Does the New Dog Park at 17th and S Streets, NW Stink? Literally.

IMG_2084, originally uploaded by Prince of Petworth.

The new dog park at 17th and S Streets, NW has only been open for a few weeks but I’ve already received a number of emails about it. I’m told that, perhaps due to the rain, the park can be smelled from a block away. I walked by Sunday afternoon to ask some pedestrians and folks in the park what they thought. Every single person I spoke to said the park did not smell particularly bad, with or without the rain. One woman in the park told me she lived half a block away and has never had a problem with the odor. For me, I’d say it did smell a bit of wet dog. But as someone else told me at the park – “it probably smelled of wet dog because there are tons of wet dogs in the park”. However the funniest comment came from someone who said, it doesn’t smell like wet dog, rather “it smells of dog shit near the entrances where the trash cans are filled with dog shit”. Ah, very good point. Indeed the entrance did have an overpowering smell of dog shit. But the question remains – can you smell the park from a block away? For those that live nearby – is the smell overwhelming? Do you think it has anything to do with the rain and/or artificial surface?