Stop! Is That San Francisco Poop on Your Flip-Flop?

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What’s dirtier? The world’s poorest slums or the streets of San Francisco? Bingo! If you said San Francisco, then close your eyes, touch a random part of the sidewalk below with your hand and then pat yourself on the back with some human feces. San Francisco is in the toilet. Literally. The notorious San Francisco poop problem is getting worse. If the garbage and drug needles already everywhere in the city. Wearing flip-flops or open-toed shoes in San Francisco is not only a bad idea, but could be dangerous. One wrong step could cover your foot in San Francisco poop and prick your toe with a dirty needle.

San Francisco Poop Problem: 400% Increase

There’s a new and very sad reality for California. Downtown San Francisco is now more contaminated with garbage, drug needles, and human feces than some of the world’s poorest slums.

“I will say there are more feces on the sidewalks than I’ve ever seen growing up here,” said the mayor of San Francisco London Breed to KNTV. “That is a huge problem and we are not just talking about from dogs — we’re talking about from humans.”

According to San Francisco City records, reports of poop on the sidewalk have increased 400% from 2008 to 2018. There were over 21,000 San Francisco poop reports made to the city’s 311 services in 2017 alone.

I give you one my favorite Jurassic Park scenes: Jeff Goldblum walking seductively towards a big pile of dinosaur shit.

San Francisco Poop Map

Jennifer Wong, (@mybluewristband), a civil-engineer-turned-web-developer, used San Francisco’s 311 reports to build an interactive San Franciso poop map website called Human Wasteland. Her San Francisco Poop app allows you to browse a brown-tinted version of downtown San Francisco using Google Maps and see a heatmap (aka poop map) of where street feces has been reported.

DNA Test Help Determine If San Francisco Poop Is Animal Or Human

So where is all the San Franciso poop on the street coming from? Although lazy pet owners who don’t pick up after their dogs contribute to the problem, unfortunately, most of the poop is human. The city often DNA tests questionable feces to determine if it is human or animal. For example, a foul-smelling 20-pound bag of feces was reported to the city at the corner of Polk and Cedar on June 30, 2018. The city DNA tested the bag. The results: human. The bag was most likely used as a liner for a bucket street toilet.

[bctt tweet=”The San Francisco poop problem is getting worse. Wearing flip-flops or open-toed shoes in the city is not only a bad idea, but it could be dangerous.”