The land around street trees lives in the jurisdictional limbo zone between private and public property. The city owns the trees (which are under the purview of the Department of Parks and Recreation), but property owners are responsible for keeping the area around them clean.
While the tactics used to guard these spaces may alienate many dog owners, there’s joy in catching sight of the creativity, even comedy, along sidewalks citywide.
Some of these homegrown efforts were inspired by Jimmy Van Bramer, a former city councilman who was considered a champion of the arts when he represented the 26th district in Queens from 2010 to 2021.
In 2013, Mr. Van Bramer sponsored a well-publicized “anti-dog poop” poster competition for a school in Sunnyside, after the students complained to his office about seeing dog waste in the surrounding area.
“Adults had been feeling the same way, too,” recalled Mr. Van Bramer. “We didn’t want them to feel the long arm of law enforcement, but we wanted the collective well-being to be top of mind — the posters did that.”
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