Dog Owners Defy Maggie Daley Park Dog Ban

MAGGIE DALEY PARK — Dog lovers shut out of Maggie Daley Park still hope for a pooch-friendly path through the new Downtown playground, even if they have to make one themselves.

With the park district still holding firm on its dog ban for the park, 337 E. Randolph St., some neighbors are beginning to play by their own rules — and the park's security doesn't seem to mind.

"Many of us are ignoring the ban altogether, and I'm one of them," said Joan Pippin, who lives in a nearby condominium tower. "The security guards always come up and say 'No dogs allowed,' but once they recognize you they just wave."

The admission arrives about a week after new tennis courts opened at the far east end of Maggie Daley Park, in a spot formerly called Peanut Park. Bob O'Neill, head of the influential Grant Park Conservancy group, has negotiated all year on a compromise that would allow dogs to cut through the park on the sidewalk between the tennis courts and the Cancer Survivors Garden at Randolph and Field Boulevard.