On Community Building and Dog Pee

We are best when we realize we can not escape each other.

Inspired by the questions raised in Leo’s recent OTGC Lodging.

In the early 2000s, an entirely new neighborhood rose up in Portland Oregon. Property had become valuable enough that an industrial brownfield was remediated to be acceptable to sustain human life. Earthquake-resistant high-rise luxury condos grew up along the river. It was dense, newfangled, and seemingly a sign of the direction Portland was growing.

Of course some land was set aside for parks, and some money was spent on public art. In addition, there were some “community building” events early on, I believe through some sort of grant money.

I lived in an adjacent neighborhood and was not directly involved. Even if I was invited, I doubt I would have got out of bed for whatever extended team-building good-feeling projects was a part of such a building of community. I recall seeing a news article with people holding hands in a circle. They left behind some semi permanent collaborative art projects in the newly minted common spaces of the neighborhood.

Neither of these sound like community to me. I appreciate that the effort was made, I suppose. I think some folks felt pretty good about it.

Shortly after people started moving in, another community activity arose, drifting along the lawns and walkways.

It was the smell of pee. A high proportion of these luxury apartment dwellers have dogs. Quite naturally, they walk these dogs in the few acres of park near to them. For dogs whose people need to get to work, you can imagine that the person wanting the dog to relieve itself as close to their front entry as possible.  These two parks saw a lot of purpose-driven paw traffic.

A few strategic rocks had been architected into the park. These rocks took a daily dousing from the many dogs of the apartments.

Soon, a distinct identifying trait of this new neighborhood was the smell of stale dog pee.

When the problem first became apparent, it fell upon some maintenance person to try washing the rocks. This had little effect, and when I walked along the scenic and landscaped common space along the river, I smelled the growing problem. It seems that the selected ornate rocks had a porous property that allowed them to retain urine and resist the washing. On warm days, the baked in urine smell grew strong and stretched far.

What a good fortune for this new community. You couldn't write up a better community-building opportunity. I don't know what happened over time to the rocks and the overall scent landscape of the Portland South Waterfront (if you do, comment!) but I am hopeful that folks went from anger & frustration to some understanding.

People love their dogs, and dogs gotta pee. Community needs to figure that out as much as it needs to figure out how to deal with stench. This is real collaboration with real implications.

This particular neighborhood has, along with this awkward experience, a lot of wealth and experience dealing with power organizations. For instance, I was once in a series of meetings with residents who were advocating to keep the city from removing an osprey nest stand that was within view of their windows. The stand had no conservation purpose. It needed to be removed to extend a river walkway that benefits everyone in the city.

The residents demanded the appearance of city staffers to their meetings to explain why the stand was to be removed. They started a campaign to contact city councilors. They coordinated with the local businesses. They forced delays and additional studies at taxpayer expense so they could continue to look down on an osprey nest from their window.¹

It was a tiresome display of power. I do like to gripe about watching people who lack perspective of others needs, because it always irks me.²

I want to bring it up here to point out that if anyone could wield a cudgel to fix the stinky rock problem, it was this neighborhood. I hope that smelly concern was not ultimately solved with cudgeling. Perhaps (I suspect likely)  they started with an us-and-them feeling, but who doesn’t? Did they manage to come together, realizing that they could not completely submerge other people’s needs?

I hope that they did. I hope that there was not too much time spent blaming the landscape architect, the dog owner, or Fido himself.

I am suspicious of intentional community building. I like community when it is hard, when it develops slowly, when it contains knowledge of the member's quirks as well as their best intentions. I like a community that has members connected for 30 years who know how to tolerate each other to get along. I like the community that comes about when we realize that we can’t escape each other.

I was wisely counseled to include some positive images of community. That is a great idea, which I will work on for a later issue of OTGC.

1. https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2011/05/osprey_nest_moved_in_south_wat.html

http://www.mysouthwaterfront.com/2011/11/save-osprey-nest.html

https://djcoregon.com/news/2012/02/14/10m-waterfront-greenway-nears-construction-amid-budget-shortfall/

2. Particularly when I realize that I am the selfish, tiresome one.