{"id":249865,"date":"2016-02-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-02-26T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/at-last-mid-city-gets-a-dog-park\/"},"modified":"2016-02-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-02-26T08:00:00","slug":"at-last-mid-city-gets-a-dog-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/at-last-mid-city-gets-a-dog-park\/","title":{"rendered":"At last, Mid-City gets a dog park"},"content":{"rendered":"

Por Tori Hahn | Pasante SDCNN<\/p>\n

After more than a year of rallying and pressuring the city, Normal Heights community members were finally granted an off-leash dog park. The Ward Canyon interim dog park officially opened Saturday, Feb. 13 with a ceremonial ribbon-cutting by District 3 Councilmember Todd Gloria.<\/p>\n

The expansion of Ward Canyon Neighborhood Park, which sits on Adams Avenue just west of Interstate 15, will serve as a temporary dog park until the Parks and Recreation Department receives the full funding it needs to complete the project \u2014 almost $8 million. Plans for the completed expansion include a permanent dog park, a basketball court, a community garden and a community center.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0932webtop\"<\/a>
(l to r) Councilmember Todd Gloria and Ron Ferrero-Pham, Normal Heights Community Association president, cut the ribbon at the entrance of the Ward Canyon interim dog park. (Photo by Tori Hahn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure you\u2019re all aware that our long-term vision for this property is much bigger,\u201d Gloria said. \u201cBut I also \u2014 looking around at all these dogs here \u2014 know you couldn\u2019t wait until we amassed the millions of dollars that\u2019s going to be necessary to actually build this vision as we want it to be for our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Residents from all over the Mid-City area and their canines came out to enjoy the new park. While dogs enjoyed catching Frisbees and \u201cmarking their territory,\u201d their owners participated in raffle drawings and socialized with other community members.<\/p>\n

\u201cBig dogs\u201d weighing more than 25 pounds ran around on one side of the park, while the smaller dogs, separated by a fence, played on the other side.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0899\"<\/a>
Ready to go off-leash (Photo by Tori Hahn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThis is such a labor of love,\u201d said Herman Parker, director of the Park and Recreation Department for San Diego. \u201cThis is what Park and Recreation is all about. It\u2019s providing those quality facilities where we can all get out and recreate and enjoy the outdoors, and with this particular facility, enjoy our pets who are a part of our family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officials said about one-sixth of San Diego\u2019s dog population lives in the Mid-City area, which for years has left thousands of dogs with no local place to roam leash-free.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been waiting for this for a long time,\u201d Normal Heights resident and dog owner Stephen Throop said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been almost three years since the Normal Heights Community Planning Group held a workshop in August 2013 in which residents pushed for an expansion of Ward Canyon Neighborhood Park.<\/p>\n

In February of last year, the community held the Mid-City Unleashed Rally in which residents signed a petition to present to the city. Gloria described dozens of community and public meetings that many attended to express the need for a dog park in the Mid-City area.<\/p>\n

Jessica Pasela is involved with the Normal Heights Community Association and has worked for years to rally the community to support a dog park.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor years [I] have been driving 20 minutes away to go to a dog park and I know everybody there,\u201d she said. \u201cTo have that with your actual neighborhood, it really does bring that sense of family for everybody.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a place to … socialize makes the dogs happier, which makes the homeowners happier.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0967\"<\/a> \"IMG_0905\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"(top<\/a>
(top to bottom) Dogs weighing more than 25 pounds can play in the \u201cbig dog\u201d
section of the park; Jessica Pasela, a member of the Normal Heights Community
Association, welcomes one of the dogs to the park; a group of dachshunds greet
each other outside the park\u2019s gates (Photos by Tori Hahn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gloria thanked the city workers who made the park opening possible, but also recognized that there is still a long road ahead until the project is completed as planned.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that our community wants and deserves more, and so we\u2019re still a few years away from full-funded, but rest assured we are moving forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u2014Tori Hahn es pasante en SDCNN y estudiante de \u00faltimo a\u00f1o de periodismo en la Universidad Estatal de San Diego.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Por Tori Hahn | Pasante SDCNN<\/p>","protected":false},"author":803,"featured_media":249866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"At last, Mid-City gets a dog park","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11550,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-top-stories","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/803"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}