A wonderful, beautiful place for dog lovers

Pastorius Park is wonderful. It's a picturesque 30-ish acre park including lots of old growth trees, a meadow, and well-maintained pond.

I was saddened to see how low the reviews are for here. It's actually a great place.

Officially, like everywhere in Philadelphia, this is a park where leashes are required. This is a law that almost no one follows.

99% of the time, this makes for a wonderful time. Most of the dogs here are well behaved, and a typical scene in the park is half a dozen or so dog owners gathered in friendly conversation while their dogs play nearby. My wife's and my golden retriever is not usually the most social, so we typically throw a ball for him off on our own. Occasionally, another dog visits and they briefly sniff butts, and then the dog goes back to playing with others.

The 1% (on which the existing reviews are heavily focused) is that once in a rare while (about once every year or two) you hear about a dangerous or misbehaving dog that should have never been brought to the park or let off leash and attacked someone. When it happens, people are justifiably upset and the local police briefly come down hard on enforcing the leash law (driving their police cars into the park blaring on a megaphone to leash your dog, which typically has the effect of just chasing everyone away). But after a month or two of that, the enforcement lets up and people gradually get back to letting their dogs off leash again.

To be clear, except for the once-in-a-blue-moon incidents described above, this place is great for anyone who loves dogs. Before my wife and I adopted our golden, we used to visit here all the time to read books and enjoy the occasional furry visitor looking for pets. It was always a great time.

If you do not like dogs, or if you do not like people that let their dogs off leash, then yes, you will not like it here. But for people looking for a friendly place to give their dog some space to run around, I cannot recommend this place highly enough.

Apr. 15, 2021