Bodega cats of New York

Posted by zdw 7 days ago

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Comment by jackconsidine 2 days ago

Was so excited when I saw this link. Was hoping it would be more like the Trees of New York [0], but appears to be a book.

The bodega in my last neighborhood (Fort Greene) featured an orange cat, Ice Spice. Spice birthed Olivia who now has loads of kittens. They wander in and own like they own the place, even whining at customers to open the doors for them. Here's a picture I took of Olivia on top of the tobacco products

[0] https://tree-map.nycgovparks.org/tree-map/neighborhood/177

[1] https://ibb.co/h1cJTs0g

Comment by thread_id 1 day ago

wait what? NYC Parks has a tree map?

Comment by jjtheblunt 2 days ago

That sounds profoundly irresponsible of the associated humans.

Comment by crooked-v 2 days ago

It would be irresponsible for a pet owner... but you have to understand the context is New York rats, which exist in immense numbers, massively beyond every other major US city, because of a century of just leaving trash piled up on the sidewalk (https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2024-11-27/new-yo...).

Bodega cats aren't pets, they're a cheap and low-impact way to keep rats from moving into the bodega en masse. If one gets run over by a car, that's just an unfortunate cost of business for a bodega owner who needs an option that works better than putting glue traps every five feet or fumigating the entire place every week.

Comment by sandworm101 2 days ago

New york's rats arent just anout trash. NYC also has an oldschool combined sewer system, the type where stormwater and sewage share one pipe. Those big air-filled tunnels are the rat/ningaturtle transport infrastructure. Newer cities with separated sewer and stormwater systems dont have nearly as much a problem.

https://www.nyc.gov/site/dep/water/combined-sewer-overflows....

Comment by timschmidt 2 days ago

> low-impact

As one of the 10% of humanity who has a severe allergy to cats which causes me to be unable to breathe, break out in hives, and weep incredible amounts from every exposed mucus membrane, I had to laugh at this. And cry a little.

Y'all have no idea how high impact cats are.

Fel D proteins seem to trigger immune responses across a broad range of mammals. They are homologs of slow loris venom which also causes intense immune responses. Hypothesis is that they evolved in part by inducing an intense allergic response when the cat is eaten. Which obviously helps the survival of the next cat that predator encounters. It seems to be sheer accident that 90% of humanity isn't bothered by it. Even so, cat allergies are the single most common allergy among humans. Cats shed Fel D 1 everywhere. Being in the same room with one is enough to wreck me for hours to a week. Some folks can control it with medication, but I can't take enough to be in the same room with one.

Rat traps are less expensive, more effective, less prone to killing things other than rats, sanitary, don't have to be fed, don't need a litter box, don't cause allergies, don't need shots, medications, or vet visits, and don't have kittens. Far lower impact and much less work than a cat.

Killing rats is just an excuse people use to keep an emotional support critter around. And is unfortunately inconsiderate of 1 in every 10 people in public spaces.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allergy_to_cats

Comment by ikurei 1 day ago

> 1 in every 10 people in public spaces.

1 in every 10 people may have a cat alergy, but the % of folks with an allergy as severe as yours has to be much lower. I know plenty of people with cat allergies who can spend entire evenings in my cat-inhabited with only very minor discomfort. The person with the most serious allergy to them I know is miles away from your symptoms.

I think you are exaggerating the severity of the issue, but I'm sorry you have this terrible allergy to something as common as cats, that sucks.

Comment by timschmidt 1 day ago

> I think you are exaggerating the severity of the issue

You and everyone else who doesn't suffer. But I was conservative by stating 10%. Medical literature says 10 - 20% and even qualifies that as a potential underestimate. I have looked for stats on severe sufferers, and they are unfortunately very difficult to find.

It does suck. But I would caution you not to discount the discomfort of others so easily.

People tend to understand that exposing someone with a peanut allergy to peanuts is dangerous and can even be considered assault or attempted murder.

No one thinks that about cats.

But the severity of the allergic response occupies the same spectrum (same immune system, misbehaving in the same way). Peanuts just aren't as cute or fluffy as cats. No one is offended if you don't want to pet their peanut. No one makes you eat peanuts in order to visit them at home. No matter how mild the peanut allergy. No one rubs peanuts into every surface of a place like cats spread Fel D 1.

But immune systems don't know the difference. An allergen is an allergen.

To folks who have the allergy, the differences in the way it's treated compared to others affect our every day.

Comment by zdp7 1 day ago

Less than 0.5% of people are at risk of anaphylaxis from cat allergies. Since you brought up peanut allergies, it's relevant to point out that we haven't banned peanuts. It sucks that you and others suffer, but getting rid of cats doesn't make sense when you can ask if there are cats around, much like people with peanut allergies ask about the presence of peanuts.

Comment by timschmidt 20 hours ago

So that's 1 in 200 at mortal risk. Roughly 1,744,000 people in the US.

1 in 5 to 10 in discomfort. Roughly 69,760,000 people in the US.

Good to know. Given Dunbar's number it's likely that most people in the US know someone with a severe cat allergy.

Comment by zdp7 15 hours ago

Cat owners have significantly lower cardiovascular deaths. Children growing up with a cat have an almost 50% lower development of asthma and allergies. They reduce stress and depression.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3317329/

Comment by timschmidt 13 hours ago

I think you'll find that's as true for animals who don't shed proteins evolved to elicit severe allergic reactions as it is for those that do.

Your reference begins with: "The presence of pets has been associated with reduction of stress and blood pressure and therefore may reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases."

Comment by yallpendantools 1 day ago

> Y'all have no idea how high impact cats are.

> inconsiderate of 1 in every 10 people in public spaces.

It's high-impact for you but low-impact for humanity in general or even just for businesses with a rat problem.

1 in 10 is exactly the definition of "low impact". I get that it's a ginormous inconvenience to the dozens of you out there---and as a person with his own allergies, albeit not to cats, you have my sympathy---but that doesn't change the fact that 10% falls pretty squarely under the definition of low-impact.

Comment by defrost 1 day ago

In a city with a population of 8.5 million 10% is easily under nine hundred thousand people, such a low impact indeed ... 'dozens' might be overstating this /s

Comment by timschmidt 1 day ago

You're claiming that the single most common allergy suffered by humans is low impact compared to a $2 rat trap which doesn't bother anyone. The cope...

You can just say you like cats. You don't have to invent fallacious reasons for it.

Comment by kulahan 2 days ago

Right but cats are awesome

Comment by timschmidt 2 days ago

What a privilege it must be to think so. Sadly, I cannot relate. To me they're poison or a visit to the ER. Like if most of the people in the world thought diamondback rattlesnakes or boomslangs made adorable pets to let roam free.

If you can imagine drowning in your own fluids, unable to breathe, while your whole body swells painfully and itches, your nose runs uncontrollably and eyes swell shut, you've got the picture.

Y'all don't have to ask ahead of time before you go anywhere new if there will be a cat there. And you don't have to cancel if they say yes.

Comment by kulahan 1 day ago

This is an incredible amount of drama over one of the most common animals on the planet.

Comment by timschmidt 1 day ago

It's an incredible amount of privilege thinking that about the most common allergen affecting humans. Only someone who's not affected could think it.

For those of us who are, it's literally the foundation bedrock of every choice I make during the day. My work is cat-free. My family don't own cats. My persistent friends are the folks who don't own cats that I can visit regularly. My world is a lot smaller than yours. Less opportunity.

People with severe food allergies have to plan and limit themselves similarly. Because people who don't understand can't be trusted to help limit exposure. Sensible precautions are seen as unnecessary drama by those who don't need them.

Anyone with a severe allergy can share a dozen stories about the times someone who didn't understand almost got them killed. Standing up for ourselves in the face of folks trying to downplay our conditions is the reason any of us are still alive.

Comment by kulahan 1 day ago

No, you’re just being really dramatic over an allergy. My brother literally will actually DIE if he gets too close to peanuts and he’s not this insufferable.

Comment by timschmidt 20 hours ago

If you can't suffer some words, then your brother and I have a much higher pain tolerance than you do. lol

Will you DIE from words like your brother and I from our allergens? If not you can calm down about it. Unlike us you can just walk away from this. If it causes you suffering you're choosing to suffer by engaging in the conversation. That's not good for you. Take care of yourself.

Comment by kulahan 7 hours ago

No, which is why I’m not being insufferable, lmao.

As a side note, I get the chide about labeling. You might accidentally eat cat and die! It slips in all the time! Granted, the labeling is not enough to protect him due to the severity of his allergy. Don’t try to bring him down to your level. It’ll take months anyways.

Comment by timschmidt 6 hours ago

> No, which is why I’m not being insufferable

At this point you're interpreting genuine care and empathy for your brother's condition and appreciation for a hard-fought safety measure as chide. I remember when it was enacted. And a win for any of us is a win for all of us. Re-evaluate that assumption of yours.

You're right that a respiratory and contact allergy wouldn't benefit from food labels. Safety labels for folks like me would go on buildings, especially public spaces. And they would absolutely be helpful. The ADA does have some protections for folks with respiratory allergies in public spaces, but they're somewhat severely limited to a 6mo period after which filing an enforcement action is not possible. If you miss it, tough luck.

You are demonstrating to others the sort of attitude folks like your brother and I encounter constantly. So thanks for that. It's good for folks to see that just talking about the things that I and others like me experience and expressing care for others with similar conditions is enough to elicit hate. Because that's not uncommon. Most folks like me have dealt with that behavior, and nothing you say about me or my allergy will have any effect other than reflecting on yourself.

Comment by kulahan 3 hours ago

No, you’re just insanely annoying. Imagine writing such a tirade over people owning pets lol. Man, you are SUCH a victim.

Can you honestly not see how melodramatic you’re being? Like this has to be an act, yeah?

Comment by timschmidt 2 hours ago

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Comment by timschmidt 12 hours ago

BTW, it's cool that your brother at least gets safety labeling on commercial food items. I hope that helps him stay safe.

Comment by something765478 1 day ago

> Rat traps are less expensive, more effective, less prone to killing things other than rats, sanitary, don't have to be fed, don't need a litter box, don't cause allergies, don't need shots, medications, or vet visits, and don't have kittens. Far lower impact and much less work than a cat.

Are they? If the cats are eating rats, then they don't really need to be fed. If they're allowed to go outside, then you might not even need to clean the cat's litter box. Rat traps have to be reset, and the corpses disposed of; cats do all that automatically.

Comment by timschmidt 1 day ago

Yes, they are, objectively. The minimal amount of labor involved in setting and clearing a trap (literally 30 seconds) is significantly less than the time spent tending to a cat. Even if you only pet it occasionally. I own traps I don't even have to touch with my hands. And they were inexpensive.

Rat traps work 24/7, unlike a cat which sleeps up to 16 hours a day.

Cats must be spade or neutered, an additional cost and effort lest they contribute to the epidemic of semi-feral cats.

Outdoor domestic cats kill an estimated 7 - 26 billion wild animals yearly, most birds, 3/4 of which weren't eaten when studied.

Outdoor cats especially need flea treatment, else they'll bring them into the building. Having dealt with a flea infestation, trust me you don't want to. Involves poisoning your whole dwelling for a few days at significant expense.

Comment by 3eb7988a1663 2 days ago

Chicago had a ten-year streak as rattiest city[0]. Recently lost the crown to Los Angeles.

[0] https://www.orkin.com/press-room/worst-cities-for-rats-los-a...

Comment by jayd16 2 days ago

This is Orkin's view, correct? I wonder if its just a matter of controlling more of the market. I can't say I've seen a Western Exterminator guy-with-hammer vs rat adornment in quite some years.

Comment by deepnet 1 day ago

Predators discourage most rats and kill some.

Pray spends less time at a location if there are predators. The prey is skittish.

Glue traps kill Rats, new rats fill the niche. Some rats learn to avoid them.

Wolves harry deer and kill some but the deer don’t eat all the baby saplings because fear means they move on more often.

Rats have the numbers, killing some of them isn’t the best solution.

Cats are smart when the rats change behaviour so does the cat.

Older cats teach younger cats.

Glue traps are a completely different solution.

They also kill a lot of spiders so you get more flies.

Nurturing predators is a way better solution.

An NY bodega is an ecosystem.

Comment by jkestner 2 days ago

True. It's unconscionable to give a cat access to cigarettes.

Comment by fhdkweig 2 days ago

But hilarious to give a raccoon alcohol.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=raccoon+liquor+store

Comment by rafram 2 days ago

Lots of bodega cats are allowed to go out on the street. They usually don't wander far. Cats know where home is.

Comment by culi 2 days ago

It seems it might've been taken down but there used to be an app called ShopCats that was a crowd-sourced version of this concept

https://shopcats.en.softonic.com/iphone

Comment by enraged_camel 2 days ago

I strongly recommend the 2016 documentary titled 'Kedi', which is about the cats of Istanbul. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKq7UqplcL8

Comment by xoa 2 days ago

Seconding this, it's what I immediately thought of. It's a really beautifully made movie. And yes cats are front and center, but it's also using them as a window on humanity, the city of Instanbul and its living history from a very different perspective. It's a very sober film as well, celebrating life but also not shying away from death and the passing of time. The "cat's eye view" is a more 3D sort of feel from a lot of the typical explorations of a city, going at ground level, up and down buildings in 3D etc.

It's become a family favorite film we tend to watch each winter now. All ages can take something from it.

Comment by chirau 2 days ago

When i first realized that their primary purpose was to get rid of rats, I had quite the chuckle.

Comment by nonethewiser 2 days ago

Yeah this is why I dont find it endearing. It's just pointing to unsanitary conditions. It's ubiquitous in NYC which may have dulled some senses but it's not ubiquitous everywhere.

Cat's themselves are not very sanitary. Better than rats, sure, but they are a source of toxoplasmosis which is very dangerous to pregnant women for example. Limiting exposure is manageable when keeping as a pet, but its a terrible baseline for a cramped public store.

Comment by jjtheblunt 2 days ago

> Cat's themselves are not very sanitary. Better than rats, sure, but they are a source of toxoplasmosis

Hyperbole and toxoplasmosis go well together.

In particular: it's a limited time window when an infected feline could transmit toxoplasmosis. It can be dangerous to pregnancies, or immuno-compromised individuals.

Most humans (and other beings) aren't pregnant or immunocompromised, but the drama of the topic gets clicks, so it's a meme of sorts, and it resurfaces every six months or so in the news as if a revelation.

Comment by kirubakaran 2 days ago

> Most humans (and other beings) aren't pregnant or immunocompromised

Just because pregnant and immuno-compromised people are in the minority, it's not a big deal?

Comment by zdp7 1 day ago

You don't get toxoplasmosis from touching a cat. You get it from touching cat feces and then ingesting it. The most common avenue of infection (in the US at least) is consuming raw or undercooked meat. Considering when my wife was pregnant, she asked our Doctor about it. His recommendation was she should not be the one to clean the litter box. So yeah, avoid cat feces and if you can't wash your hands. We don't need to get rid of cats. Also make sure the meat you eat is cooked properly.

Comment by zdp8 1 day ago

"We don't need to get rid of cats. Also make sure the meat you eat is cooked properly."

I'd rather not eat cats at all, so cooking them properly doesn't enter into it.

Comment by sporadicism 2 days ago

Additionally, I can't imagine being blase about gaining parasites just because you're not pregnant or immunocompromised.

Comment by jjtheblunt 2 days ago

no one is being blase : we're immersed in a biological world teeming with such critters...and we exist through evolutionary adaptation to such. for fun, check out mites around eyelashes, for an innocuous example.

Comment by zdp7 1 day ago

The solution isn't get rid of cats, it's don't lick your hands after changing the litter box. Especially since cat feces isn't the most common source. Under cooked meat is.

Comment by nkrisc 2 days ago

You’ve likely already got many critters living in an on you.

Comment by darick 2 days ago

Not all of those give you brain lesions.

Comment by jjtheblunt 2 days ago

it's a big deal for some, but not for all individuals, is the point clearly made.

Comment by kirubakaran 2 days ago

Well you wrote "Hyperbole and toxoplasmosis go well together". It's not "hyperbole" to care about others, however few they are, even though you yourself might not be at risk, right?

But I don't mean to be confrontational. I understand that it is probably annoying to hear toxoplasmosis talked about like it is black death.

Comment by colechristensen 2 days ago

A third of the entire human population is infected with toxoplasmosis, in some places nearly every human.

If you put humans in a sterile bubble you get a different set of diseases, to a considerably greater degree because your immune system evolved in an environment where you actually got infections.

Comment by graemep 2 days ago

> A third of the entire human population is infected with toxoplasmosis, in some places nearly every human.

So if it is often harmful to some extent in people who do not show severe symptoms, then it is a terrible disease that causes widespread harm. There is evidence it causes lesser, but possibly significant harm, in far more people than is generally recognised:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2526142/

Comment by kirubakaran 2 days ago

By that logic, we shouldn't be fighting malaria in Africa either.

Are there any benefits to toxoplasmosis besides some people finding the vector cute? The alternative isn't living in a sterile bubble.

Comment by KingMob 2 days ago

That's not a great comparison. Malaria is dangerous to almost everyone it infects, while T. gondii is harmless to the vast majority of the human race.

Comment by colechristensen 2 days ago

Without infections your immune system gets bored and starts attacking you. You need to have something for your immune system to do on a regular basis. Toxo is to a very large degree asymptomatic. You are full of and covered with organisms. Being paranoid about infection isn't helpful to anyone. Ok you don't like cats, that's fine, but are you as passionate about rare steak which is a much more common vector?

Malaria... is not asymptomatic.

Comment by duskdozer 1 day ago

You will have plenty of exposure to microbes simply by existing outside of a sealed sterile chamber, and microbes != pathogens. There's no need to encourage exposure to and infection by pathogens, and this idea often results in increased risk or severity of disease. See: "chickenpox party" intentional exposure of children to varicella, putting them at risk of shingles as adults, with the risk increasing the younger they are at the time of infection.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_hypothesis?useskin=vec...

Comment by colechristensen 1 day ago

>There's no need to encourage exposure to and infection by pathogens, and this idea often results in increased risk or severity of disease.

Here's research into intentional infection with a parasite to treat autoimmune diseases

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5401880/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Friends_hypothesis

Comment by strathmeyer 2 days ago

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Comment by nonethewiser 14 hours ago

> In particular: it's a limited time window when an infected feline could transmit toxoplasmosis. It can be dangerous to pregnancies, or immuno-compromised individuals.

> Most humans (and other beings) aren't pregnant or immunocompromised, but the drama of the topic gets clicks, so it's a meme of sorts, and it resurfaces every six months or so in the news as if a revelation.

I already addressed this. It's one thing if you keep an cat in your home and can manage the risks. It's another thing entirely as some unknown variable in a cramped public store.

Comment by thenthenthen 1 day ago

Cats spend between 30-50% of their waling hours to grooming themselves. Cats are extremely clean. Pick one up and smell its fur. What do you smell? Nothing.

Comment by graemep 2 days ago

It is most likely to cause severe symptoms and obvious damage in pregnancy and to immunocompromised people but it may cause harm to others too.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2526142/

> Most humans (and other beings) aren't pregnant or immunocompromised

So we do not need to vaccinate against rubella either? most people are not disabled so we do not need wheelchair ramps? Most people are not sick at any given time so we do not need hospitals?

Comment by bombcar 2 days ago

The vast majority of NYCs problem can be tied to their trash debacle, which is so outlandish it's hard for anyone not from there to believe is a real thing in 2206.

It appears they finally discovered dumpsters recently: https://www.amny.com/news/curbside-empire-trash-bins-coming-...

(Another crazy trash city was (is?) Seattle with their weird judgement causing everyone to compact their trash.)

Comment by blatherard 2 days ago

And the difficulties of trash handling are further traceable, at least in Manhattan, to the decision by city planners in 1811 to not build alleys. No obvious place to store trash, nor an obvious place to put it when being collected.

If you drive in Manhattan you'll also notice a whole lot of delivery trucks and other vehicles blocking lanes, and a lot of designated delivery-only parking zones. This is rooted in the same lack of alleys.

Comment by wahern 2 days ago

San Francisco doesn't have alleys, either, not anymore than NYC. In older buildings, including older apartment buildings, trash cans are kept under stairways, in service rooms, in ground-level hallways, or for single-family homes in garages or backyards, then wheeled out to the sidewalk the night before collection day, blocking pedestrians. Then the garbage men have to roll those bins into the street, maneuvering around parked cars, etc. NYC doesn't have trash cans because New Yorkers perennially chose to continue to throw their trash on the ground like they always had. Blame unions, blame habituation, but you can't blame NYC's architecture and layout; nothing about it is unique compared to other cities globally or even nationally.

Comment by brianwawok 2 days ago

Chicago has allys. Trash goes in ally. Streets smell nice.

NYC has no allys. Trash goes on sidewalk. Streets smell stinky.

Comment by nonethewiser 14 hours ago

I absolutely could not believe the trash situation in NYC. For people that don't know, it's literally just piled on the sidewalk and street. Stuff like this is completely normal: https://preview.redd.it/manhattan-nyc-this-is-worse-than-usu...

Comment by RandallBrown 2 days ago

What about Seattle's trash was crazy? I've lived here for 14 years and never noticed anything weird about it compared to other places I've lived.

Comment by buildsjets 2 days ago

He's being overly dramatic, and it's not a "Judgment", it's simple economics. Seattle is basically out of landfill space, the Cedar Hills landfill is a 96.6% capacity, so all trash needs to be trucked out of state. To minimize the cost of doing that they encourage sending most of your waste stream to recycling or compost instead. Many of the local trash haul haulers provide nice large recycle and compost bins, but a tiny landfill waste container unless you pay extra, hence the necessary compacting and stomping. My hauler charges an extra $25 fee if the flip-down lid on the garbage container is not fully closed, and they send you a photo and video of your non-compliant container along with the bill.

Again, this is not a judgement or a mandate. You can pay for a larger garbage can or for a multiple garbage cans if you want to. But you have to pay for how your consumption habits impact the cost of disposal.

Comment by thejinftw 2 days ago

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Comment by shawn_w 1 day ago

There are areas of the city where instead of dumpsters, businesses and apartment complexes just put trash bags out in the alley/sidewalk for daily collection.

https://www.seattle.gov/utilities/your-services/collection-a...

Comment by bombcar 2 days ago

IIRC they got a judgement against them a long time ago and charged more per can to pay for it - but my memory may be off. All I know is all the older homes have trash compactors and there was something called the "Seattle Stomp" and it wasn't a dance. https://www.spokesman.com/stories/1995/jan/26/seattle-stomp-...

Comment by buildsjets 2 days ago

You do not recall correctly. That's not an article about Seattle. It's an article about Spokane, which is little college town close to five hours away from Seattle. There was no legal judgement, and there was no municipal government action here. A private corporation raised their prices, and their customers reacted by trying to get more for their money. John Smith's invisible hand continues to sculpt our reality.

Comment by Barbing 2 days ago

“Empire Bins, which can only be picked up by specially-designed side-loading garbage trucks, will be mandatory for the owners of buildings with 30 or more units in those areas to use. …

Anderson said expanding Empire Bins to more parts of the city is “not easy,” due to the expense of and time it takes to acquire the side-loading trucks, which are custom-built and have not been used in North America before. The trucks are assembled through a combination of American and Italian parts and designs.

“These bins and the trucks that service them did not exist two years ago,” Anderson said. “We are now building a new supply chain that stretches across the Atlantic Ocean to get those trucks here, built, and ready to use. That takes time.””

Had to go custom huh…

Comment by addaon 2 days ago

> 2206

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

[Posted from 2026.]

Comment by yardie 2 days ago

The reasoning gets worse the further you peel back that onion. Basically dumpsters are too large for sidewalks. Logically, it would make sense to put them on the curb. But no, drivers would complain because having to give up any curbside parking whatsoever.

Comment by tombert 2 days ago

I was baffled when I first moved to NYC and found out that people just throw their garbage onto the sidewalk.

I have the wheely bin now, which is good, but it's insane that it took until 2025 to actually require it. Probably the only good thing Eric Adams did.

Comment by dirck-norman 2 days ago

NYC was built without alleyways and much of NYC is single vaulted sewer systems due to its age. There is no space to put underground trash bins.

NYC is also non-uniform, so there are different types of trucks and streets.

Adam's admin largely solved this during his term, but the above ground bins are unpopular because they're ugly and then it takes time to retrofit the garbage trucks for mechanical pickup.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/03/02/upshot/nyc-tr...

Comment by pcrh 2 days ago

It's still a problem in 2206?

Comment by bombcar 2 days ago

Oh sheesh now I have to leave the typo in (and it'll probably be correct, at least according to the historical documents: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20SwR_zIWv4 )

Comment by carabiner 2 days ago

I'm from 2207 and it's not a big deal.

Comment by bombcar 2 days ago

Don't listen to the raccoon.

Comment by alexjplant 2 days ago

> they are a source of toxoplasmosis

You are far more likely to get it from undercooked beef or shellfish than from a cat. Less than 1% of cats broadly are shedding it at any given time and that number is even lower for indoor cats. If, like me, you have a penchant for rare steak and beef tartare then there's a decent chance that you have it.

Comment by technothrasher 2 days ago

The rats that the cats are keeping out of the stores are a much larger source of pathogen transmission to humans than the cats are. Not only do rats carry many more dangerous diseases than cats, but both can also transmit toxoplasmosis to humans. As it is transmitted through contact with feces, from which of the two are you more likely to encounter feces spread all over the store?

So, while I actually find both rats and cats endearing, I'd take the cats over wild rats in the stores any day.

Comment by trhway 2 days ago

I think we owe our civilization to cats - without them we would have never been able to stop being hunters-gatherers and settle into agricultural society as having food stores would have been impossible due to rats.

And Black Death, owing to Church persecution of cats, is another great illustration of cats' role.

Comment by Amezarak 1 day ago

Cats were not widespread in the ancient world until very late. Herodotus writes about cats as an Egyptian novelty. People had mass food stores long before then.

Comment by trhway 1 day ago

Herodotus' anecdotes vs. modern genetics:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5790555/#:~:text=Ex...

"But recent genetic and archaeological discoveries indicate that cat domestication began in the Fertile Crescent, perhaps around 10,000 years ago, when agriculture was getting under way."

Edit in response to the comment below as i hit post-limit:

As it happens, we owe to weasels too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_depictions_of_cats#An...

"Housecats seem to have been extremely rare among the ancient Greeks and Romans;[16] the Greek historian Herodotus expressed astonishment at the domestic cats in Egypt, because he had only ever seen wildcats.[16] Even during later times, weasels were far more commonly kept as pets[16] and weasels, not cats, were seen as the ideal rodent-killers"

The main point still stands though.

Comment by Amezarak 1 day ago

Even if we assume this is correct and Herodotus and others were simply ignorant of this, it's obvious that the Greeks of his time, including those in Anatolia where he lived, where food had been stored in massive quantities for centuries if not millennia, did not have cats.

Comment by throwaway29812 2 days ago

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Comment by vedaba 2 days ago

You just angered a lot of cat people

Comment by delecti 2 days ago

In my experience most people lovingly refer to their cats in negative-sounding ways. One of the terms of endearment we used for our most recent cat was "stinky little piss baby". I think most cat owners are well aware that they're unsanitary creatures.

Comment by Jtsummers 2 days ago

If your housecat stinks, it's likely unhealthy or you're not providing it with a clean litterbox or you have insufficient litterboxes for the number of cats you have.

Comment by delecti 2 days ago

He got the nickname while he was dying of cancer. He had stopped grooming himself because of his medications.

So you aren't entirely wrong, but rest assured that we were agonizingly aware of the ways in which he was unhealthy.

Comment by bluefirebrand 2 days ago

Calling your cat stinky does not actually mean they smell bad

Comment by jjtheblunt 2 days ago

dog person here : they're unsanitary how? they constantly fastidously clean themselves, from what i see. dogs roll in rotting anything for sport.

Comment by delusional 2 days ago

I suppose they're unsanitary in the same way all animals that aren't humans are: They don't was their hands? Cats don't strike me a particularly dirty creatures. They're not exactly clean and well groomed from nature, but no animal really is.

Comment by jjtheblunt 2 days ago

> they're unsanitary in the same way all animals that aren't humans are: they don't was[h] their hands

Raccoons say "hold my beer"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GLuR7a-hPs

Comment by kevin_thibedeau 2 days ago

If you covered yourself in spit would that be sanitary?

Comment by jjtheblunt 2 days ago

you just made me wonder if the fact we sweat serves a similar purpose as your spit covering example.

(i don't know, but you triggered a thought!)

Comment by imp0cat 2 days ago

Nope, it's evaporative cooling (like a swamp cooler) for your body.

Comment by jjtheblunt 1 day ago

that's only the famous part of the story, though.

here's what i was thinking...presence of protein lysing enzymes in sweat as a protective mechanism.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187439191...

Comment by jjtheblunt 1 day ago

check this out: it's super interesting, even the air is full of genetic material

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01099-2

Comment by sdrm 2 days ago

Paris should take notes

Comment by VerifiedReports 2 days ago

I thought Paris's main problem was dog shit.

Comment by cgg1 2 days ago

Can’t wait for the sequel:

Bodega Rats of New York

Comment by WetBurritoLuv 2 days ago

I read Shop Cats of New York a few years ago, and it was great

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/shop-cats-of-new-york-tamar...

Comment by Tsiklon 2 days ago

As a blow in to New York, I find the bodega cats a very charming tradition. Reminding me of “tough as old boots” farm cats, working animals with a purpose and a style all their own.

Comment by asimovDev 1 day ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodega

Comment by noplace1ikegone 2 days ago

You can’t have a great product without proper security.

Comment by 486sx33 1 day ago

[dead]

Comment by brenschluss 2 days ago

Is it just me or is it a huge letdown that the text is all AI-generated? Or at least, in the same kind of saccharine style? Are people not able to detect this?

Comment by Sharlin 2 days ago

Didn't seem AI-generated to me. Just the short, three-word-sentence pithy style that's become really popular these days that LLMs have learned to ape. But IMO it actually works well here, it reminds me of Peter Watts's very human style (cf. eg. https://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=11546).