In a city that loves to promote its vanguard status on myriad issues, San Francisco considerably lags behind all other jurisdictions in failing to provide dedicated spaces for small dogs throughout the city.
The Rincon Hill Dog Park, which opened in 2011, is a rare exception. Backers of the canine play area on Beale Street, below the approach to the Bay Bridge, carved out a special area for small dogs under 20 pounds.
In a city with an estimated 120,000 dogs, reportedly outnumbering children who reside in San Francisco, providing proper play space for pooches is no small matter. And the issue could gain greater importance should officials with the Golden Gate National Recreation Area impose more restrictions on which parts of the National Park Service properties, such as Ocean Beach and Crissy Field, canines can access.
In June a number of local officials, including Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-San Mateo/San Francisco) and gay San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener, spoke out against the park service's proposed rule revision plan that includes new rules barring dogs from a number of properties that fall under the jurisdiction of the GGNRA.
At the press conference, Wiener read a statement from Mayor Ed Lee, in which he urged the GGNRA "to actively engage with San Francisco to create a better balance that considers the unique needs of dense urban cities. GGNRA has important stewardship responsibility, but their draft dog plans need to be reflective of our concerns about diverse users and impacts on local parks and streets. I hope that at the end of the rulemaking process, GGNRA does not significantly limit recreation - for humans or their dogs - in the precious lands that they oversee."
City planners have often failed to take into consideration the special needs of small dogs. Take for instance the newly built dog play area off Valencia Street under the highway off-ramp that leads to Octavia Boulevard and faces the city's LGBT Community Center.
Called the SoMA West Skate and Dog Park, and overseen by the Department of Public Works, the dog park section between Stevenson and Valencia streets, does feature play areas for both large and small dogs. The skate park, designed by New Line Skateparks, encompasses a rectangular space between Stevenson and Otis Streets.
But it remains to be seen how enjoyable this new park will be for small dogs that are notoriously unfriendly to skateboarders and can be enraged by the sound of the skateboards they encounter on city sidewalks.
Nonetheless, the public works department should be commended for considering the needs of smaller dogs, as many do not do well in gated dog play areas that include larger dogs. We hope the department will build additional spaces as it reclaims more unused land around the city for recreational purposes.
The city can take other steps. A simple solution would be to designate specific times for small dogs to use existing dog play areas or reconfigure larger dog run areas operated by the city to provide separate sections for both sizes of dogs. One prime location that could easily incorporate a small dog area is the Douglas Dog Play Area in Noe Valley, which is currently closed as city officials deal with irrigation issues at the former baseball park.
National park officials should also heed the calls from city officials and local park advocates who have questioned the validity behind their reasoning for closing off public lands to dogs and their owners. There is no reason why canines should be banned from Ocean Beach, Crissy Field, or Baker Beach's popular gay section.
Sour grapes
As we report this week, gay Assemblyman John A. Perez (D-Los Angeles) has called for a recount in his race to be the next state controller after he fell into third place in recent weeks behind second place finisher Betty Yee, a Democrat who represents the Bay Area and northern California on the state Board of Equalization.
Under California's open primary system, the top two vote-getters advance to the general election in November. Republican Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin came in first in the June vote and will face one of the Democrats this fall.
Rather than lose graciously and throw his support behind Yee, Perez is trying to pull off a Hail Mary pass by asking certain counties to review their vote counts by hand. He cherry-picked 15 counties where his campaign believes he can claim more votes, beginning with the decidedly more conservative Kern and Imperial counties.
The fact of the matter is Perez fumbled running a statewide campaign. During his years in the state Legislature, when he was looking to run for a supervisor seat in his home base of Los Angeles County, he largely ignored the Bay Area.
It wasn't until he switched gears to run statewide that Perez began popping up at events in San Francisco this year. In contrast, Yee crisscrossed the state in recent years to boost her name recognition ahead of the June primary.
Rather than waste resources on a recount, Perez should have accepted defeat and conceded to Yee.