Photo: D. Bell
How many times have you been strolling down the street just minding your own business when someone yelled out, “Watch it!” just as your foot was about to land into a huge pile of steaming brown goo. This is the crap that happens on my block all of the time. As a matter of fact, I see plenty of people in my neighborhood with dogs – from cute little lap dogs to humongous hunting dogs – yet strangely enough I have never seen anyone take the time to bend over and scoop their dogs poop. It is one of the downsides of living in upper Manhattan.
A recent New York Post article (how ironic!) reported that the worst offenders of the pooper-scooper law are uptown. Numbers one and two were Morningside Drive and Amsterdam Drive from 110th to 116th Streets.
Part of the responsibility of being a pet owner is that you have to deal with the unpleasant parts as well. Cat owners have to clean the litter box and dog owners need to scoop the poop.
Do you find that your neighborhood is among the crappiest in Manhattan?
rbs
February 25, 2009
I’m not surprised to see Morningside Drive listed as the worst spot. It’s a and often quiet street, especially alongside the cathedral between 110th and 113th where people feel unobserved. In fact it’s been so bad along there that I’ve seen cabbies stopping for an outdoor piss break. I’m hoping that the new street lights will cut down on that.
ZPP
February 25, 2009
I’m on Freddie D and 117th Street and sometimes a big pile of crap has been speared for about half a block, the unlucky trail of a vicitm
bp294
February 23, 2009
In reply to Ingrid who considers this a “socio-economic problem.” I lived in the West 70′s, as well as in other now-gentrified areas of Manhattan (like Tribeca and the East Village), and as I recall, folks in those various places were just as callous in their dog-cleanup habits as uptowners now … until the popper-scooper law was passed and police diligently began to write tickets. After NYers got used to clean sidewalks (and hefty fines), then habits changed. I live in the Bronx now (Grand Concourse) and, as I said in my first post, I believe change will come with police enforcement; but of course that won’t happen until the neighborhoods gentrify a bit more. I believe that in general city dwellers everywhere are nasty and selfish, irregardless of “socioeconomic” factors. But I do think there is now, in NYC at least, a culture gap between middle-class city dwellers who’ve been acclimated to act properly with their dogs — and who have a more “enlightened” idea of how to nurture a pet in an urban environment — and folks uptown who haven’t.
barb
February 23, 2009
I live on 139th street and there is dog crap on my block all the time. one i saw a dog pee on my stoop and as i drove down the block. i circled around the block but the dog owner was gone. another time there was poop right in front of my garage. it’s such a nice block, but the dog poop is getting really annoying. as a homeowner i feel responsible for poop in front of my house, but it isn’t my dog!
ingrid
February 23, 2009
I live on 145th and have a dog. I always ALWAYS pick up after him. It’s rude not to. I mean, would you, as a dog owner, go to the bathroom and not flush? It’s not only ridiculous the way some people let their dogs defecate without making any effort to scoop the poop, it’s sad. It shows a lack of the simplest common courtesy. I used to live below 72nd street and this was never a problem there. That leaves me to believe it is a socio-economic problem, rooted in a deep lack of common decency.
bp294
February 23, 2009
The Bronx is worse! Reminds me of how nasty Manhattan streets were in the 1970′s. I think police enforcement is the key … also, to be perfectly honest, an influx of gentrifiers who set a great example, both with their diligent cleaning up after their dogs and with their fervor to use nearby parks and to create and maintain designated dog runs within those parks. An excellent and seldom-acknowledged example of the salutary effects of gentrification on uptown neighborhoods.
ladybean73
February 23, 2009
While I do see quite a bit of dog doo around the sidewalks of Harlem in general, I’d say I find a heck of a lot of the poop right on the NYCHA development grounds. This is the downside of allowing tenants to have dogs. When dogs were prohibited, yes some tenants still had them but you didn’t find the poop on the ground because most tenants were afraid of being found out.
But now that it’s perfectly legal to own a dog, people just take their dogs and and let them crap everywhere and don’t bother to pick up. I understand pet-owners rights and all, and how if people can have cats it’s only fair for people to have dogs, but this is beyond rediculous. I wish they’d repeal the law because I’m sick of having to look DOWN when I walk around my immediate area.
Eugy
February 22, 2009
I totally agree! I feel like sometimes I’m walking on a battlefield when I walk around south Harlem. =\
Have you ever called someone out for not picking up their dog’s poo?
D. Bell
February 23, 2009
I am usually moving far away when I see the dog squat, but typically I see the effects of the mess after the deed is done. On my block there is a deep doo-doo pile in the tree planters and the walk ways that cut through the housing projects.