Group looking to bring dog park to downtown Indy
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — There’s a grassroots push to get a dog park in downtown Indianapolis.
“Downtown is the fastest growing neighborhood in Indianapolis and there’s no dog park to serve its residents,” said Erica Ballard of the Downtown Indy Dog Park Coalition.
On Wednesday the group held a “Yappy Hour” at Hotel Tango Distillery to raise awareness and funding for the park.
“There’s so many people here. it’s such a great place, and I know that Indy wants more people to live downtown and stay downtown and this is one way that we can help that,” said Ballard.
They say downtown would be made more attractive to humans if there were more options for their dogs.
“There’s enough people in the downtown area with pets that could really use a park,” said Gretchen Patch, who owns a dog and lives downtown.
“There’s a community here and there are a million dogs everywhere and I think that it would be really beneficial because there’s no where for people to take their dogs,” said Chelsea Carter, while walking her two dogs.
Dog owners used to bring their dogs to makeshift dog park on this lot on East and 9th streets. But after plans were made to redevelop the land, the owners took the gates off.
The nearest dog park to downtown is in Broad Ripple.
“Broad Ripple is close, but not close enough for the everyday visit,” said Patch.
“I would just like to see one that’s downtown that we can get to in a relatively quick amount of time,” said Ballard.
“Then I could have a place to just let them go and burn energy otherwise they would be all over the place all the time,” said Carter.
Downtown Indy Dog Park Coalition says they’d like to partner with Indy Parks.
Indy Parks operates four off-the-leash dog parks. The others are at Eagle Creek Park. Paul Ruster Park on Post Road and Perry Park on the south side.
Owners pay for access and dog tags. owners have to show their dogs have been vaccinated to be allowed in.
“Being on-leash is not natural for them, dogs like to romp and play with each other and they can’t really do that on a leash,” said Patch.
An open house on a downtown dog park with City-County Council Vice President Zach Adamson and Indy Parks is scheduled for May 9.
The group says they’ll be hosting weekly “Yappy Hours” until a dog park is built.