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Picking up dog poo isn’t anyone’s favorite activity (not that we’ve come across anyway), but it is a necessary must. And we’re trusting that everyone in Austin, and beyond, understands that this is a dirty job that can’t be ignored.
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Tag: letting
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Austin Pets Alive! | Let’s Scoop the Poop
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Sep 01, 2023
We all do it. But we all go about keeping it sanitary in different ways. Humans use flushing toilets, cats keep it classy and bury it or use a litter box. And dogs? Well. Dogs need their mamas and dads to help them out. That’s right. We’re talking about poop.
When it comes to keeping our environment clean and healthy, dog “paw”rents have a responsibility to do a simple act: scoop the poop.
It isn’t glamorous and certainly isn’t fun. But it takes just a few seconds to pick up your dog’s poo and is so important to keeping our environment safe. Dog doo doo is not the same as cow manure, as many may think. It doesn’t offer healthy growth to the grass and in fact, can be pretty damaging. Beyond damaging the grass, letting dog poop sit means that bacteria is seeping into our waterways, causing illness like giardia!
Sure, it’s smelly to deal with and sometimes the consistency can be pretty gross to handle, but we’d rather have a clean environment and healthy waters, so scooping the poop is a small price to pay!
We can #scoopthepoop a few different ways:
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The hand-in-bag method: open poop bag, place hand inside, using it like a glove. Pick up that poop without actually coming in contact, then turn the bag inside out as you pull your hand out, safely containing the poop! Find a trash can to throw the bag away — you’re done!
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Pooper Scooper device: maybe it’s a shovel, maybe it’s a fancy contraption designed specifically for this chore — whatever you use to get the job done!
Thousands of dogs call Austin home — we wouldn’t be one of the best cities in the nation without them, so let’s make sure that we keep our community sparkling by doing the dirty job of scooping the poop!
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Inflation and credit-card debt are on the rise, despite a strong job market. Tell us how the economy is affecting you.
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We want to hear from readers who have stories to share about the effects of increasing costs and a changing economy. If you’d like to share your experience, write to readerstories@marketwatch.com. Please include your name and the best way to reach you. A reporter may be in touch.
For many people living in the U.S., these are tough — and confusing — times.
On Friday, the Labor Department reported 263,000 new jobs in November, while the unemployment rate held steady at 3.7%. Layoffs remain low, despite mass job cuts in the tech sector. Average hourly wages have also risen 5.1% in the past year, but still lag behind inflation for many workers. And there were 10.3 million job openings in October — slightly down from the previous month’s 10.7 million.
Some people might see the latest economic data as both challenging and confusing.
After all, the cost of living rose 7.7% on the year in October. The once red-hot housing market is finally cooling, thanks to mortgage rates that have more than doubled over the last year amid the Federal Reserve’s attempts to rein in inflation, and rents, while moderating, have surged from pre-pandemic levels. Borrowing money to cover increased precarity is becoming more expensive too, with the average credit-card APR at 19.2% as of Nov. 30, according to Bankrate.
“‘It’s just mind-boggling, the disconnect that we’ve seen.’”
Given all the conflicting signals, economists say it can be difficult for consumers to know exactly how to feel about the economy right now. “It’s not new, this disparity between the actual facts on the ground about what’s going on in the economy and the sentiment,” said Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.
“I remember this summer it was just unambiguously the strongest jobs recovery we’ve had in decades,” she added. “There’s just absolutely zero chance that we were in a recession — not only were we not in a recession, we were in just an extraordinarily fast recovery — and the polling, a huge share of people actually thought we were in a recession. It’s just mind-boggling, the disconnect that we’ve seen.”
Still, the fact that inflation is eating into people’s savings — and that essential goods like food, energy and housing have spiked in cost — is bound to make many people unhappy.
Struggling to pay for rent and food
“Going into the pandemic, more than seven out of every 10 extremely low-income renters were already spending more than half of their income on rent. And then the pandemic hits; we saw a lot of low-wage workers lose their jobs and see an income decline,” said Andrew Aurand, vice president for research at the National Low Income Housing Coalition. “Then in 2021, we see this huge spike in prices. For a variety of reasons, they’ve struggled for a long time, and since the pandemic, it’s gotten even worse.”
Moderate-income Americans are struggling too. Maybe you can’t afford your favorite family meals, as the price of grocery store and supermarket purchases has jumped by 12.4% from last year. Or maybe you’re putting off a trip to see family this holiday season thanks to the higher cost of airfare, or you’re worried about losing your job as some business leaders warn of a recession. Perhaps you’re forced to rely on credit cards and personal loans, as credit-card debt is up 15% from a year ago.
MarketWatch has chronicled many of these changes, detailing renters’ frustrations, families’ tough choices at the grocery store, and the reality faced by would-be home buyers sidelined by higher rates and dwindling affordability.
But we would like your help telling an ongoing story about the American economy, centering the experiences of everyday people. Our readers know better than anyone about how today’s economic conditions have impacted their daily lives.
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Some good news: One key driver of inflation is finally showing signs of easing
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Rent growth is beginning to cool. But it’s descending from a heck of a peak.
Rental prices climbed 7.2% between September 2021 to September of this year, the largest annual increase since 1982, according to consumer price data released Thursday. Overall, shelter costs were also among the most significant drivers in rising consumer prices, along with the cost of food and medical care, the Labor Department said.
Still, it’s not all bad news for tenants. A new report from Realtor.com out Thursday found that nationwide, median rental prices in 50 large metros grew at their slowest annual pace in 16 months in September — at 7.8%. That marked the second consecutive month of single-digit year-over-year growth for 0-2 bedroom properties, and it meant that median asking rents fell by $12 in a month, Realtor.com said.
Housing inflation in the Consumer Price Index lags trends in the rental market, though, meaning the slowdown in rent growth might not register in the data for a while.
While median rental prices are still nearly 23% higher than they were two years ago, they’re no longer climbing at breakneck speeds with no end in sight. These days, economists say, that counts as a silver lining.
“After more than a year of double-digit yearly rent gains and nearly as many months of record-high rents, it’s especially important to see consistency before we confirm a major shift like the recent rental market cool-down,” Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale said in a statement. “But September data provides that evidence, as national rents continued to pull back from their latest all-time high registered just two months ago.”
“This return of more seasonal norms indicates that rental markets are charting a path back toward a more typical balance between supply and demand, compared to the previous year,” Hale added. “We expect rent growth to keep slowing in the months ahead, partly driven by the impact of inflation on renters’ budgets.”
Affordability, however, is worsening, Realtor.com said. Blame the fact that consumer prices are rising faster than wages.
(Realtor.com is operated by News Corp
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report out Thursday, meanwhile, said rents grew 9% year-over-year in September — the slowest pace since August 2021. Rents were still way up year-over-year in cities like Oklahoma City (24.1%), Pittsburgh (20%), and Indianapolis (17.9%.)[ad_2]
