Bag It!

The Parks Department says 16 dog waste bag stations have been installed across Mosholu Parkway by the New York City Parks Department. The stations contain clean plastic bags intended for dog owners to pick up after their pooches. A Parks Department spokesperson said the installation project was finalized two weeks ago costing roughly $1400.

“This will be a perfect opportunity now for us to educate the public even further,” wrote Elizabeth Quaranta, president of Friends of Mosholu Parkland, a volunteer advocacy group for the park side of the parkway, in a letter to the Parks Department outlining her thanks.

But as grateful as Quaranta is about the newest addition aimed at keeping a cleaner parkway, she worries that just the installation of the bags, and not a container to place the poop, will not completely resolve the issue, although public wastebaskets can be found along the parkway.

“We are concerned that the purpose of having the dog waste [bag stations] is not completed unless it has a bin attached to it so people can throw the used baggie near the pole,” Quaranta told the Norwood News. “We still have the issue of people leaving the used doggie bag on the sidewalk or thrown in the parkland.”

According to Quaranta, the Parks Department told her there’s simply not enough manpower to have any containers picked up on a weekly basis.

Through a Parks Department spokesperson, NYC Parks First Deputy Commissioner Liam Kavanagh said in a statement to the Norwood News, “These dispensers will encourage dog owners to be responsible and keep their neighborhood parks clean for other park goers.”