Once a year, Seaview/Africville Park closes its gates to the dog owners who use the off-leash park every day & year round to host the Africville reunion. The reunion used to be a weekend event, but is now a weekly event. No problem. Wait… yes there is a problem. If you drive by Seaview/Africville right now, you will see a dozen cars/ trailers parked and driven inside the park on the grass and its trails. There is a HUGE parking lot… Right. At. The. Gate. Why on earth are people being allowed to drive inside and harm a CITY OWNED green park with their vehicles? Is the one minute walk from the gate to the green space to far to walk?
There is a sad history for the park, everyone knows this. But why are these disrespectful people harming and ruining the park they want to reclaim so badly?
As a dog owner who uses the park regularly, I know that historically, after these yearly reunions, there are deep tire trails left in the grass, broken glass, food waste, garbage left behind. The city has to go in and spend a few days afterwards to do a cleanup of the park, but that clean up does not remove all of the broken glass and small garbage/food waste left behind – the dog owners themselves go in after and attempt to remove these items before a dog is injured.
The chicken bones and broken glass left throughout the park (sometimes hidden!) afterwards is what really burns my ass as us park users know a select few at these reunion events do this very intentionally as there has always been a dispute over this wonderful historic area being used as an off-leash dog park.
Frankly, I think a dog park is a wonderful way to make use of the land and the park. The dog owners are respectful, keep the area clean and pick up our pups waste. We try hard to ensure the park stays in a useable state because we don’t want to lose it. If the reunion event attendees could do the same, everyone would be much happier.
Everyone can use the park- and we all need to be respectful of it. —Regular park user and dog lover
This article appears in Jul 25-31, 2013.
Is it still being used as the most exclusive campground in HRM?
Historically it was a landfill so maybe they’re just trying to recreate what it once was.
No shit, eh, OB? Someone had to say it.
I have conflicting feelings about the area being used as a dog park. At first I thought it was a nice use of a park that sees limited traffic otherwise.
Yet, contrary to your opinion, many but not all of the dog owners are “responsible”. Many of the pre/post 9-5 crowd use the dog park as social hour and fail to notice their dog shitting all over the park or mounting other dogs. Weekends at Seaview are an absolute gong show with just about every dog owner in the city (including gangsta trash owners of now-aggressive canines) converging into the area. I have stopped going to Seaview due to the presence of a few bad dog owners combined with a lack of multiple escape routes (only one entry/exit).
So, I do see why the interests of former residents conflict with those of dog owners, some of whom are neither responsible owners nor respectful of the history of the neighbourhood. Perhaps the city can invest in more regular monitoring by bylaw enforcers. It would also be nice to see the park closed to dogs more than just once a year, say once a month or week in the summer so that regular non-dog folk can visit the area.
Seaview is a really great off-leash dog park.
We take our 10 month old puppy there a few times a week to socialize her, and have never had a problem, SirMeowaLot. Your suggestion about closing the park to off-leash dogs once a month is just selfish and stupid. I’m sure you and any other moron who thinks this is a good idea will survive without the rules being changed.
OP – very well said. We drove by on the way home from the parade on Saturday and were surprised to see that a lot of people had driven cars/RV’s inside the gates of the park. Add that to all of the garbage and waste that are left behind every year after these festivities and you have a pretty big mess that costs the city time and money to clean up. Seems a bit strange for a group of people who are coming together to honor the land they respect so much, but whatever.
Say what you will but in my experience there always are a few bad owners around unless you completely avoid peak hours. That combined with only a single escape route are enough reason for me to stay away. I’m glad you like the park, though, and hope you don’t run into any issues with idiots.
“our suggestion about closing the park to off-leash dogs once a month is just selfish and stupid.”?
You should clarify. Not sure how it would be selfish/stupid to increase access to the park to others, given that dog owners have unrestricted access 358 days a year and given that Fort Needham, Highland Park and Merv Sullivan Park, each of which have partial off-leash access (or de facto access), are only a 5 minute drive away from Seaview. If anything expanding access to different users is quite equitable.
i will find you, poop and i will pat your dogs
I just started going to that park so my new little mushkadoodle could run unleashed. I go at very early morning if I do go, because he doesn’t need to socialize (and neither do I) I just want to practise recall and let him run flat out.
so I haven’t run into any aggressive dogs, or any dogs. and I was pleased by the general tidiness of the park. I didn’t see any unscooped poop, no garbage, no mess. looks like it is well policed by users.
as I was leaving one morning a group arrived, all seemed to know each other and were in a bunch chatting and drinking coffee. their dogs were running around and no one seemed to be watching them, so it’s likely some of them pooped without notice. but if so, someone must be cleaning it up sometime.
I did see the news item showing campers and tents right in the park. as far as I am concerned, they can set up camp there if they want.
maybe some dog people didn’t clean up in the days before the event, and maybe some of the campers in past years have deliberately left chicken bones and other dangerous items to harm the dogs. the park is a bone of contention between the two groups.
I think the heritage people should get the park back, and I think there should be another site for off leash. we are all taxpayers. I go with guilt, because I think its crummy that the area was made into an off leash park (ie: place where dogs pooh) . it smacks of a smack in the face.
They can leave whatever they want. I don’t have a problem picking it all up and tossing it over the fence next to their church/museum. They wanna be fuckin pigs, let them go ahead, it just looks bad on that particular community.
As far as the closing of the park to dogs, fuck that!!! There are all sorts of parks that don’t allow dogs to be off leash, go to one of those. Why whenever there is something for dog owners do the douchebags have to try and take it away. You know what’s funny, all the time I have spent there over the years, not once have I ever had shit on my shoes. The same cant be said for all the other parks in HRM, so my conclusion would be that the park goers there are more responsible than anywhere else. It is a common misconception that dog owners like walking in their dogs shit, we do not, that’s why we (most of us) pick it up.
I haven’t been in that park in years, is Carvery still squatting?
How many public parks are in HRM, SirMeowaLot? How many of these parks are fenced in, safe off-leash areas for dogs? You have an entire city of parks and green areas to do whatever the hell it is you do in. A lot of dog owners prefer this park because its a great spot for thier pups to socialize as well as thier owners.
PG, would love to run into you there sometime 😉
Fuck all you stupid people and your stinky-ass mutts. One damn week and all ya’ll be posting your bitches about it. How fuckin white of you. See, this is why we don`t tip.
Oops, ^that comment ^ was meant to be from me, not SHITD 🙂
so what are you saying, he doesn’t wanna run into me^^
No way! We heard somewhere you make really good cookies 😉
Word.
Africville… fried chicken bones left behind… that is typical. You forgot about the watermelon rinds. 😛
SHITD, I’m not suggesting that we permanently close the park to dogs. But there are others who want to use the park or derive non-recreational/non-user benefits from the park as a cultural preservation. We should recognize their interests as well, and not just be a bunch of bratty & entitled dog freaks, no? While there are many people parks around, there are also three parks within a five minute drive of Seaview. Add 10-15 minutes and you’ve also got Hemlock & Long Lake. Not exactly a shortage of green space for pooch to go pee, poop and run around. So, stop being an entitled twat. To the rest of you, I hope to one day meet your lovely pups.
“Area Man Evicts Coons From Heritage Dumpster”
Oh pull in your horns you mad mullahs of political correctness. Ivan hasn’t slipped up and revealed himself to be the Grand Cyclops of his local Klan Klavern. One of the bucolic summer rituals here at Chateau Sonofabitch is the annual “Rakin” Rescue. Baby racoons invariably get in the dumpster under the window of my dacha after it has been emptied and spend the night trilling and scrabbling to get out.
In the morning I go down and put a lawn chair over the side so they can escape.
Today there were 4 at one fell swoop. Like a bleedin’ clown car, it was.
meow, the difference is that this particular park is fenced. dogs that are ‘runners’ can run off leash with no worry about ending up raspberry jam on the road.
its like having your own back yard, fully fenced. places like that are hard to find.
africville is a gorgeous site, but it would be better to hand it back (there’s just too much bad history) and set up another site for dogs. I don’t think dog people need the view as much as a good solid fence. the dogs sure as heck don’t care about the view.
ivan, you’re a peach.
I’m like Ricky. Love the pointy faced cats.
http://i.imgur.com/P63bp.jpg
I’ve perfected the art. Drop something over the side so they can climb out and then back the efff up. They’re cuter than hell but I don’t fancy an early morning trip to the ER with one of them stuck to my face like “Alien”
http://notfunny.co/wp-content/uploads/2013…
Here here! Clean up them fuckin’ watermelon rinds while you’re at it.
OB , you do know that area where they lived was right on the edge of the city dump way back when, with dirt roads …& so put that with all that garbage and it appears they are just trying to make it feel like home again .