PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — After eight years of planning and building, the dog run and playground in Logan Square is now open.
The space at 21st and Winter streets, near the Parkway, includes two fenced-in areas — one for smaller dogs and the other for larger ones — plus doggie-sized water fountains.
It got the stamp of approval from 2-year-old Boston terrier Mila, who has quite the social media following. Her owner, Miguel Martinez, is glad the park opened close to home.
“She’ll be jumping on my head and doing all of these crazy things,” he said, so a place to get our energy is key. “I just post photos and videos. People think she’s cute and crazy.”
Ann O’Toole brought her a pit-pointer mix to the park.
“Being in the city sometimes, they just want to run and be free. You can’t really do that with the street and cars and everything,” she said, “so it’s nice to have a space for them to get their energy out.”
Across the street near The Franklin Institute is the Winter Street Greenway playground. Bonnie Currie and her 3-year-old son, Cooper, were having a blast.
“It’s another easy, accessible space for kids after school to come out and play and still be together despite COVID-19, and be outside and running around and getting the energy out,” she said.
The dog park is named after former Logan Square Neighborhood Association President Rob Stuart, who died 10 years ago.
“He always wanted to create more green space for dogs and children,” said Sarah Clark Stuart, association member and Rob’s wife, “and the neighborhood really pulled together and worked with me to make this happen — but with the assistance of all kinds of city agencies, state agencies and City Council.”