Joe Carollo Put a Literal Dog Park in a Resident's Backyard

Over the past three years, Benjamin Augustyn had enjoyed observing the fruit trees behind his condominium building. He would sit at his kitchen table and admire the beautiful mango and coconut trees.

"That's one thing that I liked," the Miami Dade College associate professor says. "It was just like this kind of sea of green."

But these days, he looks at an outdoor gym and a dog park, courtesy of the City of Miami and Commissioner Joe Carollo. He says he has lost his sense of privacy. People riding the outdoor elliptical can peer into his home. Dog owners sit on benches a couple of feet away from his windows. Floodlights turn the park into a stadium at night.

Augustyn says Carollo and the city have ignored his privacy and noise concerns regarding East Shenandoah Park at 1320 SW 21st St. In protest, he has set up cardboard signs in his windows that read, "We were ignored!" and "What about our privacy?"

"They ignored the people that are living like literally three feet away," Augustyn tells New Times. When construction first began, Augustyn notes that construction workers set up their cut station just outside the residents' patio areas, which were later covered in sawdust.

"Last June, they cut down all the fruit-bearing trees and finally started grading it without any construction barriers or anything," he says.

As construction progressed, he noticed benches were added right against the property line. There was a visual for the project outside the construction site, but Augustyn says it was hard to believe that the city could put benches just outside their windows. After he sent numerous emails to the city, he thought the workers were finally going to put in a sufficient privacy fence. But to his disappointment, it was only a four-foot, black picket fence.

"It's like, 'Why are they putting all of their benches as close as possible to where people live?" he says. Now, every time Augustyn steps out of his back door, people at the park can just look at him.

"It's designed to look nice from the street, but then the people living next door, there's zero empathy for them," he tells New Times. "Every time I come back from the grocery store, it's like 'What's he eating today?' I call it zero empathy design. They could have moved the benches away from where people live, so that people and their dogs are further away. At least do something to mitigate. Put in a solid barrier so you don't have dogs sniffing at you and barking at you while you're throwing out your garbage." He emailed the city to ask what residents could do to mitigate the situation, to no avail. The condo association then took matters into its own hands and installed Areca palm trees.

"Like, if someone's really noisy, what can we do? Someone is sitting on the bench, staring into the windows. Do we call the police? Can you tell someone to keep your dog quiet if it's barking for hours?" Augustyn adds. "They've ignored that."

Last month, Carrollo and the city celebrated the park's grand opening. The commissioner said the park has a great "zen" area where people can "lie back," "drink a soda," and "watch nature."

"This is great," Carollo said in a video. "Residents of this area have asked us for a dog park and a park that would have outdoor exercise equipment. We finally got this done."

Augustyn left his own mark on the celebration. When the event started, he unveiled a white sheet outside his property that read, "NO PEACE! NO PRIVACY! NO EMPATHY! From your commissioners, mayor, city, they will do this to you!"

During Carollo's speech, Augustyn says, the commissioner said maybe the person who created the sign was a drug user.

"'Maybe some people are taking medical marijuana right now,'" Augustyn recounts. 

The new East Shenandoah Park is officially open! 🌳🏀 Located at 1320 SW 21st, this modern green space brings fresh outdoor fun to District 3. #MiamiParks @joecarollonow @miamiparks @FrancisSuarez pic.twitter.com/yiT9MraWzf

— City of Miami (@CityofMiami) May 16, 2025

Carollo maintains that the park has been a tremendous success and that residents have been using the dog park and gym regularly. He tells New Times that there is no noise and that the city took all the necessary steps to allow resident input throughout the process.

"It is wonderful," he tells New Times. "You always have a grouch. You can't please 100 percent of people. There was a need."