The City of Chicago boasts 33 designated off-leash dog parks, or Dog-Friendly Areas (DFAs). These parks require owners to annually purchase a $10 vet-certified permit confirming that their dogs are healthy and dewormed. DFAs usually feature a double fence to prevent dogs from escaping the designated leash-free area. The development of official DFAs is based on neighborhood desire and resources and usually requires a hefty minimum community investment of $150,000.
It is not at all surprising, then, that people turn to unofficial spaces—generally, midsize and mostly fenced-in parks—to let their dogs run off-leash when an official DFA is not within walking distance. These unofficial dog spaces are not condoned by the Chicago Park District, who state that, DFAs withstanding, “A City of Chicago ordinance requires dogs to be on leashes in public areas for the protection of fellow residents, as well as the dogs themselves.”
When I visited some of these parks—one on the north side, one on the south side, and one near the lake—proximity was the top reason people cited as why they turned to nearby unofficial spaces to give their dogs exercise. Green space was a close second: many DFAs are exclusively concrete with small patches of astroturf and little to no shade. To many, these small fenced-in concrete squares feel more carceral than inviting.
Still, while proximity and green space may have motivated people to start utilizing unofficial areas, the community that forms within is what keeps them coming back. “It’s a third place,” a south-side informal dog park member told me, referencing sociologist Ray Oldenburg’s concept that social spaces are integral to a community’s well-being (home and work being one’s first and second place, respectively). “We usually bring a bottle of wine on Fridays.”
Because of both the community-oriented and unregulated nature of unofficial dog parks, their patrons feel that they look out for each other’s dogs more than people do when at an official DFA. The sentiment that “we all look out for one another” was repeated more times than I could count, whether in the context of cleaning up after dogs, calling dogs that run outside the gates and/or begin to wander off and explore new scents, or maintaining space for other park patrons.
“When you go to Montrose [Beach DFA], you don’t know the other people, you don’t know the other dogs,” a dog owner at an unofficial dog park told me. They elaborated with DFA stories of “wild cards,” injuries, and owners attending to phone calls instead of paying attention to their off-leash dogs. This is not to say that informal dog park members are unwelcoming of newcomers. The opposite seems to be true. They just want dog owners to be involved.
Informal dog parks are a unique third place in that they sustain community between humans and dogs that goes beyond human-to-human or dog-to-dog friendships. “A lot of the dogs come here for the people,” one member remarked. And this community is long-lasting: two south-side members noted they’d been bringing their dogs to the park for 20-plus years, spanning three dogs each. “I come here to see my human buddies and my dog buddies,” one told me. “It’s pleasant.”
Credit: Shira Friedman-Parks
Dog-Friendly Areas
For more information on city-sanctioned sites where dogs are allowed to run and play off-leash, go to chicagoparkdistrict.com.
More in NEWS & CITY LIFE
The news you should know in the city you love.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
