For the past week, I've measured my life in frozen turds. Three-block walk to the subway? Ten turds. A trip to Whole Foods? That's a 30-turd journey. Crossing the street to buy milk at the bodega? That's five lovely clumps of shit that I have lovingly named "Getme," "thefuck," "outta," "here," and "ASAP."
Ever since the city was blanketed with a foot of snow and ice that only now is beginning to melt, dog shit has been everywhere—on our sidewalks, in our darkest thoughts, and smeared across our shoes. As of February 14, there have been 455 complaints filed to 311 about dog owners refusing to pick up their pooches' crap, compared to only 284 complaints over the same time period in 2025. Most of the complaints are coming from around Washington Heights, Sunset Park, and Flatbush.
For every heartwarming scene of a New Yorker helping their neighbor dig out of the snow, there are seemingly 10 other instances of people letting their dogs defecate on the social compact.
"The dog shit is a symbol of how this whole neighborhood is a fucking disaster," Anna, 46, told me while walking her scruffy Benji-looking dog by Bed-Stuy's Herbert Von King Park on Friday (who, like many people interviewed for this story, asked me not to publish her last name so she could speak freely about her neighbors). "There's no social contract in this neighborhood. I just think there are too many different priorities for neighbors, and they don't see each other as in this together," she added.