When writing to the various Board members, here are some things to bear in mind:
a) Thank the Common Council for their past consideration and support. When writing, indicate that you are in support of extending rescinding the leash law on the Festival Lands and why.
b) Be positive; let them know how important this is to you and your dog and what the benefits are to both of you. Personal, positive stories work the best.
c) The Boards we'll be facing have nothing to do with the ticketing and it would not be beneficial to use your letter to complain about ticketing (the whole reason why we are seeking to rescind the leash law on the Festival Lands is to end ticketing while we work on the larger goal).
d) We suggest using the terminology "off-leash areas" as opposed to "dog-park" because there is substantial data from groups that have been successful in convincing municipalities to establish off-leash areas that indicates a higher rate of success when the terminology "off-leash" areas is used, not "dog-parks."
e) Indicate in your letter that by extending legalizing the "off-leash" area, that you will be enabled to continue to pursue your choice of exercise and recreation, a choice that would not be legally available anywhere in Ithaca.
HINTS ON LETTER WRITING
The most powerful letters to politicians are handwritten (or typed) from the heart. An e-mail is considered a much less powerful indication of voter sentiment than a first-class letter. Form letters are generally considered to be less effective than personal letters, even if the latter are not well written or contain typos or grammatical errors. What is important is WHAT you have to say not HOW you say it. And please remember that short and to the point is better than long and rambling. Politicians have limited time to read letters from constituents.
For the reasons listed above, the TCDOG EC has resisted distributing a form letter to our membership. Please use your own thinking on the matter and/or any of the bullet points listed below (in your own words) when you write letters to politicians.
BULLET POINTS (not in order of importance. That’s for YOU to decide!)
We have had a year's worth of experience thanks to Common Council's action last year. While not ideal (because access to water required us to leash up and walk past the "dogs on leash only" signs into State lands before getting to clean water access), doggers and non-doggers alike have enjoyed the area.
There is a growing acceptance of dog parks around the nation (Ithaca is not out front on this one- there are over 2500 OLAs or Dog Parks throughout USA). Off Leash areas enhance the quality of life of not only for our four-legged friends, but for ourselves too. Exercise and socializing benefit people as well as dogs.
Dog walking involves PEOPLE not just dogs. Dog owners have as much right to public recreation as any other subgroup in our community, for example, golfers, skateboarders, swimmers, etc., who enjoy SINGLE-USE public facilities such as the public golf course, the skateboard park or the Cass Park Pool. All we dog walkers want to do is to share the area with other pedestrians.
Dog walkers are among the most diverse people in Ithaca. We have met and befriended each other simply because we have dogs and enjoy dog walking. We are all ages, all colors, all genders and united only by our love of dogs. Many of us would never have met were it not for our dogs.
There are more than 2500 public dog parks in America. Some are single-use, e.g., devoted only to off-leash dog use like a skateboard park is used only for skateboarding and others are multi-use, e.g., open to the public including people who want to jog, fly kites, watch birds AND let their dogs off leash. The Festival Lands and Treman almost certainly will be multi-use areas if and when they are legalized for off-leash dog play.
Dogs in off-leash areas necessarily have nothing to protect and hence are almost universally less territorial in a dog park than they are at home. This is why the great majority of dog bites or dog-related incidents occur in or near the dogs home. Dogs on leash tend to be more aggressive than dogs off-leash simply because they can’t run away from another dog if they want to. Also dogs on leash may feel they are protecting their owner from another dog even if the owner doesnt want or need to be protected.
Centralizing off-leash dog play in Treman would result in a welcome decline in off-leash dog activity in other areas with more sensitive natural flora and fauna such as 6-mile Creek. The City of Ithaca Natural Areas Commission has endorsed the TCDOG effort to legalizeTreman for just that reason. They feel centralizing off-leash dogs in a particular area such as Treman would lessen the impact of dogs in other places.
If off-leash dog play was permanently legalized in Treman, Ithaca could validly declare itself a dog-friendly community. This would encourage people taking vacations with their dogs to come to Ithaca with a resulting favorable impact on the local economy. Ithaca is often touted as an enlightened community in the progressive and even the conventional press. Having a legal off-leash dog park would add credibility to this claim. A Dog Park could be a large draw, encouraging dog lovers to move here or just visit (and bring their tourist dollars with them).
There are roughly 10,000 dogs in Tompkins County. They represent a significant bloc of constituents.
Ithaca and the surrounding region has more than 35 public trails and parks. There are plenty of other places to enjoy natural surroundings in and around Ithaca in addition to Treman. As for waterfront access, Stewart Park doesn’t even allow dogs on leash so if you want to see the lake and don’t like dogs go there instead.
Imagine if dog walkers had banded together decades ago and demanded and won the area that is currently the local golf course and devoted it entirely to dog walking just as it is used ONLY for golf right now. That is probably the nicest lakefront land on Cayuga and only a few hundred golfers are allowed to use it. If they can have access to such a huge green space right on the lake, why can't we and our off-leash dogs share Treman, a much smaller place, with the public?
Remember that the City owns the Festival Lands and can choose to rescind the leash law there but that the rest of the park is controlled by the State. This is why it is not useful to complain to the Mayor and the City Council about tickets received in Treman so far. The entire park is patrolled by State park police and City police are rarely involved in any enforcement in the area.