Santa Clara’s off-leash dog parks are reopening this morning in accordance with Santa Clara County’s amended public health order.

I have mentioned before that we are now all part of a new paradigm in civic life, especially as it relates to our parks, trails and recreation programs. The new paradigm is not a great distance from this traditional view. It is merely a small step forward by the citizenry toward a closer level of ownership and participation than we have generally assumed. That one step is active care. A recent example relates to bags supplied at our local dog parks.

City officials in San Jose have now drawn the ire of a powerful special interest group: dog lovers. Parks and Rec’s budget has been chopped to the point that it says it can longer afford to supply free bags at San Jose’s nine dog parks so that owners can clean up after their pups, as the law requires.