Dogs on and off leashes in the Clark Park Bowl will be the main focus of Monday’s annual members meeting of the Friends of Clark Park.

The Philadelphia Department of Parks and Recreation has promised to step up enforcement of rules about off-leash dogs in city parks following dog attacks in Pastorius Park in Chestnut Hill. City park rules require dogs outside of a dog run to be on a leash that is 6-feet long or shorter.

But what about the Bowl, where dogs have been running free with their owners nearby for years and years? Monday’s meeting, which starts at 7 p.m. in the University of the Sciences’ Griffith Hall (43rd and Woodland), will take up this discussion – again. 

A meeting announcement on the Friends of Clark Park website says that Parks and Recreation “understands the culture of de facto off-leash dog areas like the Bowl & it will leave well enough alone. As long as ‘unpermitted’ dog use takes place in an orderly way, without arousing problems in the community, PP&R has no intention of interfering.”