From Boston/Dorchester, Suffolk County, Massachusetts

"It's an effective tool,'' said Boston police
Superintendent William B. Evans, who heads the
department's bureau of field services. "People with
dogs who are out in the neighborhood - that's more
eyes and ears for us.''

Unquote

Above is a quote from another high ranking police
official saying the same things, many people in our
group already know but I can't imagine what dogpark
in DC they could be referring to, since Washington DC
is only now building dogparks across the entire
city.

-----------

I have asked Paige Davis funding questions a couple of
times but this is the first time I have learned where
this money came from and it turns out a NYC foundation
named for a former CBS president and philanthropist is
providing most of the funds for this park.

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/RoDogRun/
This group is very secretive and you have to know
their secret-handshake to read their messages.

-------------------

Wikipedia says Dorcehster was a seperate town from
Boston until 1870

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston
"Also, the city of Boston annexed the adjacent towns
of Roxbury (1868), Dorchester (1870), Brighton,
West Roxbury (including present day Jamaica Plain,
Roslindale, and West Roxbury), and Charlestown."

Unquote


Bill Zardus


http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/06/29/in_fields_cor\
ner_dog_park_plan_has_bark_and_bite/
Dog park plan has bark, and bite
Advocates calling it a deterrent to crime
Paige Davis with her dog Buckner, near Dorchester's Ronan Park. (George Rizer/
Globe Staff)

By Meghan Irons
Globe Staff / June 29, 2009

Add to beat patrols, crime watches, and flashing blue
lights a new crime-fighting tool: the dog park.

Backed by police, neighborhoods across the city that
want to establish a space for their four-legged friends
have been pitching it not as just a place to give their
pets some exercise, but a way to cut down on drug deals
and loitering.

In Fields Corner, that was one of the main arguments
local residents made as part of an effort to raise
$200,000 for Dorchester's first dedicated dog park.

"This is considered a crime hot spot in Boston,'' said
Paige Davis, who lives near Ronan Park, where the dog
run will be located. "People who are out walking their
dogs are going to meet everyone using the park. If you
want to know what's going in the neighborhood, it's the
dog owners who know everything.''

Residents in Charlestown have also been making a similar
argument as part of their press to build a dog playground
in Paul Revere Park.

"The thought is with more people around and dogs -
that's the deterrent,'' said Chris Remmes, president
of Friends of Charlestown Dog Parks.

City police, who have long urged dog owners to keep
a lookout for crime on their daily walks, like the
idea of more positive presence on the streets.

"It's an effective tool,'' said Boston police
Superintendent William B. Evans, who heads the
department's bureau of field services. "People with
dogs who are out in the neighborhood - that's more
eyes and ears for us.''

J. Alain Ferry, founder of BostonDOG, said his group
has been making the anticrime angle a selling point
in its pitch to have a dog park on Boston Common.

"Certainly one of the most appealing aspects of a dog
park'' is the anticrime component, he said. "It's
going to help clean up the neighborhood, and you might
not have a lot of people loitering or late night
cruising.''

It's hard to know the dog parks' link to quashing
crime. Boston police have not kept track.

Advocates for dog parks point to San Francisco and
Washington, D.C., where they say dog owners spruced
up unused and run-down lots into havens for their
companions. Authorities say dogs have just three
parks in all of Boston to scamper unleashed - two
in the South End and one, which is newly opened,
in South Boston. Boston Common has some off-leash
hours as well.

Dog owners say that's far too few for a city of
7,500 licensed dogs, and thousands more unlicensed,
leaving some to resort to places where the dogs
are not always wanted.

In Fields Corner, residents who got tired of trying
to improvise with their pets are one step closer to
their goal in Ronan Park, the Adams Street field
that was once ripe with criminal activity. It was
the site of the fatal stabbing of community activist
John Beresford, who was killed trying to stop a
purse snatching in the park.

A few years ago, Paige Davis and other Dorchester
residents began eyeing an unused section of the park
for their dogs. They formed a group called Friends
of Ronan Park and teamed up with the Animal Rescue
League of Boston, the Boston Parks and Recreation
Department, and the Stanton Foundation, a private
New York group named for Frank Stanton, the late
CBS president and philanthropist.

After a three-year effort, Friends of Ronan Park
raised all but $10,000 of its $200,000 goal for a
dog park in the park, which recently underwent a
$750,000 revival.

The Stanton Foundation, which has given the rescue
league millions in grant money before, donated
$180,000 for the park. The Shirley Shattuck Windsor
Trust gave $17,500 - of which about $7,500 will be
used for first-year operating costs.

The money will help pay for enclosed fencing,
upkeep, a water source, more lighting and special
pebbles for easy cleanup.

A groundbreaking is planned in the fall.

Meghan Irons can be reached at mirons@....

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