Cary Going to the Dogs

Next fall, Cary will break ground on what will be our second dog park. Cost for the first phase is $3M. I haven't done research on where the land and funding came from for this project, probably some if it was concessed by a developer to get a project done.

I love dogs. Always had one growing up, and I can't resist the opportunity to pet a dog walking by or offering them a free sniff of the place of their choosing. My wife has a cat (appropriately named 'The Fink') which is no match for man's best friend. Cats are cats' best friend, every other human is secondary to them.

As a dog lover (in the platonic sense) I am qualified to offer an unbiased opinion regarding this investment. A sound opinion may be based on less-than-sound math, so here goes...

• Cary currently has 123,000 residents
• Assume an average family of 4, = 30,750 households
• Assume 15% of households have a dog, = 4,612 dogs

For the sake of argument, let's double the number and say there are 10,000 dogs in Cary. $3M for phase one equates to $300 per pup. My first question was why we would need a dog park at all. After much thought, I can only conclude that Cary's white-hot growth rate has resulted in a dire shortage of trees which dogs can use to pee against. Still, $3M seems like a lot of money to replace trees. Perhaps the park will feature a spa and fitness center? A small canine performing arts and aquatics center? A state of the art automated pooper scooper machine [kind of like the golf car that cruises the driving range picking up golf balls].


Alright, I'm going to have a Roger Hill moment here -- I call bullsh&t, er... dogsh&t. Cary has NEEDS and Cary has WANTS. This falls into the latter category. Some better uses of $3M...

• $3M buys a lot of asphalt to fill potholes.
• $25K of it would give Cary EMS what they need to continue their level of ambulance service. Dog parks are more important than ambulances???
• $3M would fund more police officers. We could add K-9 forces too.
• $3M would buy a lot of fire hydrants which are needed in all the new developments that have been built. The dogs could use them too.

I apologize to any dog owners I have offended, but I believe those same people would agree that there are more pressing needs in Cary.