Cleaning tools that the SF Rec and Park crew uses.

Although one wants to be encouraging, it is hard to give a passing grade to park goers who still require five to six SF Rec and Park employees to pick up after them, but in a trip to the park late Sunday night, it was clear there would not be as much trash to pick up on Monday as there was on Sunday morning.  And, there wasn’t.

“No, it isn’t as bad,” said one crew member who had been there both days.

Yes, some picnic spots still had all the evidence of a good time without the people, but there were not the dozens of ghosted parties left behind on Sunday and by 7:30 a.m. Monday the cleaning crews were only an hour a way from finishing. On Sunday, one said at 8:30 a.m. that they would not be able to finish by 10:30 a.m.

So, D+ park users, A +  SF Rec and Park.

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One of six crew members cleaning up.
From afar the trash looks better.
Closer up, not so good.
The north part of the park that on Sunday was a complete mess had already been cleared on Monday morning.

Earlier:

Glorious Saturday Transforms Dolores Park into a Trash Dump by Sunday. 

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Founder/Executive Editor. I’ve been a Mission resident since 1998 and a professor emeritus at Berkeley’s J-school since 2019 when I retired. I got my start in newspapers at the Albuquerque Tribune in the city where I was born and raised. Like many local news outlets, The Tribune no longer exists. I left daily newspapers after working at The New York Times for the business, foreign and city desks. Lucky for all of us, it is still there.

As an old friend once pointed out, local has long been in my bones. My Master’s Project at Columbia, later published in New York Magazine, was on New York City’s experiment in community boards.

Right now I'm trying to figure out how you make that long-held interest in local news sustainable. The answer continues to elude me.

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7 Comments

  1. Quit complaining. I mean I’m born and raised here and know people should pick up there stuff….but with that many people and that park in our city have the 5 park and rec clean it up and stay. Any event with that many people is going to be a mess after. A lot more money wasted on other cheap in the city

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  2. Obviously people should clean up after themselves, but I think it’s remiss not to point out that Rec & Park still hasn’t replaced the trash cans throughout the park that were removed during the renovation. I appreciate that in an ideal world, trash bins located solely on the outer edges of the park would be sufficient, but enough time has passed to make it clear that this experiment has failed. Rec & Park needs to put back the trash bins, particularly in key areas like near picnic tables and the playground, then reassess whatever additional steps should be taken. Finger-wagging at dumb kids who are too drunk or high to pick up after themselves like grown-ups may be emotionally satisfying, but it doesn’t magically make trash disappear. Personally, I’d rather just have a clean park.

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  3. so, i can have a party and public employees will be paid to clean up after me?

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  4. I wish we could have a story that balanced these “hey kid, get off of my lawn pieces” with a heart felt piece about how many people made new friendships by sharing a day at Dolores Park. Or about how the six workers used their four hours pay to buy some cabbage and potatoes.

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    1. this post is satire right?
      yes. more “heart felt pieces” on how entitled people piss on things but create jobs in our trickle down economy so peasants can buy “cabbage and potatoes”!
      you can’t make this stuff up.
      meanwhile the real work that these workers could be doing in other parks still goes undone – flower beds and trees untended, paths not maintained, playground improvements deferred.
      how about extending those “new friendships” a few minutes by packing up your celebrations – an act of friendship with the rest of the city and the planet.
      and perhaps stop thinking its someone else’s job to pick up after you.

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      1. You corporate democrats think it was wonderful that we as a nation spent a Trillion dollars to pick up the mess left by the Wall Street Bankers and politician who wrecked the economy in 2008, and with JKush are going to repeat that, but you begrudge spending less than a $1,000 for six workers in the elements to clean a park that benefited 10,000? Where is your heart…… Who is the entitled

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