Pigeon Poop 'Pelts' SoHo Sidewalk Under Fire Escape Feeding Station, Lawsuit Says

SOHO, NY — A SoHo landlord is suing one of her tenants over pigeon poop, alleging that because the tenant keeps feeding the birds from her third floor apartment, the sidewalk beneath it is being "pelted" with pigeon poop.

Landlord Saada Roberts filed the suit onWednesday in an attempt to force tenant Margaret Lee to stop feeding the birds from her Bond Street apartment.

According to Roberts, Lee has been feeding the pigeons on a piece of cardboard she places on the fire escape of her building, causing "bird and fecal matter" to fall onto the street below and even onto the customers of the ground floor tenant, the Oak boutique. Lee initially agreed to stop feeding the birds, according to Roberts' lawsuit, but then was spotted the next day feeding them from her window ledge, meaning that "bird feces continue to pelt the front of the Building and the entrance to" Oak. (Want more local news? Subscribe here for Patch's free newsletters.)

The trendy boutique, located at 28 Bond St., told Roberts that it can't keep the front door to its store open because an unwelcome pigeon customer had previously entered the shop. In addition, "no one can sit in front of its store because of pigeon feces dropping," according to the suit.

"They live in a world where every bite counts, so I try to help them in any way I can," Lee told the New York Post, which first reported on the lawsuit. "I believe that pigeons get a really raw deal, so I decided I was going to stand up for them as best I could."

This squabble over the pigeon poop is the latest in a tumultuous relationship between tenant and landlord. According to Roberts' lawsuit, Lee's tenancy was first terminated in 2015, after Roberts complained that "because of the quantity of [Lee's] possession," repairs and improvements to her apartment were unable to be made. A holdover proceeding on this "first nuisance," was resolved by a probationary stipulation, Roberts said in the lawsuit, before the bird poop issue started dropping down from the third floor.

Lead image courtesy of Razvan Socol.