‘Stoppers’ stop skateboarders, but not Ian the dog

With temperatures in the 90s a couple of weeks ago, a pit bull named Ian discovered that CaVaLa Park at Canal and Varick Sts. is Downtown’s newest cool spot. Alan, his owner, did not have an easy time getting him out of the water to return back to their Canal St. apartment. Near the spot where Ian is shown chomping his chew ball is what is known as a “stopper” in Parks Department parlance. As described in an article on skateboarders in last week’s Villager, these small metal ribs are added to park structures to prevent skateboarders from doing tricks on them — though the skaters say, if they want to, they can easily pry off the devices.