Scooper troopers
Enforce sidewalk poo: DeB
Pet owners who leave dog poop on sidewalks better cut the crap.
The city is long overdue for a crackdown on slobs who fail to scoop up Fido’s steaming pile — a violation of city law that has hasn’t been aggressively enforced since the Koch administration roughly 30 years ago, Mayor de Blasio admitted Friday.
“There’s too many people who don’t clean up after their dogs. It’s really insensitive and unfair to other New Yorkers,” Hizzoner said on WNYC radio after a caller demanded the city slap more inconsiderate dog walkers with summonses.
“I think your point about enforcement has a lot of merit,” de Blasio told the caller. “We gotta look at new ways of creating consequences for folks who do something that’s unfair to their neighbors and unhealthy for everyone involved. So I will figure out a way we can address that.”
The caller, Maria, had griped to the mayor that her neighborhood in Williamsburg has been plagued by a sanitary problem that truly stinks.
“There’s an epidemic of dog waste on our sidewalks,” she moaned.
One way to flush away the city’s doo-doo disaster is to enlist meter maids to hand out more $250 tickets to dog owners, she said, calling it a potential boon for the Big Apple.
“Dog waste is gold for the city. I believe you can request your parking officers, who are already on the street, [to] issue summonses for dog waste,” she said. “It’s a win-win for New Yorkers — so they don’t have dog waste on their shoes.”
In 1978, Mayor Ed Koch unleashed a crusade against errant dog poop, creating his so-called Pooper Scooper law. The city rolled out PSAs and dozens of signs warning people to clean up after their pooches or face pricey tickets — and enforced the rule diligently until the late 1980s.
But today, city officials rarely hand out tickets for the crappy move, angry residents fumed.
“It is absolutely a problem. There are ‘curb your dog’ fines but if there’s no enforcement, you’ll just end up stepping in s--t,” said Albie Kehoe, 23, manager of NYC Pet on Driggs Avenue in Williamsburg.
West Village residents also cheered the possible crackdown.
“In the last five years, dog owners have gotten brazen, rude and arrogant,” said Jessica Seigel, a member of her block association.
“I’ve seen dog owners who pick their little dogs up over the railing and let them piss and poop,” she added, pointing at a small sidewalk flower garden. “They walk their dogs at 6 a.m. and, when no one’s watching, they leave piles of sh-t on the sidewalk.”