The mayor of West Hollywood is objecting to new plans to renovate its central park, claiming that the new design pays too much attention to children and not enough to dogs.
Mayor John D’Amico says that having a wonderful park with three play areas for children but no area for the dogs to run free is “sort of institutionalized fetishization of kids.” West Hollywood is known as the “Creative City,” and boasts that more than one-third of its population identifies as LGBT. The Los Angeles Times reports that the city has only 1100 children age 14 or under out of a population of over 34,000.
The new park, which includes two rooftop swimming pools, a $3-million “grand staircase,” and a landscaped rooftop “respite deck,” is set to entertain the adults in the city. Based on the residents’ high regard for dogs, the park makeover will have to reevaluate the facility to make it more man’s-best-friend friendly. The city has 1,000 licensed dogs, which leads one to believe the overall amount of dogs would exceed the population of children.
The Times reported that West Hollywood loves its dogs so much that it officially designates the humans who live with them as “guardians,” not owners. Mayor John D’Amico is the proud guardian to two dogs, Cody and Decker.