Thanks to Mayor Bloomberg’s anti-smoking initiative more New Yorkers are finding themselves congregating on the City’s sidewalks. But there’s something else proliferating on the pavement that also could use some renewed quality of life attention from the Mayor: dog poop.
It is time that all dog owners do their civic duty, and clean up after their canines. If they will not do so voluntarily, the City may need to train them with stricter penalties.
As a new father now navigating the streets with a stroller, I have become far more attuned to obstacles on the ground. My unscientific observation is that there an increasing amount of poop that is not being scooped. Or, at the least, there is enough of it to be very bothersome to pedestrians in the greatest walking city in the world.
It has been a little over twenty-five years since Mayor Koch signed the Canine Waste Law. That legislation clearly reduced the number of piles to the mile around the City. But compliance has waned.
Granted, most dog owners do follow the law, which is not the most appetizing one in the books to follow. In fact, when I see someone bending over with a napkin or plastic bag, I appreciate it because I know they could get away without doing so. The question is how to curb the practices of the minority of scofflaws.
Sanitation Department enforcement agents issued about 500 tickets last year, which was down from more than 1000 tickets three years ago. A spokeswoman says that the drop is not from a lack of attention, but she acknowledges that it is "difficult law to enforce". Every Spring, Sanitation issues a press release reminding dog owners of the law and the $50 fine. If only it was that easy. Ideally, all owners would be as considerate of their fellow citizens as they are to their dogs.
It is particularly bedeviling since many of scofflaws are people walking their dogs, which means they are being disrespectful to their own neighbors. That‘s even more unexplainable than someone littering, for example, as they pass through an area.
Former Mayor Giuliani displayed the frustration of many New Yorkers when he was asked his advice for dealing with violators "I’d walk up to them and say ‘….clean up after your dog, damn it!‘" Though he quickly added the caveat that such vigilantism might result in a "punch in the nose".
Others have tried softer ways to get the message across. The city of Lyon, France recently dropped 10,000 fake doo-doos on the street to underscore the problem. One Manhattan block association gives away plastic bags to encourage dog owners to pick things up.
I suggest raising the fine which has remained at $50 ($100 for multiple offenses) since the law was enacted in 1978. Why not make it $250 or even $500? Not only would that send a message that the government is serious about this quality of life issue, it would also bring the City coffers some money. It's new ‘Reven-doo‘ that's just lying on the street, waiting to be collected.
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