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Stop feeding pigeons in the park - especially the ones by the Irish Famine Memorial

Irish Famine Memorial statue with a pigeon on her head

City officials say they're noodling ways to keep pigeons away from the statutes of the Irish Famine Memorial in Downtown Crossing, since signs urging people to stop feeding the damn birds have failed miserably.

In response to a citizen request to clean the statues, the city says:

The statues in this area are rinsed twice a week (Sunday and Wednesday) as. well as the plaza area. Staff from the Downtown Boston Business. Improvement District (BID) clean the flower beds/landscape area daily and. empty the trash. The big problem with keeping the area clean is the pigeons. which many people feed even though there are signs posted asking patrons. not to feed the pigeons. The city and the BID are going to explore options. to detract the pigeons from the area.

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Comments

Really?? Im speechless smdh

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Municipal hawks, falcons, and owls needed.

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Better Than a Hawk

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If it's not your pet, or a stray animal you're trying to get closer to you so you can rescue it/take it to a shelter, QUIT DAMN FEEDING IT. No geese. No ducks. No raccoons.

My only exception to that tends to be stray cats, since they can actually be quite beneficial in terms of curbing rodent issues (though they also negatively impact the local bird population, so it's still not 100% positive).

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Racoons, rats, pigeons are people too!!! Plus racoons are soooo cute!

Nazi!!!

Sarcasm off.

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The park is a magnet for drunken homeless and junkies. It is an embarrassment to showcase the city on such a heavily trafficked part of the freedom trail. Every doorway has somebody begging for money and some of them are quite brazen with signs such as "need money for beer".

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hate to be like this but yes... I work close by and its always filled with homeless. But then again, DTX has a pretty bad homeless problem these days. Tired of getting accosted by the same 'homeless' people daily. And yes they are brazen.. got accosted by two guys coming out of the ATM machine. I mean come on.

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I usually head out to do my content stuff for Boston at 7am on a Saturday morning and ended up getting a sense of the 'wino-shed', (hey, we have a 'view shed' and a 'walk shed', why not a wino shed?).

It covers the area between Tremont, the waterfront, along Fort Point channel and Fan Pier.It underscores the sense I get that 'New Boston' is a facade, marketing lipstick on an old pig and when you examine it away from the main promenades, it's still old Boston.

And the main promenades have a corresponding problem, the hordes of fake town criers and other guide critters with their regimented tourism squadrons.It is weird and jarring to lurch back and forth between these competing monkey pleas.

The guide monkey sees my camera and scolds me for not wanting to imbibe in his valuable lore and as I make my getaway, I blunder into another wino with more pressing concerns.

These two elements are like a truth about the place that won't readily go away. I have some sympathy for the winos in that "but for the grace.." sense, but our version of fake centurions is fairly awful.

I'm grateful I don't work there and extend heartfelt condolences to those who do. May you have an outstanding Labor Day Weekend.

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EOM.

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.lock, stock and schlock alert.

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I believe the issue with signs, in general is that, those who read signs would probably not be taking part in the behavior addressed by a sign, and those who would take part in said behaviors wouldn't care if a sign was there. Examples: "keep dog on leash" "pick up after your dog" "park closes at dusk" "do not litter" and my favorite "do not climb on the noodle"

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However, signs for such things, as anal as they may seem to people like us, are often deemed necessary so the laws can be enforced.

I'd hate to see a defense attorney get his client's fines tossed because "there was no sign posted".

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what the canadians do up in Montreal and feed them birth control so they'll stop reproducing. oh wait we live in massachusetts....

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Ahhh....Canadiens. Non, Quebecois.

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Is it ironic if they're feeding the pigeons potato chips?

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too soon

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then it's too late.

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I'm Irish and that's offensive.

Hot Pocket.

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I'm Irish too, and I agree, we are offensive.

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What's wrong with feeding the pigeons? Focus on getting the homeless out of the park and off the streets-like getting them homes. It's not a city park without pigeons and squirrels! And while we're at it lets stop with the incessant cleaning of the statues it's actually wearing them down! The oxidation slows further oxidation.

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As far as I'm concerned, asking what's wrong with feeding pigeons is like asking what's wrong with feeding rats in city parks. They're both nuisance animals and we don't need to encourage them.

That said - bird shit and incessant cleaning are wearing those statues down? Awesome! They're terrible statues. Even the artist who made them is on record as feeling they're badly done.

I'm in favor of there being an Irish Famine Memorial of some kind in Boston, and Downtown Crossing is as good a place as any, but maybe we could come up something better.

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TO the homeless?

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Send in the goats

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The statues seem to be reacting to the pigeons. It has been like this since the day they were put in. As for the homeless DTX has a number of shelters -and food pantries in the area - veterans , st francis, arch street church are the ones that come to mind.

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The poo, it burns!

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a great photo!

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