Illustrations of Hood Pathology

Quite often I'll walk past the garbage bins in front of my building and get the bum's rush courtesy of the overwhelming ammonia smell of urine. I always wonder, "Who is peeing in the trash?" I always hope that it's maybe stray cats or some other animal, but I know it's probably some dude.

Well the other night I came home from a party sometime in the early morning and saw some dude who most likely lives in my building, taking a whiz right in the garbage bin area. He couldn't be bothered to go upstairs to his apartment. Nor could he bother to use a tree or perhaps the sewage drain in the street. No, he had to pee in a heavily trafficked common area. Why? I guess for the same reason you have the pervasive "piss in the elevator"-phenomenon found in low-income housing complexes; the same reason I find less vigilant dog-curbing in my neighborhood; the same reason people flagrantly toss food wrappers and other debris on the sidewalks of the neighborhood they live in. I see it as a lack of self-respect. If you don't value the environment that you inhabit, then you don't much value yourself. That's of course much too simplistic a view, but I think there is a grain of truth in it.