Monday, September 3, 2007

NY Daily News: Can't go for walk without stepping in dog poop on these streets

Can't go for walk without stepping in dog poop on these streets:

Welcome to the wasteland.

These are the city streets where pedestrians walk in fear - of stepping in what Fido, Rex and Rover have left behind.

Sedgwick and Aqueduct Aves. in the Bronx, Arion Road in Queens, and 66th St., Brightwater Court, and W. 12th St. in Brooklyn have become odoriferous obstacle courses, thanks to pet owners who don't clean up after their furry friends.

That's according to city officials, who don't rank the foulest streets but asked enforcement agents to help the Daily News compile a list of the worst.

The Department of Sanitation is hoping to crack down on the excrement epidemic on byways like these by raising pooper-scooper fines from $50 to $100.

In the meantime, local residents who want to put their foot down better look twice first.

"People walk their dogs and their dogs defecate in the middle of the sidewalk," said Toya Kelly, 37, walking her 2-year-old German shepherd, Saint, on Sedgwick Ave., next to the Jerome Park Reservoir.

"There's a lot of kids around here and kids need to be able to run around," she said.

Even though she spoke with disgust, Kelly admitted she once got a ticket for leaving Saint's poop on the street.

"I always carry bags," she said. "But you run out of bags if you walk him three times a day."

In a stretch of a few hundred feet, a reporter counted three dung heaps on the Kingsbridge Heights street. On Aqueduct Ave., there were two in a three-block span.

In Ozone Park, residents of Arion Road said their street made the list because of the high concentration of pooches - 10 dogs on 1-1/2 blocks.

Joann Orobello, 49, said her large mixed-breed, Rocky, is part of the problem.

"I don't always [clean up]," she said. "Sometimes he goes twice and I don't have another bag."

On Brightwater Court in Brighton Beach, Alla Sirotova, 59, was raising a stink about the situation. "It's so dirty," she said of the street next to the Boardwalk.

Sirotova has a small terrier mix named Daisy and says she never fails to pick up after her. But her job doesn't end there.

"Sometimes I clean up after other dogs," she complained.

City officials didn't single out any Manhattan streets but said blocks that feed into the parks tend to be the most feculent.

And Geoffrey Croft, president of the nonprofit New York City Park Advocates, said the problem in the parks is widespread.

One cause, he said, is the Sanitation Department doesn't enforce the pooper-scooper law in parks. The other cause is more obvious - and the one the city hopes to tackle with stiffer fines.

"There are many dog owners who believe parks should be used as outdoor toilets for their animals," Croft said.

tconnor@nydailynews.com