There’s one good reason why City Council will never disband the elected Park Board. If it did, Council would have to deal with dog conflicts in city parks. The latest territory soon to reach critical mass: George Wainborn Park, where the off-leash dogs are claiming more and more of the territory.
It boils down to whether the dog owner is a responsible owner.
Most are biased towards themselves and their dogs. Fenced off-leash areas may be one solution, as is strict enforcement (which would breed animosity among owners). Better signage in parks would also help – i.e. “Dogs must be on leash!”
While I favour sticking to the rules (i.e. you can’t poop and scoop after an off-leash dog – who knows where they did it), I do know that as a jogger, I encounter far fewer problems jogging past an off-leash dog than an on-leash dog whose owner is oblivious to its leash spanning the width of the pathway.