Committee to Elect Alec Fisken

P.O. Box 3905

Seattle, WA 98124-3905

206-365-2064

E-mail: fisken@.wa.freei.net

1. Tell us about your experience with dogs?

I grew up in a family that always owned dogs, and my family currently owns a dog.

2. Which off-leash areas have you visited?

I, or members of my family, have bisited the off-leash areas at Volunteer Park and Magnuson Park

3. How would you balance the competing desires for dedicated public spaces such as ballfields, off-leash areas, boat launches, etc.?

As an individual whose family uses both ballfields and off-leash areas, I know that we need both in the city. We also need, of course to increase the total amount of open space available for those and other purposes, and in the meantime we need to balance competing demands to ensure that each activitiy has a reasonable opportunity to use existing park space.

I am familiar with one area that is uesd both as a ballfield and informally, during morning and evening hours, as an off-leash area. I don’t know whether the possibility of joint use has been explored. It seems to me to offer some potential in the right locations.

4. Seattle Municipal Code states that the Volunteer Park off-leash area is a temporary site, but it will remain open until another location on Capitol Hill can be found for a permanent off-leash area. If no other location can be found on Capitol Hill, as a Councilmember would you vote to make the temporary site a permanent site?

I think that the Volunteer Park off-leash area should remain if no alternative can be found.

5. How would you allocate funding amongst competing city-supported recreational activities: i.e. ballfields, off-leash areas, boat launches, etc.?

(See response to question no. 3 above)

6. Given that off-leash areas have proved to build community, deter crime, and provide a place for voting, taxpaying citizens to recreate with their family and pets, where would you support siting additional off-leash areas?

Before I can support adding off-leash areas in specific locations, I need to learn more about the available options and where the demand is greatest.

7. When you are elected to the Seattle City Council, will you vote to support off-leash areas?

Yes, I will support off-leash areas.

8. If you don’t respond to this survey, can we assume that you believe dog off-leash areas are "for the birds"?

If I hadn’t, yes. But I have (And I think the birds are doing ok on their own.)

9. Please add any comments you would like to share with our members and supporters.