C’mon Park Record, We NEED You to Be Better

The Park Record does a good job of reporting what goes on around Park City. Having met many of Park Record reporters over the years, they are genuine and good people. I am also fondly aware of the fact that there isn’t always a lot to report here in Eden and understand that it must be stressful to compose a couple of editions each week with limited material. So, I get it.

That said, in today’s Park Record, Jay Hamburger wrote what is at best incomplete information and at worst a click-bait article on dogs in Park City. In the physical paper it was titled, “Dog Complaints Received.” In the online version is was titled “‘Aggressive’ dog reported in Park City, another canine ‘not friendly’.”

Basically the article was a summary of Park City police logs. It pretty much said two dogs were running free around SR 248 and Round Valley Drive (and that is close to Round Valley which is an off leash dog park now). It then said another dog MAY have run across a cross country ski track. It cited that another dog was running free near SR 224 and Meadows drive. The article concluded with the fact that a boxer (the dog type… not the Mike Tyson type) held a family hostage in their home by not letting them out the front door.

I understand that off leash dogs are a big issue in Park City; however there are no details here. Yet, the article supposes that there are. There are only reports about random dogs running off leash near a place that matters and then a couple of random events.

Perhaps Mr Hamburger talked to the family that was held hostage by the dog but decided to not report their comments. Perhaps the family is selling the movie rights and declined comment. More likely the story ended with the police report.

Frankly, we need better than this from the Park Record. The Park Record is important.

While I understand that everyone sometimes needs filler, you don’t provide FILLER that effectively takes a viewpoint AND surrounds a hot button issue.

Are off leash dogs an issue in Park City? Yes, in certain circumstances.

Yes, some dogs escape yards and wreak havoc, but that’s not what Park City’s current conversation about “dogs on leash” is about. Our conversations are generally about trails. Dogs wandering about on roads and holding families hostage, are the random events you wish wouldn’t happen (I guess, in the case of latter). Our community’s concern about dogs off leash is generally about owners not properly handling their dogs on trails and places like the Library.

Unfortunately, this article just seems to report negatively about dogs because they were free fodder in a police report.

What’s my view on dogs? It’s simple… There are no bad dogs…. just bad people.

What would I live from the Park Record? Well, first I’d like to know more about that family held hostage by a dog. Now that has the potential to be a good story.