Little Bay Park Gets Dog Run But No Bathrooms For People

Here was a brand-new, half-million-dollar dog run in one of the most scenic parks in the city, but no dignified place for human beings, taxpayers, to relieve themselves while on a morning stroll, jog or pedal. No place for a Little League boy to legally relieve himself between innings. Okay, so no one's calling the vice squad if a boy pees in the bushes.

But it really is a different situation for girls - and their soccer moms, many of them pregnant - to answer nature's call.

The Little Bay Park Dog Run cost the city half a million dollars, but the park has no bathrooms for the dogs' two-legged owners. "I'm disgusted," former City Councilman Avella said. "I earmarked that money in 2005. Then Rep. Gary Ackerman secured federal money to expand the parking lot. Parks delayed the bathrooms until the parking lot expansion was completed. They (parks department) told me that the state Department of Environmental Conservation froze the project because the planned rest rooms area was considered protected wetlands. Parks never told me so I could intervene. Instead, they let the issue lay there awaiting an approval letter from DEC." (Photo: DelMundo/NY Daily News)

Queens

The city put in a $500,000 dog run. But no facility for people to run to when nature calls, according to the New York Daily News.

Last week, I walked east from Utopia Parkway through gorgeous, 50-acre Little Bay Park - sandwiched along the Cross Island Parkway between the Throgs Neck Bridge and Fort Totten - as the sun spilled out of a baby blue sky. Joggers panted past. Bicyclists zoomed. Walkers nodded in the crisp fall morning. I was putting in a few miles of my own when nature called.

I looked around for a rest room.

I saw a lumpy Little League field where my son sometimes plays ball and remembered there was never a rest room here. I did see six workers putting the finishing touches on a state-of-the-art dog run near the Utopia Parkway exit of the Cross Island that will open next month. The dog run has a water supply, one fenced area for large dogs, another for smaller dogs, and a third for all dogs to mingle, beautifully landscaped, with a place for dogs to relieve themselves.

I walked toward two men talking. One guy looked like he was in charge.

I asked, "Any dog can go in there, run, play, go to the bathroom, whatever?"

"Yep," he said. "Open to all dogs."

"Cool. Where's the rest room for people?" I asked.

"There isn't one," he said. "There's Porta Potties at the other end of the park."

Read More:

City goes to the dogs as Little Bay Park finishes pristine dog run, with no bathrooms for people New York Daily News - October 26th 2010 - Denis Hamill