More than 200 people showed up at a meeting to discuss renovations at Washington Square Park, in the heart of Greenwich Village, New York. Among the issues was where to move the park's two dog runs.

According to The Villager:

Yet, it was clear that the dog run members want the runs to remain centrally located in the park. Jim Fouratt, a member of the park's run for small dogs, called the idea of a run on the park's periphery, "a terrible idea." Other members echoed his comments, noting dogs might be startled by loud noises from car traffic on Washington Sq. S., that the dogs would be in greater danger of running into the street and that pedestrians stopping to look at the dogs playing in the run would congest the sidewalk.

It seemed The Villager pointed out the reason for moving the dog runs:

The current locations of the park's two dog runs are areas Parks envisions as lawns. Castro said Parks wants to have more movies and musical events on lawns on the park's west side and to offer "the ability to sit on these lawns at night and relax."

"We have an opportunity to do something special," he stressed. "George's plan is not a radical plan, as you can see."

The Villager went on to say that park planners want to move the dog runs to a spot near the New York University building, a place that gets constant shade:

"They're so full of it," said Janet Wolfman, 61, as she left the meeting. "It's a done deal. The thing is that that building that [New York University] put behind Judson Church has put the whole south side of the park into shadows. Now that's where they want the dog run to go. It's all done to accommodate N.Y.U. We fought for the dog run here. It took us 10 years."

Wolfman tends gardens around the edge of the dog run, but said those along the run's southern side no longer grow because they're now in perpetual shade from the new N.Y.U. School of Law building.

Maybe that's what it is. They can't grow anything there, so why not move all the dogs there?