Pooped Out: Residents Sound Off on Dog Waste

Like many Center Grove residents, Ronald Roth loves the neighborhood for its thick tree canopy, balmy weather, and close proximity to a vibrant, walkable village core. 

But it’s an imperfect paradise, Roth grouses during a recent Sunday stroll, as he points to a fresh pile of his growing pet peeve: Dog poop.  

“It’s everywhere,” Roth says, walking along Matilda Street just west of CocoWalk. “I’ve stepped in it outside my building. I see it all the time when I walk around.”

Roth is not alone. During two recent visits to the neighborhood by a Spotlight reporter, a mounting concern was clearly afoot, with residents more than eager to share their complaints.

“For the sake of the community, the poop in the area is getting ridiculous,” said Matt Buser, pushing a stroller and holding a dog by its leash while walking along Virginia Street. “As a fellow dog owner, I understand it’s annoying, but we all need to be more responsible and take care of the streets.”

The evidence is not hard to find: in plant beds, parks, neighbors’ yards, on the swale, and, in some instances, on the sidewalk.

Some residents say the lack of “doggie waste stations” – green plastic disposal bags and receptacles to accept them – contributes to the problem. A Spotlight reporter encountered none during a multi-block stroll in the neighborhood just north of the village commercial district. 

At several nearby parks – including two that feature fenced-in areas for dogs to roam unleashed – the presence of waste stations was more of a mixed bag. Nary a dog poop could be found at Regatta Park near City Hall, where dog waste stations are found in abundance.

Just up the road at Kennedy Park, where a smattering of canine calling cards littered the grass, especially along the park perimeter, a similar abundance of waste stations seemed a less effective deterrent.

Back in Center Grove’s bifurcated Blanche Park – where a children’s play area sits on one side and a fenced-in dog park with clearly marked waste stations occupies the other – about a half-dozen heaps of unattended dog waste baked in the early morning sun atop the artificial turf covering the block-long park.

Nobody – neither dog nor human companion – took notice, or responsibility. 

Roth says he knows the type. “Sometimes a resident’s dog poops,” he says, “then they look around, and when no one is looking, they swiftly walk away.” 

Not far away, Center Grove resident Gonzalo Martinez bemoaned the same indifference of some owners to cleaning up after their pets. “The craziest thing I ever saw was someone throwing two leaves over their dog’s poop to cover it up instead of just using a bag,” griped Martinez as he rushed to a workout class.

For some frustrated Grovites, gentle confrontation with offenders (the dog owners, not the dogs themselves) can yield mixed results. 

“I have found that there are generally one of two reactions when you ask someone – who clearly doesn’t intend to pick up – if they want an extra bag,” Grove resident Elissa Margulies says. “Either they take off like the Roadrunner, or they stare at their phone with great intensity, as if someone is giving them info on where to find free bitcoin.”

Not everyone surveyed by the Spotlight shares the concern. Fernando Nido, walking along Florida Avenue, said that he really doesn’t really think much about dog poop. 

Long-time resident Cynthia Mills-Shapiro shared that dog poop has always been a problem since she has lived in the Grove, but hasn’t noticed a recent uptick. 

Former Miami District 2 Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, who lives spitting distance from Blanche Park, agrees, insisting that Coconut Grove is “90 percent better” since the City of Miami’s “poop ordinance” passed in 2002. 

The law requires dog owners (or those walking them) to “immediately” collect and dispose of any waste. Violators are subject to a civil infraction that begins with a fine of $50, and increases with each separate offense. 

But police reports of miscreant dog owners and walkers are rare, says Coconut Grove Police Commander Daniel Kerr. 

A recent exception, he recalls, occurred a few weeks ago when a resident allowed his dog to repeatedly poop on the swale in front of a neighbor’s house. The dispute was resolved by the police department’s neighborhood resource officers “without any enforcement,” Kerr explains.

“We don’t get many dog poop complaints, mostly ‘dog off leash’ complaints,” Kerr says. “Every few weeks or so we do a joint detail with Animal Control and the Parks Department to do dog enforcement in the parks. They will issue a bunch of off leash tickets, but I don’t believe they issue any poop tickets.”

Javier Gonzalez, the constituent liaison in Coconut Grove for the Miami District 2 commission office, also pooh-poohs the problem, acknowledging that dog waste complaints are not a top priority right now. 

“Honestly, that has not been a main topic of discussion outside of a couple of comments from some folks in Center Grove,” Gonzalez tells the Spotlight. 

Grove resident Hannah Lidicker, a recent arrival, shrugged when asked to weigh in on the dog doo debate. “We used to live in Brickell, and we moved here a year ago,” Lidicker says. “It’s way worse there.”