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.”
My proposal would be to get rid of the lawn bowling altogether as it is an anachronistic sport that very few people in Santa Ana are involved in. The people who come here to do lawn bowling are, for the most part, from out of town!
This area, as you can see in the pictures embedded in this post, is fenced in and it has benches to relax on. The lawn is also well maintained. It would be a perfect dog park! And the City would hardly have to spend any additional money to do this.
As an alternative, if our City Council for some reason wants to keep the lawn bowling activities, we can use the area as a dog park when the lawn bowling is not going on.
If we had a dog park in our city, we could advertise the services our city provides with regard to dog licenses, vaccinations, etc., right there at the dog park!
What do you think?
Click here to contact Santa Ana Parks and Recreation Director Gerardo Mouet. Click here to contact the Santa Ana City Council. Click here to contact Councilman Carlos Bustamante, who represents the Santiago Park area. You can contact City Manager Dave Ream’s assistant, Mark Lawrence, at MLawrence@santa-ana.org.
Click here for a list of dog parks in Orange County.
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Admin,
I lawn bowl and believe it or not I am not a senior. I have young teen-age kids who like to bowl. They invite friends to bowl with them and their friends enjoy the sport too. I encourage you to go out one day and roll some bowls. Use the space for what it is intended for and meet some of the amazing people on the greens. At this point your lack of respect for the 'unknown' really makes you sound ignorant. I do not believe that was your intention when you started the project of looking for space for a dog park, but it seems you are a little too close to the project now and are taking things personally. I admire what you are trying to achieve for our little (and big) four-legged friends just take it somewhere else. When you visit the club ask about the lawn, how it is maintained, how old it is, what is the grass that is used for bowling, etc. You will have a whole new light on the sport and realize it is a great asset in Santa Ana.
M Yahn,
Do you live in Santa Ana? Do any of you lawn bowlers live in town?
The answer? Most likely NO.
This proposal has already reached our City Manager. I have two Council Members looking at it. I will be presenting this to the Parks and Rec Commission soon.
The train has left the station...
Budding uninformed so-called community organizer's, such as your self, really should do a better job of researching the Santa Ana Lawn Bowling Greens and Club. Obviously your knowledge of Greens usage comes only from the sign which only indicates regular organized bowling times. Not shown are the individual pick-up games, sub group games, the widely usesd open individual practice time, and the many League and tournament dates scheduled through out the year. The Greens and Club are way more active than what you and other cited City employees have indicated. I doubt that the general appeal to dog owners will be very significant,given the out of the way location. Further, would the dog owners be will to pay for the maintenance upkeep as the Lawn Bowlers currently do. Slow down Ace.
JMac,
I walk by there all the time. I never see your lawn bowlers there except on the dates listed on the sign on the fence.
Next time I'm there I will bring my camera so my readers can see that you folks are NOT from Santa Ana.
You doubt the appeal of dog parks? Then you have no clue. Tomorrow I am visiting a few dog parks and I will be posting the pictures here and submitting them to the City Council.
As I noted in a previous comment, you folks have plenty of lawn bowling centers to go to. You don't need to be taking up space in my town.
Slow down? I don't think so. If anything this is going to move very quickly. Enjoy the greens while you can. Soon they will be going to the dogs - literally!
This is ridiculous. Obviously, you are suggesting that lawn bowling disappear because there is no way these people could maintain the lawn if dogs were playing on it when they weren't there. The lawn bowlers are a great group of people and they really enjoy their sport. My home backs to the lawn bowling center and I have enjoyed watching them from time to time. My husband and I wouldn't mind giving it a try when our kids get a little bigger. In other countries lawn bowling is a young person's sport and it is very popular. My biggest problem with this whole proposal is that Santiago Park is huge and it wouldn't be difficult to carve out a location for a dog park somewhere else in the park as another suggested. Remember, dogs also like trees, a open green is not exactly prime for a dog park. It would be nice to have a dog park and Santiago Park would be a great location but not the lawn bowling center. BTW, the French Park idea is terrible, that "park" is postage stamp size and surrounded by busy streets with lots of apartments, the first dog killed in the street would lead to a lawsuit if the city designated it a "dog park".
Tmare,
I am not amused that our civic dollars are paying to entertain folks who don't live in Santa Ana.
I will be submitting my full report to our City Manager and City Council on Monday.
It is time for the British to finally leave India.
The lawn bowling greens have been there since 1938. Up to this year they have been fully maintained by the members of the club. The club is currently paying the city each month for partial maintenance of the greens using equipment owned by the club. In addition to the published times the greens are used numerous times throughout the year for tournaments with other clubs. This September the U.S. Lawn Bowling Nationals will be held at several Orange county bowling clubs including Santa Ana. International lawn bowlers will be participating. The club provides free bowling lessons to anyone interested. Why can't the large K9 training area which is already fenced be shared with the police department?
Turning this worthless, albeit very lovely, piece of ground into a dog park sounds like a capital idea. Except in today's world I think a "dog only" park would be somewhat discriminatory. All pets, as well as their owners should be permitted to use the facility. If other pets are allowed I will give this proposition my heartfelt support. I have a very nice pet alligator who needs a nice green lawn on which to relax. And, he is very fond of dogs and other small mammals. Let's do it. Get your petition in and/or call the city manager. What do you say Art...are you with us?
E. Gantry,
Here is my response to your query:
http://newsantaana.com/2010/02/21/is-lawn-bowling-still-relevant-to-the-people-of-santa-ana/
Why would you consider turning a beautiful, historic, bowling green in Santa Ana into a dog park? I understand the need for facilities for dogs to run and play but there is quite an extensive list of dog parks in Orange County as compared to only five lawn bowling clubs. If bowlers have to come from other towns in order to be able to enjoy their sport why can't dog owners take their dogs to dog parks in other towns? The dog parks in Costa Mesa, Irvine and Orange are only a few minutes away from Santa Ana, but surely there must be a suitable location in Santa Ana to turn into a dog park without destroying the greens of Santa Ana Lawn Bowling Club.