June 13, 2002
The Problem of Dog Shit
The Problem of Dog Shit
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| Clean park. 11 Juin. |
As an explanation for this I was told that the Parisians expect the government to clean up the dog shit for them.
Here, illustrated, you see a pristine park where in fact the government does clean up the dog shit for them. And on busy streets, men ride around on lawn-mower-like machines that literally sweep up all the trash and filth on the streets. But merde is not part of the government's domain of responsibility.
Sadly, the riding-street-sweepers have no effect on the residue of urination.
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| They can ride this too. 14 Juin. |
Let me just add a third problem: the city's sewers are very old and so not very deep. Sometimes you can smell them on the ground. Add to this that the Metro is very old and so also rather shallow (just below the sewers I'm told). And so, there is the problem of the sewer smells in the Metro's extensive network of correspondance tunnels.
Get this though: not much public urination in those tunnels. In fact, the Frenchman would rather piss on the open street peopled with children and old ladies (I have seen this) than in the dank, remote reaches of the underground.
By this measure, les tramps New-Yorkaise are far more shy. They don't mind pissing on subway platforms at all, but you'll never see them or even drunk fratboys from NYU pissing in front of you, in mid-afternoon, on a ("smart") car (yes, I have seen this too).
Posted by amol at June 13, 2002 12:54 PM