Pets in the city

I am a fan of dog parks, even though I am not a dog person, because walking dogs ends up being an activity that helps to keep urban places active, adding "eyes on the street" and natural surveillance. While not always the case, dog walkers can help to organize park reclamation activities.

Although some people find dog parks an unwelcome sign of neighborhood change (aka "gentrification") and they don't like the signals that they perceive as a result, that it's good for people with choices and money to live in the neighborhood, because they see things as a zero sum game, that people of lesser means will eventually be displaced.

Still there is plenty of negative dog owner behavior out there. There is an Associated Press story, "Pets and the city: Even when there's no backyard, animals need love and exercise," about a new book, City Puppy: Finding, Training and Loving your Urban Dog. And while looking up that story, I discovered another book, Urban Dog: The Ultimate Street Smarts Training Manual--half the book is about how to make urban dog ownership work in high density places.