The Dog Spot has become our favorite place to take our dogs when we need a place to take care of them. Check out our previous post about this great place. We really love this local business and love that the people who run it are passionate about what they do. We feel that for them this is not only a business to make money, but also a business to help dogs and help their owners.
We love to have this small business on our side of town and we figured the city would be really happy having a new business popping up in the Gallatin Pike area, which is desperate for new businesses and is poised to take advantage of its potential. How many politicians and public figures have we heard go on and on about the importance of small businesses in our economy? Aren’t small businesses the motor to economic recovery in our country, in our city, and most importantly in our neighborhoods? Well it seems that our local government, more specifically our Planning Commission, don’t want to work towards helping small businesses and improving our local economy.
Currently, the Planning Commission is bullying the Dog Spot due to a problem with their parking situation in front of the building – which is extremely convenient for costumers. The Dog Spot met the city MORE than halfway when they spent thousands of dollars pouring a new parking lot in the back and installing nice landscaping around the back lot – the improvement to the back alley is more than they should have had to do. The neighbors all agree that the Dog Spot is a vast improvement – the previous business was an adult video store. An interesting sidenote: the Planning Commission wouldn’t be giving the owner of the Dog Spot a hard time if he had kept it a porno shop! The city has threatened to put the owner in jail if he doesn’t bulldoze the front parking spaces and put landscaping there instead. The owner has put thousands of dollars into making this place amazing. It’s a thriving new business, employing several full time and part time employees, and providing an awesome service that this side of town desperately needs. Does he really need to invest thousands more to ruin perfectly good customer parking?
Here are a few articles about the dispute so you can get an better idea of the situation and make your own conclusions:
http://eastnashvillewithlove.com/2011/11/19/the-dog-spot-continues-its-codes-fight/
http://www.wsmv.com/story/16079693/east-nashville-business-fighting-metro-on-approved-plan
Owning a small business is a challenge – we would love to open one eventually – and we can’t believe that the city is making it so difficult to run this place. We understand that there is a plan in place for the entire area, but we are talking about an area that needs time (and a LOT of it) to develop and turn into an amazing neighborhood. A place like The Dog Spot is a huge step forward towards motivating new businesses to come to this area of town; instead, the city is scaring away those thinking about opening their shops on Gallatin Pike. As East Nashville residents, we cannot allow the city to stop the development of the area due to inflexibility in their long term planning. Need more proof? Publix was planning to open a store on Gallatin Pike, but it’s given up because of the difficulties they faced when trying to open up a business on Gallatin. Do you know how much we would LOVE to have a Publix on this side of town? (Read more about these issues here)
We want to help the dog spot, but also want to show the city that we have a voice and that in the long run, we – the Nashville residents – are the ones losing out when they stop businesses from opening their doors to us and consequently not letting Gallatin Pike come into its own. Here is what you can do – words coming directly from the Dog spot:
“Please take some time out of your day to tell Councilmember Peter Westerholm to speak in support of The Dog Spot at the 12-8-2011 planning commission meeting. peter.westerholm@nashville.gov (615) 429-4042. You can also E-mail us a letter of support at thedogspotllc@gmail.com, plan to attend the Planning Commission meeting on 12-08-11 to speak in support of The Dog Spot, and you can sign our online petition. Thanks in advance for your support! ”
http://www.change.org/petitions/please-sign-the-dog-spot-petition-we-need-your-help
Los Rodriguez life signed the petition and we ask you to take a couple of minutes to help our city become an even better place to live. Support small businesses! Every little bit helps!
Below are a couple of funny photos of Chupete and Choripan during their stay at the Dog Spot over Thanksgiving – we love that they post photos of the pups on their facebook page – it’s fun to see the dogs enjoying themselves at doggy daycare! They want this place to stick around!
Los Rodriguez Life 
One response to “The Dog Spot needs YOUR help!”
[…] from scratch. Small business owners constantly face a wide array of problems; city zoning (check out our post about The Dog Spot), small clientele, finding good workers and being able to keep them (and pay them!) […]