Liberty Village begins its inevitable slide into poop-covered squalor

The latest salvo in Liberty Village’s ongoing war on dog poop was fired in the Parkdale Villager over the weekend. In an article about the problem, local anti-poop activist Geoff Webb is quoted saying that his neighbourhood’s infamous feces issues are only getting worse, in part because the entire community relies on one small park for most of its dog-walking needs. Even more telling is Ward 19 councillor Mike Layton’s quote in the same article: “No one contemplated the number of dogs that would be in the area,” Layton said. “I often joke that there’s five dogs for every half a child per floor in Liberty Village.”

Layton may be joking, but he’s not wrong to suggest that Liberty Village’s poop problem stems from questionable city planning. Railroad tracks isolate the neighbourhood from the rest of downtown, and an abundance of new condo high-rises puts extra stress on the area’s amenities. And those are only today’s problems. The fact that many of Toronto’s new condo buildings are probably only 25 or 30 years away from major capital-repairs crises means things in places like Liberty Village could get worse over time, not better. In other words, the poop may be trying to tell us something.