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On the lookout for turds' S.F. sidewalk survey identifies which blocks are poopiest

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Better wear boots when walking around the city of San Francisco.

'On the lookout for turds’: S.F. sidewalk survey identifies which blocks
are poopiest'
<https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/poop-sf-city-street-19964427.php>

'Annette Margolis waved a green dog bag as her pitbull-boxer mix did his
business Friday morning. 

“I’ve got a bag,” she said, smiling cheerfully as she scooped up the dog
droppings.

Unfortunately, across the city, thousands of residents aren’t picking up
their pets’ waste – and that’s perhaps the less gross part of the
problem. Also more common on San Francisco’s sidewalks over the past
year, which will surprise no one who walks around the city, are human
feces, according to the Controller’s latest Street & Sidewalk
Maintenance Standards Report.

The 37-page document, distilled from 2,600 in person evaluations over
the 2024 fiscal year, contained some good news: in the last year,
sidewalk and street litter has dwindled, along with illegal dumping. But
graffiti has remained steady. And feces, well, there’s just more of it.

The survey identified the neighborhoods with highest fecal frequency as
the South of Market, Tenderloin, Castro and Mission neighborhoods. The
block with dubious distinction of most poop sightings – 46 – was on
Market Street, between Gough and Octavia Streets, followed closely by
Folsom between 24th and 25th Streets with 32 sightings and Mendell
Street between La Salle and McKinnon Avenues at 31.


For local residents, the current assessment came with exasperation but
little surprise, receiving little more than a shrug.

“It’s standard,” said Phil Holt, leaning against his bike near San
Francisco’s apparently poopiest place, Gough and Market. Formerly
homeless, he is now living in a tiny home nearby, but said he regularly
frequents that corner.

“You’re missing out on life if you’ve gotta be on the lookout for
turds,” he said.

Annette Margolis walks her boxer-pit mix, Tyson. Margolis lives on a
block that the city recently identified as having some of the highest
observations of fecal sightings, but Margolis wasn't fazed.
Annette Margolis walks her boxer-pit mix, Tyson. Margolis lives on a
block that the city recently identified as having some of the highest
observations of fecal sightings, but Margolis wasn't fazed.
St. John Barned-Smith
The city’s filthy sidewalks and streets have been a major complaint for
residents for years, leading the Board of Supervisors in 1978 to pass a
“pooper scooper” ordinance that then-Supervisor Harvey Milk called a
“step in the right direction” in reining in pet poop scofflaws. That
appears to have been before human excrement became a widespread problem.

San Francisco’s battle with public poop has led the city to spend
millions on toilets across the city, including in areas like the
Tenderloin and Mission, and even sparked the creation of a short-lived
Poop Patrol in 2018.

But San Francisco’s dung dilemma gained wider attention in recent years
– practically becoming its own meme – as detractors have used the
situation to lampoon the city. Fla. Gov. Ron DeSantis made headlines in
2023 while debating Gov. Gavin Newsom when he pulled out a map of
reported scat sightings from 2011 to 2019 – that was just the city
completely covered in brown. 

On Friday, Department of Public Works spokesperson Rachel Gordon
pooh-poohed the latest findings, stressing the city’s widespread efforts
to deal with the issue. 

Public works crews – equipped with steam cleaners – regularly patrol the
city, and remove any droppings they come across, she said. 

“We don’t want people to walk through, or by, feces,” she said. 


Over the past few years, the public works department has rolled out 30
public toilets across 13 city neighborhoods.

That includes high traffic areas such as U.N. Plaza, or out at Ocean
Beach. Since 2014, city residents and visitors have used its public
toilets more than 5 million times – or a flush a minute, for a decade. 

“People should have a place to go to the bathroom with dignity,” she
said, “not only to keep feces off the street, but because people should
have a place to go to the bathroom.”

In a city where dogs allegedly outnumber children, Gordon said she
believed much of the droppings came from pet owners who haven’t learned
they need to pick up after their furry companions.

“We don’t DNA test the poop,” she said, “but we do think a lot of it is
dog waste. … We want to get dog owners to do what they should be doing
by law – pick up after their dogs. And we’re seeing that a lot, people
just aren’t doing that.”

To that end, the city has rolled out a marketing campaign, placing
hundreds of posters in businesses in prolific poop areas, urging dog
owners to “DOO THE RIGHT THING,” and pick up after their pets – or risk
a $300 fine.

A poster from the San Francisco Department of Public Works urging pet
owners to pick up their pets' waste
A poster from the San Francisco Department of Public Works urging pet
owners to pick up their pets' waste
Courtesy SF DPW
According to the report, about 30% of city streets had scat sightings
between July 2023 and June 2024.

“It cooks into the cement,” said a barista at The Buoy, a cafe near
Market and Gough. “The smell is so strong. You can’t see anything and it
still smells so bad.”

According to the report, SoMa had the highest average feces count,
followed by the Tenderloin. Chinatown and Noe Valley/Glen Park/Twin
Peaks and West of Twin Peaks had the lowest percentage of routes with
where surveyors spotted poop.

Some of the pots with the highest frequency of fecal observations
included Folsom, between 22nd and 25th Streets, Market Street, between
Gough and Octavia, and several streets in the Tenderloin, such as Jones
between Geary and O’Farrell.


S.F. streets have less litter — but poop remains a persistent problem
Every year, the controller’s office collects data on street and sidewalk
litter, larger dumped items, graffiti and feces — both human and
nonhuman — as well as several other markers of street cleanliness.
S.F. spends millions toward public toilets, but complai'

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On the lookout for turds' S.F. sidewalk survey identifies which blocks are poopiest John Smyth <smythlejon2@hotmail.com> - 2024-12-07 10:51 -0500
  Re: On the lookout for turds' S.F. sidewalk survey identifies which blocks are poopiest pothead <pothead@snakebite.com> - 2024-12-07 16:32 +0000
    Re: On the lookout for turds' S.F. sidewalk survey identifies which blocks are poopiest "Go Texas!" <go-texas@beat-georgia.com> - 2024-12-07 23:59 +0100

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