Social Control

Walking south on Sixth Avenue past a mini-mart located around the corner from Waverly Place, about a block from Washington Square, I observe a couple crumbling up slices of white bread and letting them drop among a circle of pigeons, who greedily gobble up the pieces. Suddenly, a woman runs out of a Starbuck’s and admonishes them. “Stop doing that!” she commands. “Don’t feed the pigeons, the rats’ll come around and eat it! It’s terrible food for pigeons!” Looking chagrined, the man closes up the bag and both of them walk north, toward Eighth Street. Some observers would say that