Nate's Point Dog Park

New Maintenance Schedule: Closed Wednesday Mornings

2009-08-31T21:22:00.000-07:00

The dog park will now be closed Wednesday mornings for maintenance. This weekly closure is necessary for the safety of the Park maintenance crews and dog park patrons - mowers and dogs just don't mix. The crews expect to be done before noon and will open the park whenever they finish, but it may be closed all morning depending on what issues they have that day, such as any irrigation problems. The gates should be clearly marked when the park is closed, so please respect these important maintenance windows.

Kiosk On the Way - Donations Helpful

2009-08-02T15:15:00.000-07:00

Eagle Scout Peter Zeller, from Troop 4 La Jolla, will be building our kiosk in the next couple months. We'll be covering the materials, about $800, so donations are welcome!

Information Kiosk Update

2009-02-25T15:48:00.000-08:00

Good news! Parks and Rec has informed us that the information kiosk project is already scheduled as an Eagle Scout project, probably in the summer. A couple of items we're suggesting:

Actually putting the kiosk in the park, so that it is more visible and can easily be referred to, particularly for Rules and Etiquette.
Perhaps creating a larger structure that may provide shade or otherwise in addition to just the message board.

If you'd like to help out with this project, please let us know and we'll put you in touch with Parks and Rec or the selected Eagle Scout.

Poop Bag Update

2009-02-25T15:45:00.000-08:00

Parks and Rec is going to try to get the dispensers restocked on Fridays, and perhaps add a few more dispensers to help alleviate the outages. Currently the costs of the bags are being covered from within City funds, but that may change in the future. Donations or sponsorships are always welcome.

Community Meeting Update

2009-02-14T16:27:00.000-08:00

Thanks to everybody that attended our January 2009 Nate's Point Meeting! For those that missed it, here's a summary of the discussion:

Information Kiosk
Many other dog parks and recreational areas have message boards, but not ours. Unfortunately, general public postings are not allowed on Balboa Park information boards, only "official" postings handled through Parks and Rec. Suggestions of info that could be posted:

Clean up after your dog!
Contact Phone Numbers (police, animal control)
Dog Park Rules and Etiquette
Meeting or Event Announcements

Small Dog Area, Turf Management, and Park Design
A primary discussion item is how to manage the park from a small dog and turf management standpoint. There are many elements to consider, and people on all sides of the issue. The group at the meeting had a good discussion with a lot of ideas and input, with representation from many constituencies. The goal is to find a plan that serves everybody as best we can, taking into account usability, aesthetics, maintenance requirements, disabled access, and safety.

Our next step is to put together an advisory committee with a few willing volunteers to help reach out to our dog park community and come up with good plans for solving these issues, including design and funding options. If you're interested in volunteering in some capacity, please contact us.

General Issues
These general items are being discussed with Parks and Rec, updates will follow.

Bag dispensers are often empty by the end of the weekend
Speeding cars on Balboa Drive
Dog drinking fountain is not draining very well
The rear gate fence needs some fixing to help contain the small dogs
Access during or shortly after events is tough, particularly for disabled

Working with Other Groups
The track club would like to make it easier to hold running events in Balboa Park, in addition to helping regular daily joggers where possible. In the forthcoming planning, process we'll take the running group into account. In the meantime, we'll look at temporary fencing solutions to help make their events safe for dogs and runners.

We're looking forward to working with the community and continuing to improve and support our dog park! Thanks again.

NPDog News

Community Meeting Announcement

2008-12-27T15:23:00.000-08:00

Nate's Point Dog Park
Community Meeting

Thursday, January 29th
6:30pm – 8:30pm
Balboa Park Club – Santa Fe Room

Discussion Topics:

Nate’s Point Advisory Committee
Small Dog Area
Turf Management
Lighting
Budget for Improvements

Please RSVP. And feel free to cross-post!

More Information:

We Need Some New Pictures!

2008-12-27T15:19:00.001-08:00

We'd love to have some new pictures of our Park. If you have any good ones, please send them to info@npdog.org.

FeedBurner Feeds now Available

2008-10-21T16:36:00.001-07:00

You can now subscribe to Nate's Point updates via FeedBurner in your favorite reader or via e-mail. See the links to the right.

Vote for Nate's in Best of San Diego!

2008-10-03T19:25:00.000-07:00

Our dog park is up for the best dog park at SignOnSanDiego.com. Cast your vote!

http://bestof.signonsandiego.com/2008/vote/best-dog-parkbeach/

Small Dog Area Update

2008-09-18T17:20:00.000-07:00

We met with the City staff today to start looking at options. They are going to put together some design plans that we can use as a basis for discussion and to determine the official NPDog proposal and level of support available.

The items we are trying to solve are:

Small Dog Safety
Turf Management
Possible Lighting Options

If any dog park members are willing to get involved on a design review committee, please post or e-mail info@npdog.org.

UT JustFixIt Article

2008-09-17T08:10:00.000-07:00

Another nice article about our dog park in the UT's Just Fix It column. Thanks to Peter Blasik for working to keep this project moving forward.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/justfixit/20080917-9999-lz1m17fixit.html

If the small dog area is important to you, please consider donating so that can we pay for this project (we're sure it won't be cheap). We're also investigating adding lighting options to the design.

Small Dog Area Fencing

2008-09-16T17:17:00.000-07:00

Meeting with the City this week, they say they have design plans. More updates coming soon...

Who is 'Nate'?

2008-09-15T21:23:00.001-07:00

Nate Wells was a long-time City employee who "took an ugly pile of dirt and weeds and transformed it, working on his own time." For more about Nate, read this article (PDF) from the July 2001 Union-Tribune.

About the Park

2008-09-15T20:55:00.000-07:00

The Nate's Point Dog Off-Leash Area is located on the West Mesa of Balboa Park, immediately south of El Prado / Laurel Street and east of Balboa Drive. The off-leash area is approximately 2.3 acres in size, and has been used as a dog park since 1996. This off-leash park is one of the most popular dog parks in the San Diego region', and is used every day of the year.

Map to the Park

2008-09-15T20:44:00.000-07:00

The Nate's Point Dog Off-Leash Area is located on the West Mesa of Balboa Park, immediately south of El Prado / Laurel Street and east of Balboa Drive.

View Larger Map

Welcome!

2008-09-15T20:08:00.000-07:00

Thanks for checking out the new Nate's Point Off-Leash Dog Park blog. We'll be posting updates here.

Improvement Plan

2008-09-15T17:23:00.000-07:00

Current Upgrade Status:

New Drinking Fountain - Complete!
New Picnic Table - Complete!
Complete Perimeter Fencing - Complete!
Double-Entry Access Gate - Complete!
Disabled-Compliant Walkway - Partially Complete
Disabled-Compliant Parking
Small Dog Area - Planning
Turf Management - Planning
Lighting for Evening Use

Donate today!

Park Staff Dog Bite!

2008-02-06T17:27:00.000-08:00

We heard from Park Staff that one of them was bit last week, when they
were doing their regular maintenance at our Nate's Point. While they
were apparently using a leaf-blower at the time, which admittedly may
be confused with a vaccuum, it was still an unfortunate incident.
Thankfully it was not a bad bite.

Please remember to keep your dogs under control when the maintenance
staff are at work. And thank them on occasion - the staff does a good
job keeping our park nice with very limited resources!

Thanks.

Balboa Park/Morley Field Recreation Council Liason

2008-02-04T17:28:00.000-08:00

The Balboa Park/Morley Field Recreation Council now includes the
Balboa Park dog parks under its governance. Nate's Point could use a
representative to attend these meetings on our behalf, which are only
once every two months in the evening.

If there is somebody on this list that already attends, or anybody
that is interested, please post or contact us.

Double-Entry Gate

2007-12-21T17:30:00.000-08:00

Our gate is installed! The UT's Just Fix It also wrote a follow up
piece:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/justfixit/20071219-9999-lz1m19fixi...

If anybody can make a year-end tax-deductible donation to support this
cost, please donate online or send a check.

Happy Holidays! Looking forward to some great holiday sweaters... If
anybody ends up with a good picture (and your dog doesn't look
tortured to be dressed up), send it over and we'll post it.

Double-Entry Gate

2007-11-28T17:29:00.000-08:00

The UT's Just Fix It wrote about our gate problem and solution:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20071128/news_1m28fixit.html

Does anybody know Lisa Chernow and Emily?

Double-Entry Gate

2007-11-27T17:28:00.000-08:00

One of the remaining safety improvements was to upgrade the main entry
gate to be a double-entry area to avoid dogs sneaking out of the open
gate - a standard at many dog parks. This project has been approved
and will be moving forward very soon!

However, due to disabled access and other various requirements, this
is unfortunately a $2,600 effort. If you would like to donate to help
fund this project, now would be a great time to make a tax-deductible
contribution!

Lighting is still being discussed, but of course won't be cheap.
Although we are looking at a solar-powered option.

Nice Dog Park Article

2007-11-13T17:31:00.000-08:00

http://dogblog.dogster.com/2007/11/08/dog-parks-fill-social-niche/

Update: We've found a local provider of solar-powered lights, and
we're asking the City for approval to install them in our dog park.
http://www.solarpowergetics.com/

Turf Management

2007-10-20T17:32:00.000-07:00

We're discussing turf management ideas with Parks and Rec now that we
are getting so much more use (and even more if we get the lights
in!). Any ideas?

UT Article

2007-08-21T17:32:00.000-07:00

In case you missed it, Jeanette Steele at the UT wrote up a nice
article about our improvement project:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20070820-9999-1m20balboa.html

This article also got a mention in Scott Lewis' blog on VoSD:
http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/opinion/slop/

We hope everybody is enjoying the summer in the park!