I’ve been taking my three shelter dogs for a hike on Mariner Park beach for years. On a recent morning, at 9:30 a.m., I pulled into the parking lot to park my truck. It was a minus tide so I decided to hike on the left side of the beach. I parked my truck in front of the new fence where the tent park is. A city worker approached me and told me I couldn’t park there. I asked “why not?” He said the left side of the park is for tents, so he said I had to go park on the right side of the park where day use is. 

I said, “Give me a break. I’m going for an hour walk.”

There were no tents there anyway. I leashed my dogs and left for our walk. I expected a ticket on my truck when I got back but there wasn’t one. 

Over the 4th of July weekend I tried to take my dogs for our hike, but the entire parking lot was full of tenters and motorhomes. Do you think the city enforced the day-use parking area? Of course not. 

I think people and dogs wanting to go for a hike should be able to park wherever they want. I thought I lived in America. 

Kim Koppen