Dog park

Reason writer Katherine Mangu-Ward quotes President Obama making the following remark about dog parks in a March 2009 speech:

Now, no plan is perfect. And I can't stand here and promise you that not one single dollar will slip through the cracks. But what I can promise you is that we will do everything in our power to prevent that from happening, which is why we're building on the provisions in the Recovery Act to forbid the use of these funds to build things like dog parks.

Now, let me be clear. I don't have anything against dog parks. [Laughter] I intend to get a dog. [Laughter] What I do oppose is building them with funds from the Recovery Act, because that's not how we'll jumpstart job creation, and that's not how we'll put our economy on a firmer footing for the future.

She then produces the following picture of a dog park near her house:


I know exactly where that dog park is. It's a little over a 15 minute walk from my house. Something else I know is that plans for the renovation of the park predate the Obama Administration and the stimulus package, with the dog park given final approval in June 2008.

Sure, the stimulus money may be paying for it -- the Obama Administration had to look far and wide for "shovel ready" projects to fund -- but the park was slated to move ahead anyway. I imagine the DC government simply took the money allocated for this renovation and used it for something else.