San Francisco creates ‘Poop Patrol’ to battle human waste problem
San Francisco’s mayor has created a new program called ‘Poop Patrol’ to clean up the human waste from the infested sidewalks.
It's anything but a San Francisco treat.
One of the most beautiful cities in the country has turned into a dumping ground for Bay Area bowel movements -- and things have gotten so bad the California city is now dubbed the "Doo-Doo Capital in the U.S."
The new nickname comes courtesy of apartment search service RealtyHop, which said the city had the highest amount of complaints about fecal matter on sidewalks.
Data compiled by the website showed 455.89 poop sightings reported per square mile in 2017.
"Living in a s---ty neighborhood has a whole new meaning for San Franciscans," RentHop states. "Unlike what we saw in Chicago and New York, the city center of San Francisco is, sadly, covered by poop, and neighborhoods away from the city center see fewer complaints (except for Golden Gate Park)."
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The worst neighborhoods in San Francisco for waste complaints from humans and animals were Golden Gate Park, South of Market, and the Tenderloin.
"While one would assume that lower-income neighborhoods might experience worse poop issues, that is not the case in San Francisco," according to the website. "It seems that the poop crisis in San Francisco is unlike what we see in other cities (where you can just blame it on the cute furry little friends of ours), it reflects more so a social crisis."
San Francisco, with its year-long comfortable temperatures, has a large homeless population. Out of the 7,499 homeless people recorded last year, about 58 percent, or 4,353 people, were marked as unsheltered. The other 3,146 were designated sheltered.
A man stands outside his tent on Division Street in San Francisco. (AP)
Data compiled by RealtyHop shows the number of complaints have risen every year from 2011 to 2018, and the number almost tripled -- from 5,606 to 20,899 -- from 2011-2017. So far in 2018, there have been more than 16,310 complaints logged, which may surpass last year.
SAN FRANCISCO CREATES 'POOP PATROL' TO CLEAN UP CITY'S FECES-RIDDEN SIDEWALKS
Earlier this year, the city launched a new pilot program called the “Poop Patrol,” which is set to scour targeted neighborhoods looking for human waste.
Department of Public Works director Mohammed Nuru told KTVU at the time the city will spend about $750,000 to search for and clean up human waste.
“So, what happens is we’re going to take one of those crews out and try to get ahead of those calls and look for these locations so that hopefully we can get less numbers of calls coming in,” he said.
Fox News' Lucia Suarez contributed to this report.
