New York Streets have no dog poo but Paris does. This is why.

There are surprisingly large number of dogs in New York. Most are in truth ‘compact’ by design but any morning or evening you will see the parks and streets of the City full of pooches and their owners walking around awaiting what dogs do.

There are three police forces in France. It is all routed in the Revolution but essentially there is a base level group who manage the streets in towns, the nation wide gendarmerie and in Paris the presidential guard who see themselves as an elite. They tend to be arrogant, they will readily use their power and in doing so call on water canon, truncheons and various forms of tear gas to ‘help’.

Now there is a law in Paris that if your dog decides to go ‘loo loo’ it is obligatory to clean it up. There is a ‘fine’ for the offence published on many lamp posts that back up the law. As far as I am aware no member of the Paris police force has ever given out a ticket to anyone who is guilty of contravening the law. It is quite simply ‘beneath them’. As a result the streets of Paris have a liberal supply of dog poo and most parks are a nightmare as ‘stepping in it’ is more likely than not on any outing.

Over to New York and one day I was in the back of a New York Taxi. The driver, of Eastern European roots, was regaling me with his history. I was getting bored as we approached the mid town turn to the FDR drive. As we stopped at a set of traffic lights a woman in high heels was walking along the road a pecanese dog at her heel. The dog decided to do what a dog does, sat down and deposited his or her coil on the sidewalk. The woman walked on either unaware or uncaring as to the deposit. Immediately the taxi driver wound down his window. ‘Heh Lady’ he roared ‘ your dog just shit on the sidewalk” he honked his horn and all the nearby taxis chimed in. Other windows were wound down and similar orders uttered. ‘Heh lady clean it up”another shouted. The lights changed but the taxi stayed still until the embarrassed woman cleaned up the mess and deposited it in the bin. We drove off the driver triumphant.

As a result of this phenomenon you can walk the streets of New York looking upwards. In Paris not so, watch your step!