Downtown Poop

As noted, I thoroughly enjoy my time here in Downtown Cincinnati. Being close to almost every service I need, walking to work, endless food choices etc. That does not mean it’s all peaches and cream down here. With that I bring you my new segment, A Case of the Monday’s, where I bitch about something that is bugging me. Today is even more fitting, because after a great weekend trip I came back to all the shit downtown has to offer….literally.

Now as much of a city boy as I am, from time to time I feel the need to spread my wings and enjoy the country life. This weekend’s escape was found in Lexington, Ohio and Mid-Ohio Raceway at the combined ALMS/Indycar event. Some friends from DC came out to join me, and we spent three days living in tents, cooking over charcoal, and not showering. It is always great event rain or shine (or both as this weekend would have it), and leaving the event feeling absolutely filthy is just part of the gig. It’s the sort of experience makes you feel great when you finally get home and take that first shower.

I set all that up so you know I have no problem being dirty, when appropriate. I don’t expect the race campground to be immaculate, and I don’t expect the portalets to smell clean and fresh either.

Similarly, I understand that I live in a city, and there will always be some trash in the streets, maybe even a chicken wing or two (I’ll still rant about those later I’m sure). But when I walk five blocks to work and see more than that many piles of shit on the ground, that is when I get pissed off. I generally mix up my route to work every day, but without fail I will see at least one big steaming pile of excrement somewhere along the way.

And I’m not just talking about dog shit here either. Although I will say that living in the city, there is really no reason to let your dog poop on the sidewalk and not pick it up We all have to walk here, so do your part.

But it goes beyond that. I walked through the alley between what used to be Chambers and what used to be Flo’s (on Court St) and was met with not one, but two loads that were unmistakably human. What a surprise, Court St (which rivals any other site in the city for Panhandler central) has someone’s feces on it. Gross!

Now let’s add to that what I saw last Thursday. I was out for a walk downtown and saw some of CPD’s finest on their mounted patrol. Ahhh, the majestic clapping of shoed horses trotting along the boulevard and…SPLAT…one of the horses drops a huge load right in the middle of the crosswalk. Unreal! You’re telling me we can put a bunch of cops on segways to roll around the city, but we can’t get some shit bags for CPD horses? You’ve got to be kidding me! Later I see the same cops sitting on their horses up in the middle of Fountain Square. I sat there waiting, hoping that one would just poop in the fountain or something. It’s absurd that a resident can’t bring their dog up on the square, but for some reason CPD horses are OK. The size of most peoples dogs downtown are smaller than the dumps taken by those horses.

Maybe it’s just me, but poop is just one of the most disgusting things to see when I’m walking in the middle of the city. And in all my time living in Washington DC (18 years) I never saw the amount of dookie on pavement that I see here.

I still love downtown and all it has to offer, but the city could do some more to clean up their shit!