Seattle's Dog Problem

Seattle loves to tout itself as "dog friendly."  And it is becoming seriously invested in so-called "new urbanism" which means lots of money spent on painting lines in streets for bikes and more signs for pedestrian walkways.  Our mayor constantly talks about making Seattle "walkable."

Indeed, in my neighborhood, we have been way ahead of this new trend.  One the southern end of this neck of the woods we have a small green grocer, who has been there long before the term "foodie" came about.  There is also one of the last remaining independent video rental stores, a coffee shop, barber, and restaurant.  Many neighbors love to walk their dogs to any of these shops, tie the dog outside for a minute, get coffee, or a DVD, or those darn ingredients you forgot for your pasta.  On the northern end of the neighborhood is a popular park and another coffee shop.  Again, neighbors love to walk their dogs to the park (which has an off-leash dog park) then stop for coffee.

We walk!

But Seattle government apparently doesn't want us to walk with our dogs.  While the dogs are allowed into the video store on weekdays, they can not come into the coffee shops, restaurants, or green grocer.  All of those establishments have water bowls outside for the dogs and usually give treats to them.  But Seattle's Animal Control has found an obscure ordinance which allows them to ticket dog owners if the dog is tied up and has one paw on public rights of way.  I kid you not.

Here is a link to an incident that happened at my local library.

Seattle is a very sad place to live.

Murphy's Day.