It’s odd, because doves are seen as pure and beautiful, and pigeon, which are essentially grey doves, are seen as dirty and verminous

I think it is part public health with the bigger the pigeon population the greater the risk of virus carrier and part public space maintenance, the faeces being left on public buildings and other outdoor items. It does cost money to the public coffers (local taxes) to clean after them.

Another interesting story from the book was about arguably the first successful pigeon control strategy, developed in Basel and now used in many places: encourage people not to feed pigeons (since they reproduce much more when there's an excess of food) and build your own pigeon lofts on rooftops, feed the pigeons there, and then replace their eggs with fake ones! I think this is the guy: https://anatomie.unibas.ch/IntegrativeBiology/haag/Feral-Pig...

They are extremely dumb, stubborn and dirty. When they chose my balcony for their nest, they kept trying to rebuild it despite me cleaning it up several times a day. Finally they laid an egg on two twigs sitting on bare concrete.

They shit into their nest and their parasites (pigeon ticks) are dangerous to humans. So yes, they are bad.