Dogs against children: Brooklyn residents cannot share a popular park

In Bushwick, Brooklyn, it's hard to find comfortable open space to practice or walk, so baseball players and dog owners are involved in a turf war. Local dog lovers have found themselves cut off from the popular sports field where they used to walk their pets. New York Daily News.

The controversy revolves around Green Central Knoll, where dog owners used a baseball field to run their pets. But this brought the field to a shitty (in the truest sense of the word) state. The New York City Parks Department has installed combination locks on the field, access to which is restricted to those with the appropriate permits.

The lockout angered the dog breeders of the area

“Look at all this greenery. Don't you have a single piece that you could provide to the dogs? asked Miss Jacob, a Bushwick resident and dog owner. We are not asking for the whole park, we are asking for a piece. What do you want us to do? For our dogs to poop on the pavement? Where should we go for a walk?”

Many say that dogs and children in this Brooklyn area used to get along more harmoniously. But gentrification and the construction of new luxurious homes in the area have increased the number of people with dogs, adding fuel to the fire of the conflict.

On the subject: New Yorker makes over $100 a year walking dogs

Jacob said that now there is a war for the park - "dogs against children." And she feels entitled to use public space in the same way that baseball players do.

“If you have children, then they should be in the children's sports section ... But where is the section for dogs?” the woman asked.

On the other side of the debate are those who say that a ball court is not a place to run dogs.

According to Celestine Leon, district manager for Brooklyn Community Board 4, the problem only arose recently, due to renovations. According to the Parks Department, the sports ground has always been closed to the public. But the fence around the sports ground was removed for repairs. And it allowed pet owners to get to the golf course.

On the field, dogs chased children and balls, dug holes into which people fell and twisted their ankles. The field was littered with their poop. As a result, it was decided to close the site for dog walkers again.

“People don't realize that this place is just for sports,” says Leon. They don't understand that this is not a dog playground. And now that they can no longer access that space, they feel it was closed unfairly. Like, they privatized the public space, which is by no means true.”

Many say the problem is being exacerbated by changing demographics in Bushwick. There are only 1000 acres of parks and open space per 0,2 residents in the area, according to the New Yorkers for Parks.

Newly built dog-friendly apartment buildings have sparked an influx of dog lovers in the area. Matt, 28, another dog owner who has lived in Bushwick since 2018, blamed the field closure on the recent influx of new residents taking advantage of COVID-19 era rental discounts to live in luxury apartments.

“See those three big buildings? There used to be a couple of dogs out there, and now there are about 50 of them. I think the situation has just become unbearable,” Matt said.

Every day around 18:00 pm, dog owners gather in a small triangle of enclosed space covered in mud and concrete at the edge of the park. They express their dissatisfaction on the Slack channel, a social network for dog owners, a local dog group with more than 200 members.

Stephanie Medel, 19, has lived in Bushwick all her life. She used to bring her German Shepherd Luna to the field.

According to her, people treated each other with respect. And the dogs and their owners stayed in a safe corner away from the baseball players. But a lot has changed in the last couple of years.

“Some owners don't respect the fact that there are other people there,” said Medel, who works at the dog shelter. “And the baseball players started getting annoyed because some people didn’t clean up after their dogs.”

One day this year, the situation escalated to the point that Medel's younger brother, who was practicing baseball in the park, had to call the police on a new dog owner in the area who had come into conflict with the players.

A Parks Department employee last week defended padlocks at the entrance to the site. And he said that they provide access to those who need a site, without allowing unnecessary ones.

“In response to community and local concerns about the misuse of sports fields, we have decided to close them for their protection,” a spokesperson for the department said in a statement.