This showed up late afternoon.
Considerably more than 12 snowmen have sprung up in Maple Leaf Reservoir Park.
In fact, there’s a small city there at noon.
This snow castle (?) is being built on the restricted area of the play fields, normally fenced off. From Friends for a Greater Maple Leaf Park:
If people are walking on the grass areas that are just finishing establishing themselves, this could put off the removal of the fences even further into the spring.
Although half the neighborhood appears to be going to, at, or coming from the park, driving conditions elsewhere in Maple Leaf can still be tricky.
From the Maple Leaf Community Council: “All side streets, particularly those with hills, are slick and dangerous. Many streets, especially on the East side of the n’hood are either partially or completely blocked with stuck vehicles.”
And a Seattle Fire Department crew had to sled a man to the ambulance (again in the verboten lower playgrounds).
The department Tweeted: “Adult male transported to hospital for minor hip injury. Original dispatch stated possible sledding incident.”
Lala, I called the Animal Control number to mention this problem and they said there had been several complaints about this park and that they encouraged folks to call in unleashed dogs or scoop law violations as they happen. Dog owners, please leash your dogs or visit one of the many wonderful off leash parks in Seattle.
More signs aren’t going to help. Everyone who off leashes their dogs up there KNOWS its not an off leash dog park – they just don’t care!
I would love to see a cop/animal control show up & ticket everyone, I would laugh my head off!
Grass seed is cheap and playing on it in the snow never hurts mine, perhaps we are being a wee bit overprotective of a grass field. A bunch of kids enjoying sledding and building a snowman on the one day of snow in the entire year is an experience that they won’t forget. Sometimes experiences are more important than things, especially when those things aren’t really being hurt.
They really should have created an off leash area in the new park. Total failure.
It is illegal to have dogs off leash outside of designated areas, which this park is not. Period. End of story.
I would take people seriously if they were not anonymous. Dog poop should be picked up, off leash or on leash. Don’t forget that if you are going to call to complain about your neighbors, make sure to read the code.
The code defines “at large” as “not under control by a leash” with a maximum length of eight feet. (SMC 9.25.020(E))
Eight feet! No retractable leashes.
I totally agree that we should have more signage reminding dog owners that these are not off leash areas. I was at another park in Maple Leaf with my daughter playing on Sunday and we saw at least two fresh poops from off leash dogs and the owners clearly either didn’t notice or didn’t care to clean up after themselves. I am tired of dog owners feeling entitled to let their dogs run free in prohibited areas. You chose to have a dog. Not everyone is ok with having close personal interaction with your free running dog, and we are most definitely not ok with your dog using our parks as a public toilet. Leash your dog or go to a designated off leash area. And, your dog is not allowed in children’s play areas even with a leash. It’s the law. Neighbors who wish to report dogs who are illegally off leash or owners not obeying the scoop law, can do so easily by calling 206-386-7387 and pressing 7 on the menu. The more reports we make, the better for getting this problem under control.
While it looked like a lot of fun for the dogs, there were at least a dozen dogs running free the day following the snowfall in the park; do we need more signs to say it’s not an off-leash area? Yes, it’s inviting to let your dog run off-leash, but it’s not the right spot.
I agree that dogs need to be leashed in this and other Seattle parks. Unless it is a designated off leash area, leash your dog. If you want to give you dog a chance to run around, go to a dog park!
I thought this was an open forum to share how we felt about issues, not to always try to get others to agree with your point of view….
Grass. Oh the grass to grow and then beat said grass to death. There’s so much dog urine on the place the beloved grass paid for by tax dollars will be splotchy forever. Theres more unleashed dogs at the park than kids. Pretty hard not to slide through a big yellow spotted dog urine. Ticket the off leash dog owners and you’d be able to buy another park for them. I’d love to see them get fined if you want to talk about scofflaws.
Neighbor – I’m sorry you are sick about hearing about the grass. I’m a bit tired of talking about it myself, but the fact is a lot of people may not have read or heard about it before and we like to try and keep people informed. So there is often repetition.
Just to follow up, since the Park was developed and opened in three phases, the grass we are discussing today is different from the playground area grass that we were talking about a year ago and different from the upper lid grass we were discussing six months ago. But you are right, we have been talking about grass for a very long time and I for one will be thrilled when the fences all come down and we can focus on other things. But until then I need to ask folks to please be patient.
The main reason I put out this request for people to please not go into the fenced area is the many people who are eager for the lower ballfields to open. The fences are there for a reason and it isn’t too much longer before they are gone entirely.
Dawg – I’m being the bad guy who wants to remind everyone that dogs are not allowed off-leash in the park. In fact, dogs off-leash and dog deposits not picked up by their humans are the two main complaints that we hear from people. So if everyone could please respect this, that would be great for everyone.
Here is a link for the off-leash areas in the city where anyone can legally let their dogs off-leash. http://www.seattle.gov/parks/search_byfeature.asp?ftr=12&searchSUBMIT=GO!
We need the lower fields open for people to let their dogs off leash – the upper park is just not big enough…..
so sick of hearing about this grass…… it will all be all
right, let us move on
I sympathize with the grass issue, but no need to warn people about sledding. Part of the fun of being a kid was sliding down a hill, out of control, smashing into my little sister, and breaking my nose. It should be a right of passage for every kid to get to break a bone!
THANK YOU Donna!
Exercising good citizenship sometimes necessitates putting aside immediate gratification.
I hope everyone who trespassed beyond the fences is prepared to help pay for new grass if needed.
Hi, this is a repeat of a post from an earlier story.
I’m going to sound like a party pooper, but if everyone could politely spread the word to please don’t go into the fenced ballfield areas, that would be great. The snow “igloo/fort” was no doubt fun to build, but we want to ask folks to NOT enter the lower ballfields area. Please?
We know the snow makes it particularly tempting (especially for sledding), but we have been hoping the fences would come down sooner rather than later. Initially Parks had said they were hoping to take down the fences in March or April if the grass was fully established, but if people are walking on the grass areas that are just finishing establishing themselves, this could put off the removal of the fences even further into the spring.
We have 15 acres of park above to enjoy. We know there is not sledding opportunities in the upper park, but resisting this one year from trampling over the grass in the lower fenced in area could mean those fences could come down sooner and those ballfields could be used this spring and summer.
We know the fences have been either knocked over and people are pulled them apart making it easy for people to enter, but the fences are still up for a reason. Please, please resist temptation and don’t go in.