Minnehaha off-leash dog park in Minneapolis will close by the end of the year
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The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board voted 8-1 on Wednesday night to close an off-leash dog park along the Mississippi River at Minnehaha Regional Park.
The off-leash area will close by the end of the year.
Park officials said that after discussion and interviews with Indigenous historians, they determined the dog park is located within Mni Owe Sni, a Dakota sacred area listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Several dozen people spoke for and against the closure at Wednesday’s meeting. Supporters of the proposal, including Indigenous community member Migizi Spears, said it was a necessary step to end ongoing harm in the community.
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“We need our sacred sites respected out there,” Spears said.
Minneapolis resident Ori Wasserburg said that while the dog park will be missed, “I am more than willing to drive a bit further.”
“While my 10 years at the dog park feels meaningful, it’s nothing compared to the thousands of years of connection and culture that the Dakota community have to this land,” Wasserburg said.
Opponents of the closure said the Minnehaha site is the only park in the city where dogs can be off-leash and have access to water.
“The lakes aren’t an option because of the seasonal algae blooms. There isn’t any readily available land with river access in the city to turn into an alternative dog park. Minnehaha is all that we have,” Minneapolis resident Jody Wynen said.
“There is no other space that you can find that people can actively take their dogs to and run around like they can here. The running water is important,” said resident John McCarten.
Park Board President Tom Olsen, who voted for the closure, said that while dogs won't be allowed off-leash beyond the end of this year, that area of the park will remain open to visitors. Dogs will be allowed if they’re on a leash.
“We will still be able to go and walk along the land and walk up to that river and that beautiful sand and find mussel shells in the beach, and we will be able to connect with it in a very similar way that you all have in the last 30 years,” Olsen said at the meeting.
Park Commissioner Jason Garcia sponsored the resolution to decommission the off-leash dog park. Garcia told MPR’s Morning Edition that the Park Board will look for locations for a new off-leash area in the city.
“We have a lot of different options,” Garcia said. “A part of what the resolution that we took up (Wednesday) night did was instruct staff to begin those investigations of where we could site an alternate dog park.”
Chandra Colvin covers Native American communities in Minnesota for MPR News via Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.
