Michigan Herald Tribune

Business and community members in Kalamazoo say a new ordinance stinks; literally.

City leaders recently voted to put forward “equitable changes” that decriminalize public urination, defecation and littering in addition to other offenses. The move has caused backlash, most notably from business owners in the city center that have had to clean human waste from doorsteps and other publicly used areas. While human waste is certainly a pressing and even dangerous situation, littering has also increasingly become a problem as the city combats issues related to homeless in the area.

Kalamazoo follows other cities, which have taken similar actions; most notably New York City, which eased laws regarding public urination and drunkenness.

While these issues will be shaken out over the remainder of the summer, Cherri Emery, a business owner in Kalamazoo, explained in a recent interview that the trouble extends far beyond waste and trash.

She told Fox & Friends First, “It’s not just the urination part of it. The part of it that’s really upsetting to us is people approaching other people, people following some of their employees to their cars and asking them for money, and when they get to the car, and they’re still not giving them money, we had one guy that started throwing rocks at their cars.”