Ward 8 Has Zero Dog Parks, and That's a Problem

Highlights

• The pandemic has caused demand for dogs and pet-friendly public spaces to skyrocket as people look for more positivity and companionship at home.

• However, there are zero public fenced-in dog parks in Wards 7 or 8, which makes it much harder for DC residents east of the river to keep their dogs happy and healthy.

• This lack of pet-friendly public infrastructure compared to the rest of DC is a symptom of our long history of racial injustice and wealth inequality.

• Advisory Neighborhood Commission 8C and hundreds of other Ward 8 residents are leading an effort to build a dog park in Oxon Run Park to address this problem. You can sign their petition at bit.ly/w8dogpark.

• Proponents say a dog park would offer many important benefits to the community by strengthening connections between residents, enhancing the value of the entire park, and serving as a vehicle for community mobilization around more substantial issues.

• Others question whether building a dog park is a wise use of public resources when so many of Ward 8's residents lack access to more important services, struggle with poverty, and are already using the park for other activities.

• Ultimately, the fight for a dog park is part of a larger struggle for equal opportunities and restorative justice for Ward 8 residents and Black communities, and we must work with our elected representatives and city officials to ensure any investment here serves the interests of the whole community.

The Pandemic Puppy Boom

As people across the country have found themselves cooped up in their homes and unable to safely visit family and friends, the demand for domestic dog-pals and pet-friendly public spaces has skyrocketed.

Shelters, rescues, and breeders have seen dramatic increases in the adoption of pets, with many shelters proudly displaying empty cages on social media and reporting waiting lists for certain kinds of dogs—and especially for puppies—because so few are available.

It's not all new pet owners, either. According to a survey by Rover.com, 66% of these pandemic pet parents already had a cat or dog, and 20% have had a dog or cat before. Only 13% are first-time pet owners.

What’s driving this boom? Although the changes in many people's day-to-day lives may have made caring for a new addition to the family at home easier, that's only part of the story. According to the same Rover.com survey, the top two reasons people adopted a cat or dog in the last year are for emotional support and happiness or because they needed something positive in their life. A whopping "93% of people said their ‘pandemic pet’ improved their mental and/or physical well-being” in the last year and over 80% said it made working from home and being at home during the pandemic more enjoyable."

If you’re a pet owner, you probably feel the same way.

If you’re a dog owner living in Ward 8, though, you’ve probably found it much harder to enjoy all the benefits of pet ownership.

A Dog Park Desert

Ward 8 contains some of DC's largest green spaces, including Oxon Run Park, Fort Stanton, Anacostia Park, and Shepard Parkway, but while there are more than 30 publicly-accessible fenced-in dog parks in the DC metropolitan area—half of which of which are located in the district itself—none of them are located in Wards 7 or 8. Zero. East of the river is a dog park desert.

Ward 8 is familiar with the hardships and frustrations caused by a lack of vital infrastructure. More than half of DC’s food deserts are in Ward 8, which has just one full-service grocery store. There isn’t even a medical facility for mothers to deliver their children in Ward 8. The people aren’t provided for, so did we expect the dogs to fare better?

Park officials might justify the lack of public spaces for pet owners here by pointing out that there hasn’t been much community demand for dog parks in Ward 8 before. Not only do we have bigger problems to deal with, but Black households have the lowest rates of dog ownership in America and they make up 88% of Ward 8's population. But that, too, is a symptom of America’s long history of racial injustice and wealth inequality.

Indeed, DC’s Black communities are well-acquainted with the overt oppression and insidious neglect that has devastated Black communities nationwide. Here in Ward 8, the median household income is just $35,245—roughly three-fifths the national median in a city where the cost of living is nearly three-fifths higher than the national average. Given the average cost of owning a dog can range from $650 to $2,115 a year (not including the hundreds or even thousands of dollars required up front for adoption fees and new pet supplies), it’s obviously much more difficult for many Ward 8 residents to afford a dog.

The financial burden isn’t the only factor, though. For some Black people growing up in America, dogs come with a fraught history of violence and oppression. They are not “sweet, lovable companions or surrogate children, but rather, terrifying or utilitarian animals.” Images of police dogs lunging at unarmed Civil Rights protesters aren’t easy to forget, and selection for aggressive guard dogs in Black communities disproportionately affected by violent crime (and poorly served by law enforcement) cannot be ignored either.

However, the Black community is not a monolith, and fixating on these factors risks propagating racist and outdated stereotypes that hold back progress. After all, there are plenty of positive stories of Black Americans and canine companions, especially in recent memory, and the reality today is that many Black DC residents do have happy and wholesome relationships with their pets. If you look around and listen, you probably see and hear a lot of dogs in Ward 8. But despite that, Ward 8's Black communities still don't have easy access to the pet-friendly infrastructure many of DC's whiter communities enjoy.

We can change that by building the first public dog park in Ward 8.

An Oxon Run Dog Park

Many of our local Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners (ANCs) have taken up the cause, and their proposal calls for the construction of a fenced-in dog park in Oxon Run Park, whose green spaces stretch all the way from 13th and Mississippi SE to 1st and South Capitol.

While calls for a dog park started in ANC 8C, the initiative has also received support from residents of ANCs 8E and 8D. The petition circulated by ANC 8C chair Salim Adofo has already gathered nearly 200 signatures from Ward 8 residents—four times the required 50—from neighborhoods surrounding the park in all directions. It’s enough demand to consider whether just one dog park can adequately serve the needs of dog owners across all of Ward 8. (Spoiler alert: it can't.)

The popularity of a Ward 8 dog park shouldn't come as a surprise. A recent poll conducted by the National Recreation and Park Association shows that 91% of Americans believe dog parks provide benefits to the communities they serve, and dog parks in Ward 8 could help the community thrive in a variety of new ways. They would bring people together in a new shared outdoor space, help create a network of friendly dog owners who can share tips and resources, and provide dogs with mental and physical stimulation to reduce troublesome behavior at home. They would also add to the growing number of amenities in Oxon Run Park, making it an even more enjoyable outdoor space for everyone in Ward 8.

However, some Ward 8 residents may be rightly concerned about what this proposal means for our community, and whether dog parks would do more harm than good. Dog parks aren’t just a product of changing standards and expectations for dog owners; they’re often part of a pattern of structural inequality and a herald of neighborhood gentrification.

The Hounds of Gentrification

As neighborhoods become safer and see more development and amenities for residents, they tend to attract wealthier (and whiter) newcomers who may accelerate these changes. The problem, of course, is that the typical target of investment and development is land, not people, so the original residents are often left behind or even exploited in this process. The newer residents, ignorant or dismissive of their neighbors' lives, means, and needs, wield their power and economic muscle to reshape the neighborhood in their own interest, pricing out many of the original residents along the way.

Dog parks reek of this trend. Costly dog park proposals are presented by developers to city councils with sunny renderings of beautiful landscaping and happy dog owners. But if you ask a person of color to look at those renderings, their first reaction might be obvious: “That is a lot of white people with dogs.”

The message is unmistakable: dog parks are a luxury for white people—and they'll take your land to build them. Oxon Run Park is big, featuring over 100 acres of open greens, trees, sports areas, trails, playgrounds, and public facilities like the Southeast Tennis and Learning Center. But is it big enough for a dog park, too?

Who Benefits?

The location proposed by ANC 8C near Xenia and 2nd includes a great deal of open space (see the map below), but the location of any recreation area for dogs in Oxon Run Park is ultimately up to the DC Department of Parks and Recreation. As other residents join the call for a dog park near them, how will DPR balance the needs of the entire community in ensuring a dog park has a minimal impact on other residents who enjoy the park?

Parts of Oxon Run Park that seem empty are often important spaces for local residents. These flower boxes aren't just for decoration; they're the work of a local artist. That garden isn't just pretty; it's a quiet place where mothers go to grieve their lost children. Those tables and benches may be unoccupied now, but some of your neighbors go there nearly every day to catch a break after their shifts. Any new addition to the park must balance the needs of everyone, and the ways in which the park are used already are as diverse as the people who live here.

Where city budgets are stretched thin by competing priorities and constituencies, dog parks can also seem like a waste of limited resources. When Oxon Run Park already has playgrounds for children that lie in various states of neglect and disrepair, it would be galling to pay hundreds of thousands for a brand new playground for dogs. When Ward 8 doesn't even have an obstetrics facility for pregnant women, it seems insulting that we'd build a park for dog dads before we build a maternity ward for Black mothers.

So, is a dog park a wise use of public resources when so many of Ward 8's residents lack access to more important resources, struggle with poverty, and are using the park for other activities already?

Investing in Ward 8 Communities

Done right, a dog park needn't be a lightning rod for criticism. It could be a vehicle for positive and inclusive change in and around Oxon Run Park. Instead of piling upon past injustices, with the right vision and leadership a dog park could bring more people together to champion the needs of Black communities hit hardest by the pandemic and centuries of institutional racism.

2020 was a terrible year in many ways, but it did raise many people’s consciousness to the struggle of their Black brothers and sisters, and it offered valuable lessons in how we must organize and invest in our most vulnerable communities to safeguard our common future. As we are getting outside, hitting the streets, and meeting more of our neighbors, many of us are seeing clearly for the first time in a long time. We’re listening, too. I’ve lived in Ward 8 for six years, but in the last year I’ve become more aware of and invested in the problems our friends and neighbors of color face than ever before in my life, and now I’m trying to work with them to fix those problems. The lack of any dog parks in Ward 8 is one of those problems, however frivolous it may seem.

At the end of the day, we’re not just fighting for a dog park; we’re fighting for equal opportunities and restorative justice for Ward 8 residents and Black communities. We do that by strengthening connections within our community, building the public relationships and organizing apparatus we need to solve problems and stand up for ourselves, and ensuring investments in Ward 8 flow directly to residents instead of laying the groundwork for our eventual displacement.

The pandemic has already encouraged people to explore outdoor areas like Oxon Run Park as new venues for safe gatherings and recreational activities, so now more than ever the physical and psychological benefits of these green common spaces should be abundantly clear. But we can go further. Research also shows that residents with parks nearby are “more likely to enjoy stronger social ties than those who live surrounded by barren concrete.” And if our goal is to bring people together to fight for better opportunities for Ward 8 residents, then getting more people into Oxon Run Park—meeting each other’s dogs, waving hello, and building positive connections throughout the area—should be a high priority for anyone seeking to build a stronger, more unified Ward 8.

Fighting for a dog park can also help residents build the community organizing apparatus to take on bigger challenges. A dog park is fun—come on, we’re talking about puppies here—and it can get people excited about civic engagement by providing a (relatively) easy win for residents. If we make a dog park the friendly face of a more serious campaign to deal with deeper structural injustices in Ward 8, we can build momentum for tackling those problems, too. An increased sense of community ownership of the park would also make it easier to fight for more frequent cleanup of trash and debris and for repair and maintenance of the existing playgrounds for children.

Ward 8’s Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners can use this effort as a low-stakes way to get their residents involved in community meetings and public hearings. Then, when they come back to mobilize us for a more significant challenge, like the fight for a new hospital, it’s less intimidating. Ward 8 representatives can also use this as an opportunity to build closer relationships with DPR officials and mayoral appointees who oversee budgets and planning for these sorts of projects, ensuring Ward 8 residents have a greater voice in the decisions of government agencies about a wide slate of issues that affect our community.

Finally, we must use the money for a dog park or any other infrastructure project to help Ward 8 residents resist the forces of gentrification. It wouldn’t just be nice to have a dog park here; Ward 8 residents can benefit from building dog parks as well! Millions of dollars in construction costs are up for grabs. In fact, the Department of Parks and Recreation recently forecast it might spend $400,000 on just one dog park proposed to be built in 2021. Imagine what that kind of money could do if it was used to hire contractors from Ward 8 and to buy materials from Black-owned businesses instead of just being funneled through some big corporate developer. Funding would come from DPR's budget, so it wouldn't even affect our ability to finance the priorities of other agencies.

There’s a reason national plans like the Green New Deal and President Biden’s budget proposals use infrastructure spending as a vehicle for economic stimulus and restorative justice. If Ward 8’s people were the targets of economic development instead of just its property, we’d be able to enjoy the fruits of our labor and be better prepared to afford the higher costs of living in a gentrifying neighborhood. Ward 8 could grow—and yes, change—without losing its essential character or driving out its original residents.

Time to Take Action

So, if you’re a dog owner in Ward 8 or you just want a safe space for your canine neighbors to roam free without bothering anyone, add your name to the petition below. You can also join the volunteer group that would be responsible for cleaning and maintaining a dog park in Ward 8 to ensure this investment provides lasting benefits to the community. If you want to be more involved in how the city invests in Ward 8 communities and stand up for your neighborhood, get involved with your local Advisory Neighborhood Commission, which holds meetings every month. Write to Councilmember Trayon White and the Mayor's Office of Community Relations and Services and ask them to invest in Ward 8 communities with the people first in mind.

There is so much work to do, but we can get it done if we listen and work together.

I hope to see you in the park some day soon.