We were stopped early this morning while walking in the Woodlawn Park with our two dogs. The woman who stopped us claimed to be a long time board member of the neighborhood association, although she didn't bother to give us her name. She said she wanted to thank us for picking up after our dogs, but then she went on to criticise us for having our dogs off leash even though there was no one else in the park anywhere and we were in the process of playing fetch, a game that is rather difficult in our small backyard.
I pointed out that the park needed an off-leash area since half the people who are coming here are bringing their dogs, there is a very large mostly unused lawn, and it is the ONLY park in Woodlawn. The woman went on to tell me that she has lived in the neighborhood for 57 years, that these people who are bringing there dogs are newcomers in the neighborhood, and that she and the whole neighborhood association are dead set against a designated off-leash area. Apparently that means that newcomers in the neighborhood aren't allowed to use the park even though our property taxes are paying for it too.
We are both native Portlanders and have lived in the Woodlawn neighborhood for nearly four years now. Since moving here, we can't help but notice that there seems to be a discord between the “old timers” and the “newbies”. We understand that there can be a fear of newcomers raising property values and changing the neighborhood, but also with the newcomers comes more money, interest and renewed vitality, halting the decay and crime that has plagued the neighborhood in the past.
Newcomers are not a threat, we are not trying to push anyone out, and it is time to stop digging our heals in the mud about change and work together to make this neighborhood a truly inclusive place for everyone to live in. Woodlawn Park is a shared resource and must reflect the diverse uses of the entire community instead of catering to an elitist subset of the neighborhood. With that said, we would like to propose that a section of the Woodlawn Park be designated as an off-leash dog park, so that the many dog lovers in this community can have a place to play fetch without having to leave Woodlawn to use another more progressive community's park.
