Poop on the Wall

From a distance my office building, a stately old converted Victorian, looks very nice. Approaching the steps you get your first inkling that things might be amiss. Depending on the day, weather, and who slept on the front stoop the night before, any manner of bedding, food, and miscellaneous personal items will be scattered throughout the front yard. Several tenants in the building claim that they have seen people defecating in the shrub next to the steps. I luckily have been spared seeing or smelling such a sight.

The building houses the National Lawyers Guild and the Tenants Union, so naturally we let homeless people camp overnight. Being a human rights activist, I am naturally in agreement with this practice. However, being afflicted with OCD means that I am deeply grossed out and disturbed by the debris as the stuff gets pretty funky. We had to take measures when people started blocking the door and shooting up on the steps during office hours. Now there is a sign that says we reserve the right to remove things left overnight which caused the homeless people to retaliate with a note calling us "Buppy Guild Attorneys". I don't know what buppy means.

Usually the gross is confined to the outside of the building, but not always and not today. Today someone smeared poop on the wall of the upstairs bathroom. This is the bathroom that everyone on the top floor uses, myself included. The building manager Ted has been in meetings since I discovered the situation and that's probably a good thing, because I want to freak out on someone and it would probably be him. This is too much, even for social justice, even for non-profits, even for the sake of access to public bathrooms. Basta.