Update: I thought the new dog park in Riverside was a waste of money until I went there

I drove past that big new dog park for months thinking it was just a fancy patch of grass. I finally took my own dog there last Tuesday and saw something that changed my mind. There were about 15 people there, and every single one was actually talking to each other, not just staring at their phones. I heard a guy tell his friend, 'This is the only place my anxious dog will play.' It made me realize the park isn't about the space, it's about building a real community spot for owners who feel isolated. Has anyone else found a place that surprised them by being way more useful than it looked?

3 comments

3 Comments

claire_bell7d ago

Fifteen people all talking and not one phone in sight? That's wild. I've been to that park three times and it's always just people standing in separate corners. You must have found the one magic hour where everyone decided to be social.

susana6611d ago

Sounds nice but maybe you just caught it on a good day. I've seen plenty of people at parks still glued to their phones. Calling it a community spot feels like a stretch for a fenced-in area with some benches. It's a dog park, not a town hall meeting.

lee.stella11d ago

Honestly I read this thing about how even small shared spaces can build social ties. Like just seeing the same faces every week matters.