near the dog park!!!! Thank you for commenting!
Check out the Old Dover neighborhood association's website http://www.olddover.org/neighborhoodnews.html
It is called the Neck Art project and the sculpture in Peter's will be named "Landwave." Doesn't mention anything about the price tag.
so its possable to compound insanity..good to know.
Maybe having a world class dog park
and statue will help our property values.
I'll look forward to the first dog to raise its leg in salute of their new doggie art.
I just thought I'd throw in my two cents and thank you for your posting... I like dogs but I'm glad to know I'm not the only one being tickled in the wrong place by "some" (I did not say "all") dog owners in the neighborhood. I just think that, as a rule of thumb, when you have to explain to someone that it is not ok for one's dog to relieve himself on a common roof deck... it's a sign that the sense of entitlement in some pooch owners is way overblown!
But this next experience has been a real wake-up call for me:
As I was in walking in Peters Park, I saw a woman with 2 dogs, talking to another woman with 2 dogs, when suddenly one of the dogs gets away from it's owner and lunged at a man as he walked by and bit him in the ass. The owner struggled for a moment to get the dog under control, as it was barking at the man and circling him. When she finally did corral the dog, she bid farewell to the woman she was chatting with, and without once looking up at the man, stunned and rubbing his ass, she walked off consoling her dog, saying "You poor thing, that man scared you..."
I was dumbstruck. She walked by me and I couldn't utter a word, because I couldn't believe what I had just seen.
This man was obviously homeless, probably on his way to Pine St. for dinner(which rumor has it is conveniently on it's way to Dorchester), and he didn't seem to have all his faculties about him, though between the two of us, we held the same expression on our face. Utter disbelief. This was the moment I knew I couldn't stay here.
And no later than this morning in Ringgold Park, when I mentioned the new dog park on Washington St. to a man who insisted on having his dog do it's business on the tiny little patch of grass in the park (the same patch where kids play), he told me that he spent $70 a week getting his dog groomed and wasn't about to let him get dirty in an unfinished dog park, and that this was a public park and his dog would go where he pleased... I was then told to move to suburbia to raise my creature (aka my 10 months old son:) This all transpired without him skipping a beat on his cell phone.
I really do love the South End but I'm starting to wonder if there is still room for everybody and common sense here... maybe we'll give in and move after all... I hear JP is really nice and kid friendly :)
OMG, you win the prize for the most appaling tale (tail?) from the South End. If I had been bitten by that dog, that woman would not have made it home without bite marks on her ass, and I don't even have a dog.
A friend of mine with a S. End retail space has described certain dog owners who have allowed their dogs to relieve themselves right in front of the entryway, i.e., a customer would necessarily have to step in it upon entering or exiting.
Try explaining to a pig that said pig's dog's feces might not be desirable in a kid's play area, a common roofdeck or the entrance to a store.
It absolutely would not happen in JP or anywhere else but the good ol' pretentious S. End.
okay, sanctimonious folk, i live in the south end, i work in non-profit (so i am not "rich white person"), i do not come from a privileged background, i was fortunate to be smart and go to a good college and grad school which is why i can afford my 400 sq ft apt, i volunteer my time and give charitable contributions to non-profits, and, yes, i gave money to the dog park so that my dog that was haplessly given up by his non-loyal owner can have a nice place to play like any normal city in america. city dog people are far more responsible than the 'burb's dog people that you suggest we all become. you people are so hypocrytical - what about the night i was trying to unwind with my friends and a baby was wailing?? i pick up my dog's poop and all of my friends with dogs do, as well. this park has been funded by people like me - not the fictitious rich white people you pretend we all are. guess what? i hang out with african american and latino and asian dog owners at peter's park every day - how do you justify this nonsense? and, guess what, those "awful rich white people" are noble enough to sponsor the "brown and black children" on the baseball field. oh, and wait, who was it that beat up my gay friend at peter's park? this is such waste of blog space - grow up. my dog is welcome at Brendan Behan's in JP as well as the bars in the South End so get off your sanctimonious high horses, you arrogant twits.
Calm down, people.
The sculpture initiative is privately funded, and I suspect also draws on some federal or state funds allocated for public art. Its funding was utterly unrelated to the dog park initiative, in fact was conceived years earlier. The only connection to the dog park is that the location of the art was moved slightly to accommodate the dog park, which didn't exist when the project was first conceived.
Please resume making obvious bitch-points about the downside of gentrification (OMFG, straight white people are boring and style-challenged, Americans are selfish, LOL!!!)
A little quote from the dog owner who live sin the 400 square foot studio.
" you people are so hypocrytical - what about the night i was trying to unwind with my friends and a baby was wailing?? "
OMG couldn't you jsut have gone over and stuffed a dirty old sok in the brats mouth? The nerve of some people, letting their wee ones wail!
It was a dog park in 1993. It is a little late now to bitch.
Further, I guess it is better if the funds came from the general school fund rather than private individuals. Money is a commodity. If the city did not have to spend anything on the dog park, then they can spend it elswhere. No? (If they eliminated the dog park, then the city would have been stuck with cost of rehabbing that area. Perhaps 200K.)
And Bohemian Gays are better than Gay Yuppies. Right? Is it the fact that someone chooses maple and granite - tasteless - or that they can afford them? Because it surely has no effect on you unless you are a peeping tom . .
You aren't invited because you dont have maple and granite, you aren't invited because you are a bigot.
To the extent that I can decipher the previous comment, its not that granite and maple are tasteless or that people who can afford them are tasteless, but the fact that every unit for sale in the South End seems to be required to have maple and granite and stainless steel. And the fact that its indicative of the homogenaeity that is sweeping the South End. I have nothing against them on a personal level and they can be quite attractive, however, when they become code for "all of your neighbors will be exactly like YOU," they lose their appeal, for me, at least.
To the extent that I can decipher the previous comment, its not that granite and maple are tasteless or that people who can afford them are tasteless, but the fact that every unit for sale in the South End seems to be required to have maple and granite and stainless steel. And the fact that its indicative of the homogenaeity that is sweeping the South End. I have nothing against them on a personal level and they can be quite attractive, however, when they become code for "all of your neighbors will be exactly like YOU," they lose their appeal, for me, at least.
Let me be more plain: private funding of a public space means the parks dept budget does not bear the expense. The dog park contributors saved the city money. Given the rehab of the balance of the park, I would guess rehabbing would have cost between $150 - 200,000.
Further, I do not know what the dog park contributors also support philanthropically speaking (and neither do you). A quick way to find out is for you to raise funds for a school. I can give you Cathedral or Quincy's fund raising contact if interested.
As for park usage, I see black, brown, yellow, white, of all economic background communing at the dog park.
Lastly, the socioeconomic mix of the south end became more diverse with the addition of whites and yuppies. (And, what is your bitch with yuppies anyway? Because of them we have a ton of restaurant choices.)
You lament homogeneity. Yet, you long for the Queer South End of the near past while ignoring the South End's largely homogeneous history i.e. middle class white, middle class black, lower class black and Hispanic, gay. It is just evolving again . . .
(Full disclosure, I rent a granite and steel unit, but I kept the floors concrete because I am cool.)
I meant to sign the blog before, my apologies.
Shoot forgot something else:
big·ot /ˈbɪgət/ –noun
a person who is utterly intolerant of any differing creed, belief, or opinion.
I am glad I don't live in Boston anymore.
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