Four years after the NYPD began patrolling the Lower East Side’s nightlife district on horseback, literal horse shit is still a problem in the neighborhood. Bowery Boogie reports that there are piles of shit all over Hell Square (their clever nickname for the bar-saturated zone from Houston to Delancey and Allen to Clinton) every Saturday and Sunday morning, and no one who should be responsible does anything about it. “To date, no one really claims responsibility for the cleanup,” Bowery Boogie writes. “Not the cops; not the Department of Sanitation; not the Lower East Side BID. Also, 311 proves rather useless in reporting the shit.” This has been a problem in the neighborhood since the nightlife crackdown began in 2011; ANIMAL documented artist Jay Shells’ etiquette signs about cleaning up after horses in September of that year.
So this is a specific call to action: Hey NYPD, clean up after your horses. Didn’t your parents ever give you the “if you’re going to have a pet, you have to take care of it” talk? C’mon. If a dog shits on the sidewalk and the owner doesn’t clean it up, that’s a $250 fine under the Pooper Scooper law of 1978. And piles of dog shit are much smaller than piles of horse shit. Since, it’s city property shitting on city property, someone from the city should clean it up. It’s really very simple. If broken windows applies to piss, it should apply to shit as well.
If you live on the Lower East Side, maybe flood 311 with complaints of unclaimed manure. Maybe if enough people complain, they’ll acquiesce.
(Photo: David MW)
