Uptown Sees Major Jump In Dog Poop Complaints To Begin Year: 311 Data

UPPER MANHATTAN, NY — There are few worse feelings then realizing you have dog droppings stuck to the bottom of your shoe, but how do the complaints surrounding the issue compare in Washington Heights and Inwood to the rest 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 in Upper Manhattan.

There have already been 18 complaints in 2023 about dog waste on sidewalks from Washington Heights and Inwood's 10032, 10033, 10040, and 10034 ZIP codes out of the 880 made citywide since the beginning of the year, data shows.

The same four uptown ZIP codes had 33 complaints related to the same issue during the entirety of 2022 — and with only a little over three months gone this year — the uptown 2023 dog poop qualms number looks set to easily surpass last year's total.

At the current rate, the Washington Heights and Inwood dog poop complaints made to 311 will be roughly 72 by the end of the year.

The figure would be more than double the complaints made in 2022.

Here's a breakdown of the year so far in Upper Manhattan, according to 311 data.

10032: Washington Heights South

• 2022: 12
• 2023 thus far: 9

10033: Washington Heights

• 2022: 13
• 2023 thus far: 3

10040: Washington Heights North/Dyckman

• 2022: 4
• 2023 thus far: 2

10034: Inwood

• 2022: 4
• 2023 thus far: 4

The brown wave seen across the five boroughs to begin the year 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 uptown 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 about the issue this year.

The 10032 ZIP code has the highest number of complaints of any in Upper Manhattan with nine so far in 2023, that's compared to the Harlem 10031 ZIP code leading the city that has already seen 26 this year, according to 311.

Overall, the 10032 ZIP code has the 31st highest number of pup-poop complaints in 2023 of the 143 city ZIP codes examined by Patch.

Meanwhile, the 10033 ZIP code ranked 95th, the 10040 ZIP ranked 110th, and the 10034 ZIP ranked 77th out of the 143 city ZIP codes with reported dog poop issues.

Patch reporter Matt Troutman contributed to this report.