DOG PARK CRITICISM
Accessibility is lacking, city admits
James Stewart’s wife became legally blind after losing the use of her left eye to Graves’ disease, an immune disorder that effects the thyroid, so she now relies on a cane to navigate.
She still tries to accompany her husband and their dogs to their local off-leash dog park, but she’s not always up to the task because of what Stewart describes as poor accessibility for people with physical challenges or disabilities.
“She has fallen coming in here in the winter time,” he said of the Ross Industrial Off-leash Dog Park, located in Regina’s northeast.
While that issue was partly due to the snow, it’s also because of the inclines leading up to and within the park, he said.
“There’s gravel. There’s no cement walkway and it’s inclined,” Stewart said of the park’s entrance. “Once you’re in here, it can be a challenge on the west side because it is slanted.
“As far as wheelchair accessibility, it’s useless.”
It’s not much better over at the Cathy Lauritsen Memorial Offleash Dog Park, located near the airport, said Stewart.
To get to the entrance, people must park at the top of what dog owners have described as a “steep slope” that they must then walk down to get to the park’s front gate.
Although there is a paved walkway down to the gate, the incline for some is still too much.
Discussion around accessibility to the off-leash parks has been sparked by this week’s police shooting of a dog, owned by Lance Murphy, a disabled Regina man.
Relying on a cane to walk, Murphy — whose dog was shot by a Regina police officer during an incident on Wednesday — often takes his dogs to an open field at nearby Rambler Park instead of to the offleash park due to accessibility.
“I don’t take them to the dog park because I need to park and walk, which is hard on me,” said Murphy.
It’s in this nearby field that the shooting occurred, resulting in the injury and hospitalization of his beloved dog Missty.
“We recognize that accessibility is limited,” said Janine Daradich, the City of Regina’s manager of recreation planning and partnerships. “The city has tried to make some improvements to both of the parks, adding a hand rail at Cathy Lauritsen along the pathway and adding a ramp at the Ross Industrial dog park. However, they’re not universally accessible,” she said.
Daradich said both the off-leash dog parks were built in storm management areas, meaning they are more depressed than a typical park and have restrictions on what kind of structures — like paved ramps — can be built in and around them.
“What we have told the public is that accessibility is important to the City of Regina, and in future dog parks we will take accessibility into consideration upfront,” she said.
She said the city is in talks with developers about areas in the east, south and north-northwest parts of the city to explore the idea of accessible off-leash dog parks, but could not confirm if and when and how many new off-leash dog parks might come to fruition. Until then, people with physical disabilities or challenges do not have an off-leash dog park they can go to without facing barriers to accessibility.
Michel Sorensen, a program co-ordinator for Saskatchewan Seniors Mechanism, a non-profit seniors advocacy group, helps advocate for age-friendly planning to make communities safe and accessible for people at any stage of life.
“It’s important for people to feel a part of their community,” said Sorensen. “I don’t think it’s fair that people don’t have access to a certain part of our very vibrant community.”
The Ross Industrial Off-leash Dog Park only has street parking. Anyone going to the park must get up a curb and then walk a few yards up a gravel incline to get to the park’s front gate. It’s something that makes it impossible for Niki Ferozdin’s friend to take advantage of the park.
“He’s in a wheelchair and he has a couple of dogs, and he can’t bring them to the park because it’s not accessible,” she said. “I think it would be great for him to be able to bring them here.”
She’d like to see a paved ramp and walkway that leads to the park entrance, as well as a paved walkway that goes around the entire park so that people in wheelchairs, or using canes and in need of flat ground, can get around.
The new ramp referenced by Daradich is a gravel ramp, which she said was meant to create a more gradual slope for people to walk down to the centre of the park.
Stewart wants more of the park levelled out so people with physical challenges have an easier time walking around it, as well as additional benches so there are more areas to rest. Currently, there are two benches in the park.
“They have good intentions, but then they only do the job halfway and they think they ’re done,” Stewart said of the city. “They could do a lot more with it.”