During the Korean war, American pilots were quite frequently called upon to fly over the portion of Northwestern North Korea where the Yalu River empties into the Yellow Sea. This area was notoriously known as Mig Alley and was quite a dangerous place to be. Courage was required to penetrate
this area, but did it require more courage that that required for a
pedestrian in El Paso, Texas to gingerly pick his or her way through the
turd strewn terrain of Poop Alley? (For a gander at what we're talking about, click here. Ew. Gross.)
Migrant workers in El Paso wait outside the Farm Workers Building in hopes of finding employment for the day. Unfortunately, they are not allowed access to that building when nature announces that a bowel movement is imminent, a denial which is against the city's code. They have a choice -- poop in their pants or in an adjacent alley.
Who should de-poop the alley? Deputy Building Official Bill Stern says, "...property owners are responsible for the adjacent alleys," which has not made him a popular man with the property owners. One has even said that he would prefer going to jail rather than clean up someone else's poop. It seems that everyone is passing the buck.
The answer is simple.
El Paso, the migrant workers are a valuable part of your local economy, and they are badly needed by local farmers; so barring the workers from entering the country, as some have suggested, is not the answer. I did a little checking around on the internet and discovered that a porta-potty can be leased in most locations for as little as ninety dollars per month.
Since El Paso is a city with almost 700,000 residents, I think that strategically locating a few of these plastic dooking facilities in poop alley would be a good investment. Rampant pooping can spread disease rapidly and is not desirable from a community health viewpoint.