Wouldn’t the Santa Ana Lawn Bowling Center make a nice Dog Park?
Did you know that the City of Santa Ana has no dog parks? I called today and spoke with a lady at the City of Santa Ana’s dog license department. She was very helpful!
She said that we have 11,835 dogs currently licensed in our city. And she figures there might be even more dogs that are currently unlicensed. While I have questioned the cost of our licenses in the past, they do accomplish a couple of positive goals, in that they help to assure that dogs are properly vaccinated – and that they are fixed.
The lady at the dog license department also told me that the only dog park in the area is in Costa Mesa – and they don’t like it when out of town residents bring their dogs to their park, as it is hard to corroborate that the dogs are fixed and vaccinated.
I have an idea for a dog park, in Santa Ana, at NO COST to our city! The Lawn Bowling center, at Santiago Park, is only used four times a week. Gerardo Mouet, the Santa Ana Parks and Recreation Director, verified this today in an email I received. “The Lawn Bowlers practice on the bowling area on Tuesdays and Thursdays and play on the weekends.”
Click here to read the rest of this post.
Great idea Art but I suggest the following Santa Ana park conversions to dog parks:
1)Cesar Chavez Park
2) Santa Anita Park
3)Jerome Park
4) Delhi Park
5) El Salvador Park
6) Logan Park
and perhaps French Park (for small dogs only)
5) Logan
We need more people parks before we need dog parks.
And the lawn bowling center is a unique asset…it would be unfortunate to lose it.
#2,
Agreed – the problem is that every other use I can think of involves mucho dinero, which we don’t have. The dog park idea would fit the space and cost us nothing to implement. And if enough people care about the lawn bowling, we could use the area as a dog park when they are not lawn bowling.
Frankly, I don’t think residents are doing the lawn bowling – and if indeed the lawn bowlers are not from Santa Ana, then why are we providing this service to them?
Art. Let me offer an alternative. Lobby for access to our future dog park. We are in process of creating a dog park in Mission Viejo. To set the stage of our award winning city projects, of which this will surely be included, let’s begin with our million dollar plus sidewalk along the lake at Alicia and Marguerite Parkway followed by our $480,000, or thereabouts, outhouse in Melinda Park which leads me to the proposed $1.7 million dollar dog park.
Mission Viejo is a great humanitarian city that goes to no limits when engaging in CIP’s open to everyone.
We boast of opening our library to anyone living in CA yet former Mayor Sharon Cody wants to exclude “out of town” dogs from this playground for our four legged friends. I guess all 10,000 or so dog owners will need to insert their credit card into an access gate and slam it behind us so that others are blocked.
We never said that we are consistent in our city policies.
If we begin this CIP at $1.7 million I can’t wait to see the final cost.
I like the concept Art but don’t put it on the West Side of Santa Ana. Too close to Little Saigon and one man’s Dog Park is another man’s BBQ!
Who would pay for the cost to repair the lawnbowling field after the dogs tear it up?
If you want a dog park, propose joint use of the police dog park that is located across the river, behinf the long slides.
cook,
Dogs don’t just randomly tear up lawns if their owners are there to keep an eye on them.
Would you rather not use the area at all – which is currently the case most of the time?
The joint use idea isn’t bad, but that is quite a ways from Santiago Park’s main area.
Bottom line – I don’t think the lawn bowlers even live here – so why are we paying to service their personal playground? Why not get rid of the lawn bowling and just make this a dog park?
Here is something to ponder – how many of our residents will use the dog park versus how many are actually lawn bowling?
Me So Hungry,
Hilarious comment – LOL!
Junior says: “Hilarious comment – LOL!” in response to “Too close to Little Saigon and one man’s Dog Park is another man’s BBQ!”
A homophobe and a racist, why am I not surprised?
I guess Vietnamese must not buy sheet metal.
I like the idea admin.
Let’s let pit bulls roam the area where all those perverts roam and we’ll scare the crap out of those crap dwellers.
Why would we care that this lawn bowling center draws people from outside Santa Ana? Given the reluctance many people have to visiting, I would think drawing people from other cities would be cause for celebration.
I hope the dogs are packing some heat and i don’t mean poo!
🙂
OMG.. Your one park is full of weirdos and gangs … the only dog park in Santa Ana should be used by the police dogs!
Art, your the one who is hilarious!
The lawn bowling is from a by gone era, But I have seen people use it and I expect that their club dues and fees pay for that area and the club house. The K-9 training park is not that far, about 400 yards.
What do you think about the group campground being cancelled? What a disappointment.
#11,
In a city as strapped for cash as Santa Ana, should we really be paying to entertain old fogies from Leisure World? I don’t think so.
We have over eleven thousand licensed dogs in town. Do we even have five lawn bowlers? I doubt it.
cook,
Disappointing indeed. Here is an update from Gerardo Mouet, that I received today:
The Nature Center still has the temporary fence in order to protect the natural landscape that was seeded. Native plants in this area will help the naturalist program continue to teach the public about these important resources. The Center has been programmed since its opening and is the staging center and education/training location for all the activities that are conducted throughout Santiago Park and Nature Reserve. The Center is used as a meeting and greeting point for groups and individuals and is where the learning experience starts and ends for each group.
Most of the current programming being offered at the Center is being funded by a Habitat Conservation Grant we obtained. The programming is divided into self-guided tours with staff providing the tools for these tours, wilderness education programs for elementary school groups, and wilderness education programs for middle and high school groups. Aside from local schools, other groups that are participating in these programs are youth form the City’s Recreation Centers, families from the City’s Family PRIDE Clubs, Cub Scouts groups, Cambodian Family, Boys and Girls Club of Santa Ana, Salvation Army Recreation Center, Santa Ana Police Athletics and Activity League, and general members of the public.
The Center is also used as the staging and educational/training areas for the monthly Creek Clean Ups. Many groups, such as Chapman University students, high school students, Latino Health Access, Temple B’nai Israel, and Park Santiago Residents take part in these creek cleanup efforts.
I’m with Arturo on this one! Everything done in Santa Ana is for old people and white people and our city is now young and brown mostly. How many people in Santa Ana really play tennis verses the number who play Soccer? Who goes to Bowers museum to see Asian art? Not my gente. Who shops at Nordstroms? Not mi familia. Who visits that old falling down House of Waffle by the old Courthouse? Not my hermanos. Who plays golf in this ciudad? Not mi padre. We need more soccer fields and we need more schools and we need more cheap housing. Anyone who does not agree with my post I can tell you right now is a Racist.
When I was a little girl (ages ago)it was called Birch Park? I remember my dad taking us to that park. We used to watch the elderly play shuffle board, boccie ball, and lawn bowling. There was a tree that was broken and we used to sit in it because it looked like a throne and role play. After taking a drive past the little princess house. She used to ride in this little coach with a white pony. The park has out grown it use as a senior center and the little doggies could use a nice area to run in.
They could put a staging area at spurgeon school next to the river, or put a nature center where they want to build the soccer field. It would do the kids good in this area to be involved with nature and something constructive. Having some non profits in the area to nurture kids in stead of Bow Wows no 1.
Anyone who does not agree with my post I can tell you right now is a Racist.
Ok i agree you are a racist.. I play FOOTBALL .. we as Mexicans and Irish people call it FOOTBALL!
My children play football and celic football.. i don’t play tennis and i dont visit old run down houses and my husband does not play golf!
Wise up maybe you need more white people who play football in Santa Ana who would not be intimidated by Mexican gang members and perverts who seam to rule your park!
And if you don’t agree with me, thats becauee your well a racist.. by the way i am white but i am not old!
Art: “Michele” says
“by the way i am white but i am not old!”
Maybe she is a young white man or maybe an old black woman…who would really know? You ever met “Michele” Art?
No he has not, he does not need to meet me. I don’t need to pretend who i am .. I am just me!
I think i have ruled out all the possibilites: old white man.. NO.. Young white man..NO… Latina.. Black… No
woman…Yes … White…Yes young… Between.. Is this silly…YES…
Who the hell cares!
There are plenty of possible locations in Santa Ana that are much more central to the general population than Santiago Park. Santiago Park is almost more a part of Orange than it is Santa Ana. Most people would have to trek their dogs in their cars to a very inconvenient location on the outskirts of town. Why not a dog park closer to downtown; or at least someplace between Bristol and Grand, McFadden and 17th? That way you can actually walk your dog to the park; that is what it’s meant for, outside exercise for your pet.
Many of the dogs I have seen in Santa Ana are Pit Bulls. Pit Bulls are terriers, and in my experience being a former pit bull owner, terriers like to dig– A LOT! Those lawns in Santiago park are beautiful, peaceful, and meticulously cared for, regardless of how often they are used. The grass is immaculate and as level as any parking lot concrete. The chances of those resources being compromised is extremely high.
Lawn Bowling is considered a retirement sport in this country. However, it is widely played all over the world by people of all ages. Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans played this sport. This is one of the few outdoor sports that elderly people can be just as competitive as younger. Why would anyone want to destroy the love and joy someone’s grandmother or grandfather has in the twilight of their life? Just remember, one day you too will be an old man or woman, so the respect you have for them speaks volumes about the way you can expect to be treated in return.
Lastly, if for instance you moved to a place that had one soccer field or tennis court or baseball field, and these places were threatened because you and a few other people were the only ones using them while everyone else was playing football and basketball. You would raise hell. You’re young enough to have the energy.