NEW YORK CITY — This stinks.
While many of the city's dog owners clean up after their pooches, residents of some neighborhoods are still barking for being forced to navigate through streets rampant with poop.
The Bronx was issued the most violations in the city with 252 in the last two years, more than four times the second highest amount, logged in Queens, which had 68 during that time period.
Brooklyn had 63 violations, Manhattan 27 violations and Staten Island had the least with only three.
Three of the Bronx's neighborhoods — Norwood, West Farms and Soundview — led the pack in complaints to the city's 311 system with 135 or more.
Check out DNAinfo New York's map of the ZIP codes with the most dog poop complaints:
Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. said his office was focused on the issue for the borough, which saw a total of 1,321 complaints during the past four years.
“We have urged the Department of Sanitation to increase enforcement in The Bronx, and it’s clear that those efforts are making an impact," he said. "Dog waste is disgusting and the people who do not pick up after their dogs are just as disgusting."
READ MORE DNAINFO COVERAGE:
►Video of dog poop scofflaw sparks Fort Greene shame campaign
►Queensbridge Houses resident hosting photo contest to combat dog poop
►Astoria resident pooh-poohs dog doo with street art
During the four-year time period, the department singled out the borough for enforcement.
"The Bronx is a great place with so many things to offer," former DOS Commissioner John Doherty said in a 2011 statement. "But for too long scofflaws have been defiling our beautiful parks, streets and business districts by refusing to clean up after their dogs."
But Soundview resident, Marwa Choudhury, 26, hasn't noticed any improvement, saying dog waste is still "an issue" where she lives.
"You can just smell it," she said, adding that no one seems to enforce the city's "pooper scooper" law in her neighborhood.
Not picking up after your pup is a violation of the measure, introduced in 1978, and carries a $250 fine.
But a sanitation officer must witness a violation in order to issue a ticket, according to the Department of Sanitation, so some residents rely on 311 to document discarded poop in their neighborhoods.
Queens had the highest number of complaints over the past four years with 1,409 and Maspeth was the ZIP code with third most complaints in the city.
Rounding out the top 10 were Parkchester and Wakefield in the Bronx, with 109 and 94 complaints respectively, East New York in Brooklyn with 84, the Bronx's Bedford Park with 80 and Ridgewood in Queens with 77.
Jason Rios, 17, of Soundview, who was walking his dog outside of Watson Gleason Playground, said there are some areas with so much dog poop that "you have to be hopping around" to avoid it.
"Around those little spots, it's like the whole block will be full of it," he said.
But other neighborhoods gleam in comparison, like Chelsea, Lower Manhattan, the West Village, Midtown East, Garment District and TriBeCa in Manhattan, which each recorded only one 311 complaint for dog waste in four years. Manhattan saw 499 complaints to the 311 system as a whole.
Breezy Point in Queens also had just one complaint.
The borough of Staten Island recorded the fewest number of complaints citywide, with just 279 since 2010, records show.
Dog poop has become such a problem in some neighborhoods in Brooklyn — which logged 1,296 complaints — that residents are getting creative to curb the rampant dog poop on their sidewalks.
In Fort Greene, the South Oxford Street Block Association is asking locals to photograph or videotape owners who don't clean up after their pets and is posting the evidence online in their "Dog Walkers Hall of Shame" campaign.
Around 15 complaints to 311 were made in Fort Greene over the last four years.
"For years, block residents have been loudly complaining about people who think they are exempt from having to clean up after their dogs," said Abby Weissman, president of the block association. "There are no excuses for this behavior."
