Looking for Middle Ground In Tricky World of Personal Crusades

F ollowing up on two recent columns, we find that things get worse, but perhaps there is a way out:

First, to a quiet stretch of Connecticut Avenue NW, where an advisory neighborhood commissioner forced a pizza place to get rid of a sidewalk Ping-Pong table that families had enjoyed for more than a year. Now that commissioner, Frank Winstead, has managed to get rid of the patio furniture that had been outside the adjacent Marvelous Market bakery for a decade.

Winstead e-mailed the D.C. government a few weeks ago to rat out the shop for having outdoor seating without a permit.

"Unfortunately, when we get a complaint, we have to follow up," says Jeffrey Jennings, the District's Ward 3 transportation planner. "This is mere additional frivolous hassling by Commissioner Winstead. Marvelous does not have a public space permit, but he could simply approach the management and kindly request for them to work through the [city] channels to accomplish the small task of obtaining one."

In the 10 years that seating was available outside the shop, no one complained, says Neil Neufeld, chief operating officer for the 10-store chain. But within days of Winstead's complaint, city inspectors told managers to take the furniture inside. They did. (Winstead has not returned calls or e-mails seeking comment.)

"We have more than 200 signatures from people in the neighborhood who want us to keep the seating out there," Neufeld says. The shop is seeking a permit to restore the seating, a process that could take months.

"We're happy to go ahead and try to do the right thing," Neufeld says. "If you live in D.C. long enough, you know you just do as you're told."

Jennings says the vitality of street life in upper Northwest is hampered by local activists such as Winstead, who are "just waiting for the gotcha moment."

So in the past few weeks, the sidewalks along Connecticut Avenue from Fessenden Street to Nebraska Avenue have revealed not a steady supply of pedestrians keeping watch over the area but a barren, unpeopled streetscape, thanks to the zeal of a self-appointed monitor of the public space. Must this story end this way?

Meanwhile, up in Bethesda, in the week since I wrote about the efforts of a mother at Westbrook Elementary School to ensure that fellow parents not bring their dogs along when they drop off or pick up their kids, I've heard from hundreds of people on both sides of the debate. Jodi Marcus, adoptions coordinator for a dog-rescue group in Prince William County, asked an especially provocative question: Do parents have an obligation to train their children how to act around dogs, just as dog owners should train their animals to be polite and obedient?

Marcus says yes. "All children, even those who do not live with dogs, need to know how to act around dogs," she says. "Dogs should all have obedience training that is reinforced throughout their lives. Our kids were raised with dogs, and so are our grandchildren. No one was ever bitten or hurt because they all knew the rules. Dogs are an integral part of many families' lives, and they are not going away. We all need to work to make human and canine lives interact harmoniously."

I liked Marcus right away because unlike many dog owners, she grants that many dogs shouldn't be taken to school grounds. "You mentioned two instances of dogs jumping on children," she says. "This is bad doggy manners. All dogs should go to obedience class as puppies, repeat as teens and again as adults. If a dog is rambunctious around children, the dog should be left at home when walking kids to school."

Initially, I wasn't impressed by her suggestion that I and other parents train our children how to behave around dogs. I wrote back: "Like most non dog owners, who are, after all, more than two-thirds of the population, I have no clue how one is supposed to act around a dog, nor do I care to know. And I see no reason for my children to know, unless they decide someday to buy a dog." (The American Veterinary Medical Association's survey on pet ownership finds that 37 percent of U.S. households own a dog. Locally, the numbers are lower: 7 percent in the District, 31 percent in Maryland and 36 percent in Virginia.)

But Marcus persisted and scored some points, passing along ASPCA data showing that half of American children are bitten by dogs before their 12th birthday. So perhaps it makes sense to take precautions. And the ASPCA's list of don'ts was revealing. ("I will not stare into a dog's eyes. I will not run and scream if a loose dog comes near me.")

Still, I'm not sure the responsibility to protect against animal attacks should rest with the parents of children who have done nothing but make their way to school, rather than with those who inflict their dogs on school kids.

Marcus gets the last word: "We teach our children what to do if strangers approach and act strangely. It is part of teaching them to be safe. I feel the same way about dogs."

E-mail:marcfisher@washpost.com