I think that the dog poop concern is a fledgling issue that is just now starting to become SOP. Much like drunk driving.30, 40 years ago, nobody thought twice about climbing in behind the wheel 3 sheets to the wind. Then MADD got busy. Now, it's almost unthinkable.

It sometimes amazes me how consciencious most people have become about this. Of course, there will always be those recalcitrant few who will take it as a civil right to befoul the streets, but in general , The world is becoming a little better place in this regard. It's just the way that civilized people make progress.

Maybe we should just kill our dogs.

No more poop problems.

I got a bigger problem with the beggars who work the intersection close to where I work. There are 6-10 there everyday begging in shifts at three stopping points while the rest hang out under the overpass. Church groups go feed them and pick up gawdawful amounts of trash that those maggots throw everywhere. The straw that broke the camels back for me was catching one of the bums taking a crap by the front door during business hours then wiping with a bandanna and leaving it for me to deal with. I let him know I was gonna bring my paintball gun to work and when I saw him next I was gonna shoot him in the face.

He never came back.

Afraid I can't be so forbidding. My problem is that I can't know which of these guys are the real deal and which aren't. Not that I have any money to give them. Poverty breeds some truly bizarre behaviors. Who would use a banana peel if he had access to a john and some toilet paper? Despite my property wealth, I am one step away from being a homeless person. I guess I'm a soft touch, but I've developed some amazing empathy over time

Our current economic state is touching everybody. Some first-hand. Many second-hand. One may think. "Well, I'm still doing OK. Things aren't so bad". But we all share the same planet. The fortunate and the unfortunate alike. We all bump up against eachother.

We are all two paychecks away from being homeless Art. My problem is with the ones who got money in thier pocket that they haven't earned. When I walk out of a convenience store and some guy says "GIVE me $20"...not even asking...I tellem to work on his pitch.

When I am at a stop light and one old guy cusses me out for ignoring him....I want to get out of my car and throw him out of his wheelchair. (he can walk)

Tough times are indeed tough...bu, that is no excuse for pretending that social ettiquite no longer applies.

I thought i posted something , but it disappeared. I agree with you Krupa, but if you look at the broader bell curve, there will always be the bottom of the barrel over on the left side. Give them a little subsistence and they will stay out of everybody else's way. I'm remembering a Linda Ellerby comment. To paraphrase, "What do you do with a panhandler? Most people will say that they don't want to give him money, because they know he will just go out and spend it on booze. I say, this is not an occasion to try to reform him. The man needs a drink". This really struck me.

well, it seems you like to blame other people for your problems too... watch your step, you might be stepping in something hahahah

giving someone a dollar won't hurt anyone.. who are we to say he will buy booze with it? there have a few times where i didn't know where my next meal was coming from...just because they are down doesn't mean they are less than human...but when there 15 of them and they all want a dollar, it gets kind of rough then.

i stepped into a pier one imports once, and those sales people put a lot of pressure on me. i guess i should have worn pants

They must have thought
it was a wound.

I figure if they can stand around a intersection for hours begging ..then they are capable of getting a job as a sign twirler somewhere.

Now you're blaming others for stepping in dog shyt that you and other people like you leave in the middle of the sidewalk? haha. Why does that not surprise me?

Exactly. In a busy city, I rarely see anyone staring at their feet while they walk. Who does that all the time? Hell, if that happened, we'd have people running into each other all the time. Though, then mightymoe would blame them for not watching in front of them.

Just stop please

We honestly don't step in dog crap all that often...

when we do...so what? Wipe your feet

No one is blaming anyone for anything.

Let's all stop being condescending and just give out a little love.

I'm not changing my opinion of irresponsible dog owners. Sorry.

and you shouldn't either... when you see one, let me know, and i'll help you...

That's not an easy thing to do.

My heartfelt sympathies go out to both you and the bandana guy.

I suffered from almost uncontrollable urgest of bowel movements, when I was in the habit of eating inordinately large amounts of food. I gained 40 lbs over a year, the one following giving up smoking. I have no Irritable Bowel Syndrome, but in that year I really, but really needed to go to the washroom on immediate notice at times.

What do you do. In Toronto, where I lived, the donut shops hid the keys to the washrooms. They said the room was closed, it did not work. Hotel doormen would not let me in. In offices and in medical centres the washroom keys were available only to tenants and to those whom the tenants gave it to. In police stations, you got chained to the seat and your balls pounded with billy clubs. In churches, the pew seats had no holes in them. Etc.

So I would not be so quick to blame the homeless for shootting there. Why, did you tell him he could use your washroom? I can't blame you if you did not tell him that. I would not let any homeless person use my washroom, and the bank where I worked, did not, either. Nobody wants to let a homeless guy come in, sit, flush, and leave.

So what is the poor guy supposed to do, I ask you now? keep it in? Keep eating, but never letting it come out? That's a good plan. Can't be accomplished, though. I know. I tried, and tried to train my children to do this, too, and yet they would not learn, despite the harsh physical punishment that they had received each time they failed in following the prescribed instructions.

So... the guy had three choices (realistically): 1. crap on the sidewalk and risk being shot at. 2. go somewhere else where the same thing would happen. 3. Beg for washroom privileges, not for cash.

Barring these, he had to shoot his own pants.

What other solutions can you suggest there, Herr Krupps? That the beggar use his infinitely large wealth to put a porta-potty on a cart and pull it behind him everywhere he goes?

I don't think that we should punish people who do their natural biological actions, instead, I suggest we should provide an outlet for them to do their outlet in a dignified fashion.

Not by letting them come into our stores, houses and businesses, but perhaps offering them a plate on which they could do it, and instead of shooting the poor chap, we could eat the plateful.

Really.

WTF?

er... people actually do that? What world am I living in?

Seriously? Coasters? OMG.

If that's all I had to worry about I'd be in seventh heaven.

Public restrooms would be a good idea for use by the homeless.