WASHINGTON, D.C. – As snow from late January storms finally melts across the Northeast, people living in Washington, Philadelphia and New York are confronting what had been buried underneath for weeks: dog poop left behind on sidewalks and streets.

Across neighborhood forums and Reddit threads, residents are posting photos and complaints about sidewalks littered with pet waste that had been buried beneath snow for weeks.

But this isn’t just about aesthetics.

Why it’s more than just a mess

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, pet waste is considered an environmental pollutant. When left on the ground, rain or melting snow can wash bacteria and parasites into storm drains and waterways.

Dog feces can contain harmful organisms including E. coli, salmonella and parasites such as roundworms and hookworms. These contaminants can pose risks to humans — especially children — and other animals.

In Washington, D.C., the District Department of Energy and Environment notes that pet waste contributes to water pollution when not properly disposed of, as stormwater systems in many cities flow untreated into rivers.

In other words: once the snow melts, that waste doesn’t just disappear.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JANUARY 25: A person walks a dog in the snow in Brooklyn as a major winter storm moves through the area on January 25, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

What residents are saying

In Washington, D.C., neighborhood forums have filled with posts criticizing dog owners for failing to clean up during snowstorms.

Similar complaints have surfaced in Philadelphia, including posts about areas like Manayunk and other high-foot-traffic neighborhoods. New York residents have voiced the same frustrations after recent storms.

Many of the posts echo the same question: “Did people assume the snow would simply take care of it?”

Who is responsible?

In all three cities, pet owners are legally required to clean up after their animals.

Municipal sanitation departments are generally responsible for street cleaning, but they are not tasked with individually removing pet waste left on sidewalks. Enforcement typically falls to animal control or local authorities when violations are reported.

In short: the responsibility falls on dog owners — not the city.

TORONTO, ON – January 15 – A small dog searches for a thrown stick in the snow. (Lance McMillan/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

Why does this happen after snowstorms?

Experts say snow creates a behavioral loophole.

During heavy snowfall, some pet owners may assume waste will remain buried or that cleanup can wait. Others may struggle to locate waste under deep snow or icy conditions.

But when temperatures rise — like they have in mid-February — the result can be weeks’ worth of accumulated waste suddenly visible at once.

The freeze-thaw cycle also prevents natural decomposition, meaning what was left behind in early February may look nearly unchanged once the snow melts.

The health and environmental impact

Beyond being unpleasant, concentrated pet waste can:

• Contaminate runoff that enters rivers and streams
• Contribute to bacteria levels that affect water quality
• Create unsanitary walking conditions in dense urban areas

Environmental agencies consistently warn that pet waste should be bagged and disposed of in trash bins — not left on sidewalks, in parks or near storm drains.

What you can do:

Experts recommend:

• Always carrying extra waste bags during winter walks
• Fully removing waste, even in snow or icy conditions
• Disposing of bagged waste in trash receptacles — not storm drains
• Reporting chronic problem areas to local sanitation or animal control
• As winter loosens its grip across the Northeast, cities are once again confronting a familiar seasonal issue.

The snow may be gone, but the responsibility isn’t.

CMR: It seems like the model of journalism funded by online ad revenue is somewhat defunct. We’ll get to the Post later, but what do you all make of the argument that good journalism takes a lot of money to make and just might not be profitable in and of itself?

AH: I think what Maddie just described is a really important answer to this. We’re hearing very often that journalism is not sustainable anymore, that now with the internet people aren’t willing to pay for journalism. What we all need to agree and commit it to is that journalism is a public good.

Journalism is a thing that we need. Particularly when it comes to local news, when we lose publications, corporate malfeasance increases, people are less likely to vote, to run for office, are less civically engaged. There is a litany of negative effects when we lose news, so there needs to be a commitment to make it happen. And good journalism is expensive. But when you compare it to all the other things that our government and we as a society spend our money on, it’s really not that expensive.

MP: Just check out those daily National Guard fees!

AH: Exactly. The ad model has collapsed, which means we need to replace that funding with something else.

CMR: What gap in coverage did you see the 51st filling when you launched, what were people looking for?

AH: DC is an interesting case. It’s not a news desert as compared to the very real news deserts, particularly in rural areas across the United States, where there are no publications left. But DC shows signs of approaching a news desert, and has experienced a steady and increasingly dramatic erosion of local news. It’s in a unique position because we have a lot of journalists in DC, but most of them are focused on Congress and what Trump said this week. That’s important work, but we also need journalists who are covering DC as a city where hundreds of thousands of people live and work.

Credit: Henry Kan

With the closure of DCist, where all of us used to work, followed by dramatic reductions at Washington City Paper, and buyouts at the Post that cut deeply into the Metro section, there were so many different gaps that were left in the city. Dedicated education coverage was dramatically lacking, as was dedicated housing coverage.

A thing we heard from a lot of DC residents was a lack of holistic coverage of crime, not in a dramatic or fear-mongering way, but as a societal issue. What services are young people in DC not getting, what ways are neighbors working to keep each other safe etc.

There was also a huge gap in accountability reporting too, the kind of reporting that holds elected officials feet to the fire. That’s something that our full-time reporter, Martin Austermuhle, does by being at the Wilson Building regularly, going to city council hearings and reporting on what is said and passed. There are very, very few journalists that do that dogged local coverage any more.

MP: The other thing we’ve seen people want is stories about local curiosities. The Pho Viet story, about the beautiful abundant garden outside a mainstay Vietnamese restaurant. Or the one about the lifeguard at Banneker Pool that is always playing bops. The sort of things that help you know the fixtures in your community and your neighbors better, things that make you feel really proud to live in DC. There is tendency in national news to talk about DC as just Capitol Hill, it’s important for us to tell stories about why we love this place and why it’s so much more than just a political backdrop or pawn.

AH: Local news is how you know about and get connected to your neighbors. Another thing we heard as we were doing research before launch was that people felt like they didn’t have the information to make weekend plans anymore, didn’t have information about events happening in the city, or restaurants opening, or community events that don’t grab big headlines. That’s what local news is. It’s how people get connected to the other people who call their city home.

CMR: How are you all feeling about the layoffs at the Post? Relatedly, there seems to be significant demand for a “replacement” for the Post’s coverage, what makes the 51st different from other local news offerings in that regard?

AH: I’m still digesting it — I feel so angry and so sad. What happened at the Post did not need to happen. The money to support a publication like the Post and the journalists who work there exists, and, in fact, exists in the pocket of the man who owns the Post. It’s so frustrating how absolutely unnecessary these cuts were. I feel sad about what we’re losing. I feel sad about the journalists losing their jobs, and about what us as citizens of the United States and of the world are losing from all the stories that will no longer be told. And I also feel really scared. What’s happening at the Post is happening in tandem with losing two and half local newspapers every week and massive institutions like CBS and the Post not only being dismantled, but being repurposed for the aims of powerful right wing interests to further consolidate money at the top and remove the remaining checks that we have on their power.

MP: There’s so much to digest, just incredibly heartbreaking and scary and a symptom of the greater collapse we’re seeing across our systems and institutions.

There is a part of me that remains optimistic because of how many people are hungry, eager, and ready to build alternative structures in response to collapse. We are not going to make up this giant void left by this storied institution, but we are taking community feedback really serious and listening to understand what’s needed: an alternative approach to how journalism has traditionally been done, at least institutionalized journalism.

AH: It is really important for us to be clear that we cannot replace the Washington Post. The kind of resources that an institution like that commanded to do vital journalism is irreplaceable. That being said, we are really passionate about the alternative model that we’re building, and really believe in the ability of that model to be part of creating a better local news ecosystem. A local news ecosystem that is not controlled by powerful executives who may or may not have any experience in journalism, one that is directly responsive to the needs of readers and community members.

Local news in particular, but journalism more broadly, does not have a perfect history or present. There are plenty of examples of journalism holding up the interests of the powerful and failing to protect the less powerful. While we contend with what is a catastrophic loss for journalism, it’s also our responsibility to start building better alternatives. We believe that in the community of DC that’s what we’re doing with the 51st.

Thank God we’re not the only local news institution left. DC deserves a vibrant local news community with a bunch of different publications that are well funded and supported to do their journalism. It’s really important to us that we partner with other local institutions — we co-publish with the Spanish language publication El Tiempo Latino and the Amharic language publication Ethiopique. I think that long term it’s better for DC to be a city with many different community-responsive publications than one behemoth like the Washington Post. That’s the vision that we’re building towards.

MP: We have been planning to grow our newsroom and fundraise this month based on the two-year anniversary of the 51st’s launch with a campaign to bring on two full-time employees. After what happened at the Post, we realized the need is so much greater, and also that community support is really there. In the three days after the cuts were announced we saw 700 new paid members join without us even really putting a call out there. (That’s the second biggest growth spurt in the 51st’s history. The first? When Bezos pulled the Post’s endorsement of Kamala Harris) It’s a heartening testament to building something that the community wants. So we’re going to be launching a $375,000 campaign for the next month, and are already in talks with some major local donors and foundations about providing matching funds. We know the need is there for talented reporters in DC.

AH: The support is reflective of the fact that people need this, want this, and, in this economy, are willing to put their dollars behind it. DC has had a rough, rough year. Not only is the National Guard continuing to occupy our streets, but we have seen unprecedented amounts of layoffs in this city both from federal agencies as a result of DOGE and also from nonprofit and think tanks that rely on government funding. A lot of DC residents are worse for wear economically, but are still continuing to show up and commit memberships to the 51st. News and information is something people want, something people deserve, and something that should be free and available to everyone.

This first appeared on Inequality.org.

Abigail Higgins is the president and managing editor of the 51st. 

Maddie Poore is the director of growth and engagement at the 51st.

Washington
 — 

Multiple failures across different parts of the government caused an Army Black Hawk helicopter to collide with an American Airlines regional jet, operated by PSA Airlines, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded in a nearly 400-page report released Tuesday.

The January 29, 2025, midair collision near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport killed 67 people, making it the deadliest commercial aviation accident in the United States in more than 20 years.

The NTSB’s final report describes a chain of errors where policies and procedures in place to protect the public failed that cold, winter night.

“FAA’s placement of a helicopter route in close proximity to a runway approach path; their failure to regularly review and evaluate helicopter routes and available data, and their failure to act on recommendations to mitigate the risk of a midair collision” were cited as part of the “probable cause” of the accident.

The board also placed blame on an “overreliance” on pilots visually looking out for other aircraft “without consideration for the limitations of the see-and-avoid concept.”

The helicopter crew had been warned by the air traffic controller to look out for the jet and confirmed they saw it moments before the crash. It’s not clear whether they saw the plane or mistook another aircraft for the jet.

The NTSB added the cause of the crash also included air traffic control’s “degraded performance” because two positions had been combined in the tower, and there was no “risk assessment process … which resulted in misprioritization of duties, inadequate traffic advisories, and the lack of safety alerts to both flight crews.”

The report noted the Army’s share of the cause was a failure to train pilots on the margin of error of altimeters, which show altitude, leading to the helicopter flying above the allowed height.

“Within the report we highlight systemic failures that led to the local air traffic controller failing to provide required traffic alerts, the (Army helicopter) crew not knowing or indicating their correct altitude, the FAA not evaluating their own data, and a dangerous route design that left no room for error,” said NTSB board member Todd Inman in the report. “These are real, tangible problems that need to be addressed, and I hope the recipients of our recommendations get to work immediately.”

The incident heightened public attention to the safety of air travel in 2025 — a year punctuated by the dramatic crash of a Delta Air Lines regional jet landing in Toronto and the fiery crash of a UPS cargo plane taking off from Louisville, Kentucky.

NTSB investigators formally made 50 safety recommendations in the final report, including 33 of them directed to the FAA.

“We must ensure the hard-won knowledge contained in this report translates to lives saved,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy wrote in the report. “Making the system-wide changes we need doesn’t come easy, but we must make them. And we should do so BEFORE people die.”

The recommendations call for the aviation agency to implement time limitations for air traffic control supervisors, improve training, limit some commercial air traffic at busy airports, improve crash avoidance technology and amend helicopter route design criteria.

Within weeks of the January 29 crash, Trump administration officials announced changes to helicopter routes around Washington, addressing two of the NTSB’s urgent recommendations. A multibillion-dollar overhaul to an aging air traffic control system was also promised.

While the NTSB cannot force the adoption of its safety recommendations, the board advocates for their implementation to prevent another crash.

One key subject of several recommendations involves improving crash avoidance technology. The report found “limitations” of “collision alerting systems on both aircraft” contributed to the accident.

The board has long urged all aircraft to have systems that would show pilots if another aircraft was getting dangerously close. In January’s crash, the Army helicopter had a system to transmit its position, called “ADS-B Out,” but it was turned off. The regional jet was transmitting its location with the system but neither aircraft had a way to receive information from the other. Equipping planes with “ADS-B In” could show pilots other aircraft nearby and help avoid them.

A few days before the one year anniversary of the incident, the NTSB held an hours-long board meeting to describe every failure on that night.

“This was preventable. This was 100% preventable,” Homendy said during the meeting.

“They would have (seen the helicopter) with ADS-B In (and) gotten an alert at 59 seconds before the collision and been able to take measures to avert it,” she continued later during the board meeting. “For the helicopter crew, they had 48 seconds. They didn’t even know — it is clear from the (cockpit voice recorder) they didn’t even know it was on the left.”

Sen. Ted Cruz, chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, has called for the system to be implemented on all aircraft. Sens. Cruz and Cantwell have co-sponsored a bill that would mandate the technology, but it awaits a vote from the House.

“The pilots would have been warned of each other’s exact position nearly one minute before impact, and 67 people would still be alive today,” Cruz said last week in the hearing.

Homendy closed the report reiterating that too many of the NTSB’s recommendations from previous deadly accidents resulted in no action being taken.

“To all who have lost loved ones in an accident we’ve investigated, know this: the NTSB will never give up,” Homendy wrote. “Until every single one of our safety recommendations is fully implemented. Until there’s no longer a need for our recommendations. Until there’s no longer a need for the NTSB. Until we have a safe transportation system for all. Until there are zero grieving families. Zero.”