Wow Mr. Wirth. Where do I even begin to confront your sense of entitlement. Let's begin with your comment, "Dog owners proposing to take already diminishing kid-friendly square footage away from JP’s children to appease their own guilt of keeping a latch-key dog is not an answer. Such an idea is also, honestly, inhumane." (1) "Already diminishing kid-friendly square footage". How so? Please explain. Name one, just one kid-friendly space that has been taken away? On the contrary Mr. Wirth, as a long time JP resident I have seen playground after playground after playground, many within a few minutes walk of one another along the Southwest Corridor park, rehabbed so as to be kid-friendly. All of this done at taxpayer expense. But what happens when a dog park is proposed? The first thing is that for a dog park to be approved the dog owners must support the cost. What is fair about that? Dog owners pay taxes too, and those of us without children have supported the cost of the many playground rehabs to no benefit to us, and have done so without complaint. So listening to you whine and rant about your kids and how unfair this is to them is rather frustrating. (2) Your opinion about your dog's life vs. a city's dog life is just that, an opinion, and a pretty uninformed one in that. Mainly, your notion that dogs these days still are allowed to roam free outdoors in the suburbs or rural areas is antiquated and outdated. You should know that. Secondly, it is not inhumane to have a dog in the city if the dogs are walked regularly (as little as two times a day for most dogs). Most city dogs I know, by the way, are happier than their suburban/rural counterparts because by being walked to the park, for example, they are generally given more opportunity to interact and socialize with other dogs which appeals to their pack nature. Furthermore, the fact is that many people (the elderly and single people without children, etc.) rely on dogs for companionship and to get them out of the house, and the benefits of human/canine companionship are well documented. The vast majority of dog owners want their dogs to be happy which means that the dogs have at least some amount of exercise every day. It is not too much to ask for one large dog park where dogs can run free and socialize with other dogs or better yet, to have off leash hours in certain under-utilized areas of a park like some areas of Franklin Park (even Central Park in NYC has such off leash hours). Finally, Mr. Wirth, I guess the irony of your rant is lost on you. I could make the very same argument about your desire to raise kids in the city and the downside for them that you make about dogs- poorer schools Mr. Wirth, less green space and woods to run around in (like I did growing up in the suburbs), no place to ride a bike safely, higher crime and traffic and dangerousness in general. Shame on you Mr. Wirth for not raising your children out in the suburbs so that they could enjoy those benefits. I suppose you chose to stay in the city so that you could have a shorter working commute and could walk to all our wonderful restaurants and shops? Perhaps you, and not the dog owners, are the one who should be feeling guilty.