There are plenty of off-leash dogs in the streets and sidewalks surround Morris Canal Park as well as in the Circular"lower" portion of the park (it's not just in the water or the end section of the park).

While the majority of these dogs are harmless or well-controlled, there is a significant enough minority (it only takes 5-10% given how many dogs there are) to have an impact on others. It's not always clear which dogs these are when you first encounter them.

I have had several unpleasant interactions (and it seems others have as well), this has become an issue. How does one legally distinguish a responsible dog owner from one who's not (set different laws /have different standards?).

It may fall to the dog-owning community to do more self-policing to prevent things like this from bubbling up. A fellow dog owner may be able to better "call out" irresponsible behavior with results.

I'm all for building a dog park section or even limited off-leash hours like Central Park.

In response to below:
I can't speak for all non-dog owners, but I would be in favor of section of the park set aside for a dog run and would be OK with limited off-leash hours being an option as well. Especially if it meant that during daytime, the leash laws were followed.

Also there are plenty of off leash dogs in the surrounding neighborhood, especially in areas by the Marina, Liberty Harbor Ferry and Washington St., which is actually more inconsiderate.

The City of JC under Fulop has a new feature on their website that is under the Mayor's Action Bureau (MAB) I contacted them about my dog off-leash incident I got a pretty quick reply.

It's on the main page of this:

http://www.cityofjerseycity.com/

Obviously, the city has certain higher priorities and this is a difficult ordinance to enforce and catch, but the initative appears to cover non-urgent quality of life issues such as this. If enough people have the same concern, perhaps the city will be encouraged to do something about it.

Nyrgravey9 - you posted this about a couple of hours after my wife and I had a run-in with an off-leash dog by the Pier House in Paulus Hook. (this got me to sign up for a JClist account). Maybe you had a run-in with the same guy or witnessed our encounter?

This dog was running about 20-30 yards ahead of the owner and was bothering us (maybe looking to play, maybe confused and I'm sure there's a 99% chance he was harmless) and he wouldn't call the dog off. I let the guy know that there was a leash law and instead of calling his dog off, he told me to call the police (I later submitted a suggestion to the city on its new MAB site). Oh, and my wife is in her third trimester and showing very much, and we just wanted to go on a peaceful walk without an "enthusiastic" dog off leash coming up to us.

We usually avoid the Morris Canal section of Liberty Park on our walks due to dogs off leash. Two more times in the last month or 2 off leash dogs have came up to us (medium to large sized dogs) in this park (on the side by Washington St, so it's at the entrance to the park) and twice the owners did nothing and did not put the leash on their dog when I told them that it was the law (one said that this was a dog park and he didn't need to leash his dog).

So, 3 confrontations/ 3 failures to leash the dog. Now, I do recognize that most of my neighbors who own dogs (95%+) are great owners who leash their dogs on walks and always pick up after their dogs (there was one heroic guy with a baby in a baby bjorn that picked up most of his dog's digestive system last week which I certainly appreciate).

I also recognize that even most dogs off leash are tiny and/or extremely well behaved (I 'live and let live' with these guys and don't ever say anything), but maybe it established a culture where larger dog owners think its OK

This is a very densely populated part of town with limited outdoor space. A small minority of dog owners has the potential to diminish the quality of life for the rest of us. I do think a dog run in the immediate neighborhood would be good, but in the meantime, please keep your dogs on leash in consideration for the rest of us.