UWS Sees Uptick In Dog Poop Complaints To Begin Year: Data Dive

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — There are few worse feelings then realizing you have dog droppings stuck to the bottom of your shoe, but how do the number of complaints surrounding the issue compare on the Upper West Side to the ret of the city?

Pooch poop complaints made to 311 have jumped across the five boroughs in the first three-plus months of 2023, and that increase has also taken place on the Upper West Side.

There have already been 16 complaints in 2023 about dog waste on the sidewalk from the Upper West Side's 10023, 10024, and 10025 ZIP codes out of the 880 made citywide since the beginning of the year, data shows.

The same three local ZIP codes had 35 complaints for the entirety of 2022 — and with only a little over three months gone this year — the Upper West Side 2023 dog poop qualms number looks set to easily surpass last year's total.

At the current rate, the Upper West Side dog poop complaints made to 311 will be roughly 65 by the end of the year.

The figure would be nearly double the complaints made in 2022 for the neighborhood.

Here's a breakdown of the year so far on the Upper West Side, according to 311 data.

10023: Lincoln Center/Upper West Side

• 2022: 3
• 2023 thus far: 3

10024: Upper West Side

• 2022: 13
• 2023 thus far: 7

10025: Upper West Side/Manhattan Valley

• 2022: 19
• 2023 thus far: 6

The brown wave across the five boroughs prompted city sanitation officials this week to mount an ad campaign aimed at rep-poo-bates who don't pick up after their pups.

"Don't Leave _ _it On The Sidewalk," is the campaign's scatological slogan.

Even though the City is getting cleaner - there's still too much litter and dog waste on our sidewalks.

Together with @WeLoveNYC, we launched a campaign to shame the litterers and dog-poopetrators.

Remember, Don’t Leave __it on the Sidewalk. 💩 pic.twitter.com/dG9QQLgnYy
— NYC Sanitation (@NYCSanitation) April 10, 2023

There were nearly 800 complaints about dog waste on sidewalks during the first three months this year, compared to roughly 600 in the same span last year, 311 data shows.

While the Upper West Side ZIP codes are seeing the same increase in poop complaints, they are far below the ZIP codes across the city with the highest number of 311 complaints on the issue this year.

The 10024 ZIP code has the highest number of complaints of any in the neighborhood with seven so far in 2023, while Harlem's 10031 ZIP code has already seen 26 this year, according to 311.

Overall, the 10024 ZIP code has the 41st highest number of pup-poop complaints in 2023 of the 143 city ZIP codes examined by Patch.

Meanwhile, the 10025 ZIP code ranked 50th, and the 10023 ZIP code ranked 94th, respectively, out of the ZIP codes with reported dog poop issues.

Patch reporter Matt Troutman contributed to this report.