Our dog population has grown (especially since many people got dogs during the COVID crisis. Our dog run at Seton Park is situated in an area which is central for dog owners. There is no other dog run close by that can accommodate so many dogs. it has been over 20 years since the dog run was first put up. It’s time for it to get some much needed care and attention. 

What Riverdale wants:

"Clean dirt"* tamped down, adapted water fountain by the neighboring baseball field so it can used to fill a water cooler, a paved pathway to the fountain from the large dog run, new gates updated gates with cemented which are to be cemented down to withstand erosion, dog-friendly poison ivy removal (or uprooting of that tree that the poison ivy is on), uprooting stumps left from chopping down trees, basic tools and a storage shed to hold them, more garbage cans, more benches, and shooting for the stars: some agility equipment and expansion of the dog run to where the trees were chopped down beside the large one. Those trees will need to be uprooted anyway). 

It was stated on several occasions by congressman Andrew Cohen that there was money earmarked for the dog run and that regardless of budget cuts those funds would remain. In fact, the last time he made that statement was as recent as August 3rd 2020.  Suddenly that money has mysteriously disappeared. During a CB8 meeting on September 23rd 2020 Parks Commissioner Iris Rodriguez stated that there was no such money. There was no explanation. 

Riverdale voted in the Participatory Budget 2019 and it had enough votes to be a project. The funds were allocated to the dog run, then it taken away for other projects. 

After an on-site meeting in March 2021:

It was stated by the parks commissioner that the small dog run section needed to be removed to be replaced by trees because the dog run is the largest one in the Bronx.

it was stated that the parks now have a type of flooring that is somewhere between pea stone and sand which becomes hot in the summer, gets into the pads of dogs’ paws, and carries strong odor of waste. Again, Van Cortlandt Park has tamped down flooring. 

At that meeting it was stated that Seton dog run is larger than other runs in the Bronx and it should be made smaller. It was discovered that it just isn't true! Van Cortlandt is larger. Now that we have the facts right, our dog run should be comparable to Van Cortlandt Park’s dog runs. There are also larger dog runs in other boroughs. 

If made into a NYC capital project, there are other items we would add to the list. 

We need a clean, sizeable, safe, functioning, maintained dog run in Riverdale. There have been dozens of attempts over the last decade to get this done and enough is enough. In addition to signing this petition to finally get it done, please join us on the SPDR Facebook page: www.facebook.com/groups/setonparkdogrun 

*"Clean dirt" - dirt tested for glass, toxins, and other contaminants

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