An interesting face off is developing in a Vancouver public park. The issue boils down to going easy on Rover’s paws or going easy on wheelchair users.
It seems that Vision Park in Vancouver had certain areas where doggies could do their doo covered with pea gravel to cushion the paws of canines while they were doing what they do. This accommodation seemed to please pawed facility users but left wheelchair users who walk their dogs there at a loss. A loss of access anyway.
It appears that loose pea gravel does not rank up there on surfaces that are easy for a manual wheelchair, powered wheelchair, or mobility scooter to negotiate. It’s probably not a first choice surface for people who use canes, walkers, and rollators either.
To top off the problem, park officials had yet another layer of pea gravel added to the existing pile. Cheryl Caves, a wheelchair user, and a number of other wheelchair users are now at loss. While their pet dogs are enjoying a comfortized dump, the wheelchair using dog owners can not even get into the area to manage their dogs or take care of the obligatory poo scooping.
Caves voiced her complaints to Vision Park board commissioner Aaron Jasper. Jasper said he asked staff about a week ago to inspect the park, and he responded with these prophetic words:
“Now that the gravel has been laid down, what do you do?” he said. “You can’t just necessarily go in there with shovels and scoop it up.”
It seems that both dog walkers and park officials share some common ground- Scooping. He also said that a packed path through the park sounded like a good idea.
Read the story at The Vancouver Courier.
