Lincoln Conservation Land Off-Leash Dog Ban

One of the sad things about aging is that one’s fantasies shift from sex to real estate.  My personal suburban Boston fantasy has long been to move to Lincoln, Massachusetts and live in a house up against the conservation land where I can bike and cross-country ski with what seems to be a growing population of dogs.  People pay $2 million for the privilege of living in an environment free of Republicans, people of color (as the good liberals of Lincoln would call them), or generally anyone who can’t afford a 1-5 acre chunk of property a 20-minute drive from Harvard Square (and conveniently just five minutes from Hanscom Field where one can keep an airplane or helicopter).  One of the side benefits of being in a 100% rich community is that all of the dogs running around the conservation land are friendly to people and mostly quite playful with other dogs.  Because there is no white trash there are no white trash dogs, unlike trying to bike through the Lynn Woods, for example, where the first few hundred yards can be a gauntlet of Pit Bulls, Rottweilers, etc., all bristling for a fight with any newcomer.  The typical dog met in Lincoln, by contrast, is a tail-wagging Golden Retriever or Lab.


Paradise was lost during my trip to the South, however, and it seems that there are now signs around the Mt. Misery conservation land banning off-leash dogs.

16 thoughts on “Lincoln Conservation Land Off-Leash Dog Ban

  1. Howdy!

    My guess is that those new found fantasies of yours are not related to age. I’m older than you – and I don’t dream of real estate. It might have something to do with being in Boston. You might want to double check all your variables.

  2. Another factor you might want to check is on your stereotyping of dogs. Golden Retrievers and Labs actually bite more people per year than Pit Bulls or Rottwielers. Labs can actually be much meaner and more dangerous than the other two.

    You should go live in your rich neighborhood sheltered from the real world…

  3. Philip – You can thank dave Winer for the pointer. This is probably the most candid and personal blog post I’ve read this year… It reads like I get a window into someone’s mind.
    That honesty against all concerns for political correctness deserves some praise becuase I’ll wager you knew that you’d get a backlash. You touch on social classes, race, man’s best friend with opinions on their breeds, geographic distinctions and a host of value judegements in just 2 paragraphs. Something to offend almost everyone. Please keep it up… When I write the self-editing is
    down-right painful. When most of my favorite bloggers write the effort to appease is becoming disgusting. I want my thought patterns to be confronted… I want to think… to be compelled to react. And thanks for supporting comments. I’m coming back… keep it up.

  4. Either you have not been around enough dogs or you are incredibly naive or maybe your just atempting to be witty when you are merely exposing your ignorance. I have a Standard Poodle. He is not a white trash dog. He gets a $1000 in haircuts a year. He will growl and bite the tire off your passing bike if you are within leash range however. Fortunately he is also obedient so if I hear you and put him in a sit you will not be in danger.

  5. As the owner of a number of dogs in my time, and as the current owner of a pit bull mix, I can confidently say that common breed stereotypes about pit bulls stem primarily from ignorance and media sensationalism. Generalizing about pit bulls as violent, overly-aggressive, or “white trash” would be akin to saying that persons of color are generally criminals because the represent a disproportionate quantity of death row inmates. True, when pit bulls attack, the result is usually more severe. However, a well cared for pit bull is one of the most gentile, intelligent and well-behaved dogs one could possible own. Most violent and aggressive pit bulls are trained to be that way by their owners. That’s a bad owner, not a bad dog. Frankly, there isn’t any large dog breed that isn’t relatively easily trained to be mean and aggressive. It’s just happens that most people looking to raise a mean dog are looking for a dog that also looks the part, so you don’t end up with many standard poodle guard dogs, regardless of their potential effectiveness.

  6. The fact is off-leash dogs are banned pretty much everywhere. The more important question is how aggressively the ban is enforced. Take your creature up there once or twice in the evening or morning (when folks are out jogging and such) and talk to other folks with dogs. You’ll get a feel for how much interest the police take in enforcement.

    Here in Chicago, off-leash dogs are banned from all parks and beaches, but it’s never been a problem along the lakefront where we live (and there are prominent signs).

    If you figure they’ll cite you occasionally, budget for the tickets and see if it still makes sense to move there. Of course, if you end up with neighbors with strong aversions to dogs, you may be stuck in a leash-only area.

  7. Wow – I guess brilliance and ignorance are not mutually exclusive. As the owner of two Siberian Huskies who rollerblades through Central Park most days, I offer the following observation: Most dogs who cause trouble are unneutered males who are off leash. This has nothing to do w/the breed but shows irresponsibility on behalf of the owners. While not a big fan of Pit Bulls or Rotweilers, I’ve seen many females (mostly) that are the sweetest dogs imaginable.

  8. Hey, just for laughs, please rate my dog: Boston Terrier. (I promise not to take the whole thing too seriously).

  9. funny that everyone here is defending the characterization of dogs but not of people as white trash. probably says something about the demographics of the blogosphere, and even moreso harvard blogs.

  10. Cynthia,
    White Trash is more a state of mind than anything. It occurs when you realize that you are in a disadvantaged position and nobody is willing to invest in your future.

    This state of mind might occur when you get assigned a vocational job at a lacquer factory or when the ‘affordable’ daycare that you use resembles a biological weapon testing ground. The end results are despair, anger and drug abuse (crank woohoo).

    And by the way, the people, like their dogs, are generally intimidating and dangerous. It might seem unfair to label people as such, but after spending half of my life in their midst, I put as much distance between myself and White Trash as possible.

    Of course, the best thing about being White Trash is that it is possible to recognize the situation, get educated, clean up and head over to Harvard Square. As long as you trim the mullet and cover the tats, nobody can tell where you’ve been.

  11. I used to run through the woods off mount misery in high school (My mom owns the house you want….). I can’t tell you the number of times dogs run up to you and they wern’t always frendly. Leash laws are good IMHO.

  12. I suspect the leash ordinance went into effect in Lincoln Woods because one middle-aged, dog-fearing couple (whom I’ve met on a few occasions in the woods ranting about dogs not being on leashes to everyone within earshot — and that’s a wide earshot because they’re usually yelling)probably single-handedly lobbied hard for it with their considerable amounts of money and law office stationery. What do you expect from people who want to exclude themselves from the rest of society anyway? There are more than a few dog-haters in that group. My suggestion, Philip, is to carry on the tradition of civil disobedience that echoes through those woods in the lines of Emerson and Thoreau. Let your beast roam free, see if you get busted by that middle-aged couple of sticks in the mud, and be the first to fight the law in court with your considerable amounts of money and law office stationery… and your killer dog.

    AW

  13. Lincoln sounds a lot like Palo Alto, the house prices are similar but the lot sizes a bit smaller. We in PA do live a lot closer to Mexico/Central America and the American South than the denzens of Lincoln. East PA is about a quarter of a mile away the the east and Central America/Mexico is about 3 miles to the north adjacent to Atherton.

    The dog owners do winge a bit about not having a leash free dog play area but then again PA does not have a place for horses to run free either. San Mateo Co Parks do have a great free run park for dogs nearby.
    In the last two years a friend has been attacked twice by pit bulls while riding her horse. Broken neck and serious knee injury plus big time vet bills for the horse with the first attack. In the second attack she defended her self and horse so no damage was done. In the first case the owner was “white trash” but in the second the owner was a “BoBo”. I agree that the problem is the owners not the breed.
    The other danger out on our horse trails is the doctors and lawyers in spandex, otherwise known as bicyclists. Some trail riders have been thinking of carrying pepper spray. The biker problem seems to be localized as we are met with curtesy in other areas where we share trails with bicycles.
    Seems like the people posting above don’t know much about Philip and his dogs.

  14. Wow. And you wonder why so many people can’t wait for the day when Greenspun gets his comeuppance.

  15. Phillip,
    I’m living your dream, but, as you might expect, the grass is always greener on the other side. First of all, if you think you are escaping the dreaded Republicans by moving to Lincoln, you need to take a close look at the voter census, available for $10. at the town hall. The Lincoln of your fantasies disappeared about 10 years ago when the money came to town. Second, my Golden/Sheltie mix was mauled by the pit bull down the street and almost died. Finally, the first time I rode my bike down the trail at the end of my road, my Republican neighbor called the police and almost released the hounds on me.

    I too would love to live in the Lincoln of your fantasies.

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