Boyle Heights residents Fabiola Lopez and her husband Alberto Zepeda try to walk their two small dogs in areas where they see more greenery, especially after their chihuahua was struck by a car.
“It can be dangerous to walk my dog because I risk being struck by cars in driveways,” Lopez said. “I carry my dog when I reach a driveway or an intersection because sometimes cars don’t stop.”
Zepeda thinks of the dog parks he notices in areas like Pasadena or Griffith Park when he rides his bicycle. A dog park in their Boyle Heights community, they said, could make it easier for residents who just want a safe area to run around and play fetch with their dogs.
“We love [our dogs] so much,” Lopez said. “They’re like our kids.”
In a neighborhood where residents are estimated to own about 7,000 dogs, a group of Boyle Heights residents have been advocating for a dog park for nearly 10 years. The grassroots group Paws Vida Y Salud is leading this effort, and they’re proposing an off-leash dog park to be located in an empty lot of Hollenbeck Park that belongs to Caltrans. The lot is fenced in and is located between the 5 Freeway and the park.
The group recently cleared a hurdle when the Board of Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council on Feb. 28 submitted a letter of support for the dog park. Now, it needs approval by Councilman Kevin de León’s District 14 office, as well as Caltrans and the city’s Department of Recreation and Parks.
In the letter addressed to De León, the neighborhood council said the space at Hollenbeck “offers many possibilities to fully develop a site that will include a fenced off-leash dog area, an open pavilion, a divided playground for big and small dogs.” It could also be a site for food delivery assistance, veterinarian assistance, low-cost vaccinations and spay and neuter services, according to the letter.
Pete Brown, communications director for De León, said they are “supportive of the idea and concept of a dog park,” but acknowledged there are challenges. He noted that the park land near the freeway is sloped and must be flattened out for animals and people to be able to walk.
There’s also the financial costs to consider, Brown said. It’s one thing to say “give us a dog park” and another thing to figure out the money, he said. Brown pointed to the millions of dollars designated for improvements at Hollenbeck, including at the lake. In April 2023, De León announced $25 million in funding to improve the lake’s water quality and enhance flood mitigation.
The proposed dog park has been something the community has wanted for some time now, Brown said, adding that it predates De León’s time on the council.
Before any dog park plans can move forward, Brown said the city would need buy-in from the community into the park’s design.
Joel Ojeda, founder of Paws Vida Y Salud, has been working on this project since 2015. Juggling his full-time job, Ojeda has walked around with a clipboard gathering signatures in support of the dog park. He also started an online petition that has garnered nearly 1,000 signatures.
This idea began as Ojeda, a longtime Boyle Heights resident, met others walking their dogs while he walked his own dogs after work. They would walk to Hollenbeck Park, and realized there was no designated open area to safely play and care for their dogs outside their homes.
Meanwhile, Ojeda noticed other nearby neighborhoods like Eagle Rock and Highland Park getting dog parks.
“Why does my community have to drive somewhere else? Why can’t we just get our own? We pay taxes just as much as everyone else. So I started digging into that,” Ojeda said.
Ojeda sought to find land for a dog park in a way that would benefit the community instead of taking away from it.
“One of the main reasons we picked Hollenbeck Park, was because … it will be an addition to the park. We don’t want to take away,” Ojeda said. “I mean, we don’t have enough parks as it is, and as much as I love animals, I wouldn’t want to take land away from the community to give it to my dogs.”
To Ojeda, converting a section of Hollenbeck Park into a designated dog space would also help reduce crime.
“There has been a lot of drug use and sales at Hollenbeck Park,” he said.
Boyle Heights resident Erika Hernandez said she typically walks her dog around her neighborhood because Hollenbeck Park “is too dirty.”
“There’s no park [around here] that I could say I feel safe [with my dog],” she said.
Hernandez often sees loose dogs and fears they could attack her dog. She’d feel much safer with a fenced-in space designated for dogs.
“I have seen dog parks where there is an area for small dogs and an area for large dogs. That’s how I would like a park [for my dog],” Hernandez said, adding that she’d like to see her dog socialize with other pets.
Boyle Heights Neighborhood Board Vice President Brenda Martinez said she strongly supports a dog park in Boyle Heights, “not just to have a space for the dogs to run, but to actually bring a community space.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Martinez said she observed the importance of dogs as she helped distribute food and other necessary items, like diapers, in the community.
“We were also passing out pet food because a lot of our community members couldn’t afford the food for their pets … [who] were being essential during the pandemic because they were being a support for them, like emotional support,” Martinez said.
The main thing, Martinez said, is getting the support from several agencies, like the Los Angeles police and fire departments, as well as Caltrans.
“The bureaucracy in L.A., it’s so big, that building something or getting something done is nearly impossible,” she said.
Martinez said they’re willing to see what other options there are in the community for a dog park, but she said it makes sense at Hollenbeck because people already walk their dogs there around the lake “and it’s more central,” she said.
“I really want to emphasize that this is a project that is needed. There’s nothing unique or special or you have to be a special community to have a dog park,” said Martinez. “It’s something that [is] deserved … There’s dog parks everywhere. We shouldn’t have waited that long.”
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