A public area with a metal fence, a trash bag hanging on it, palm trees, and buildings with murals in the background.
3/18/25 NE 16th Street Plaza, Photo by Lydia Chávez

The side streets looked from clear to less clear today. The southeast plaza where the mobile unit and another police car are parked remains clear.

The northwest plaza had some interesting activity. First, a few guys huddled around a pipe and other drug paraphernalia. They also had a bag of candy, but only offered to sell me some when I asked if they were selling. Otherwise, the candy appeared to be for their use. There are no police on this plaza so it is fairly easy for anyone there to carry on as they like. 

Most interestingly, someone had hung a large plastic container against the railing on the northwest plaza where there are no garbage cans. It was filled with a fair amount of trash. 

Richard Olivas, who is on contract with Public Works and cleans up the plaza daily, was grateful. A few months ago, he said, the city took away the plaza’s trash cans. We’re asking BART exactly when this happened and will add once we get a response.

“They said people were piling stuff nearby,” Olivas said, but he had not witnessed much dumping. Moreover, he said, the cans really helped with the litter. “It’s made the streets a whole lot dirtier,” he said, referring to removing the cans. “They should have been putting out more cans.”

Anecdotal evidence, yes, but in 2018 the city of Philadelphia commissioned a study on the efficacy of trash cans. Philadelphia 3.0, a blog run by a political organization quoted from the study: “Averaging across all sites, decreasing the number of available receptacles increased the percentage of trash collected as litter daily by 2.9% each (compared to increasing the number of available receptacles). Among the commercial corridors, a clearer pattern regarding litter emerged. Although Francisville only collected data during the baseline and decrease periods, the percentage of trash that was collected as litter versus from a receptacle increased dramatically when there were fewer available receptacles, to 95.84% from 39.37%.”

I’ve requested a copy of the full study as the links no longer work. But when Mission Local wrote about San Francisco’s 2007 experiment to get rid of trash cans, we noted that New York’s experiment in trying to decrease trash by getting rid of trash cans had also failed. The city’s 2007 experiment means that San Francisco now has just over 3,000 trash cans, compared to the 4,500 we had in 2007. 

Narrow alley with graffiti-covered walls, metal barriers on both sides, and a tree at the end under a clear blue sky.
3/18/25 Caledonia Street. Photo by Lydia Chávez.
Person walking on a city sidewalk lined with parked cars and buildings under a clear blue sky.
3/18/25 Julian Avenue, west side. Photo by Lydia Chávez.
Street view with parked cars, a building with colorful window displays on the right, and a clear blue sky. People walking in the distance along the sidewalk.
3/18/25 Julian Avenue, east side. Photo by Lydia Chávez.
Narrow urban alley with graffiti on walls, a "Taqueria" sign, two people sitting against a wall, and scattered debris.
3/18/25 Wiese Street. Photo by Lydia Chávez.
A cyclist on a patterned crosswalk at an urban intersection, with buses, pedestrians, and various storefronts in the background on a clear day.
3/18/25 SW Plaza. Photo by Lydia Chávez.
People standing on a paved area. A person is bending over, holding a plastic bag, with a cup on the ground. Green bag nearby. Sidewalk has red graffiti and shadow patterns.
3/18/25 NE Plaza Photo by Lydia Chávez.
Urban street scene with people walking and gathering near colorful buildings and palm trees. A blue cooler and chair are in the foreground, with string lights overhead.
3/18/25 NE Plaza. Photo by Lydia Chávez.
A person in a high-visibility vest stands beside a trash can holding a broom and dustpan. An electric scooter is on the sidewalk, and an elevator is in the background.
3/18/25 Richard Olivas, working on the northeast plaza. Photo by Lydia Chávez.
A public area with a metal fence, a trash bag hanging on it, palm trees, and buildings with murals in the background.
3/18/25 NE Plaza Photo by Lydia Chávez.
Map showing a section of Valencia and Mission streets. Trash can icons indicate locations with trash cans. Red circles mark areas on 16th Street and Mission Street with no trash cans.
Many of the side streets and some of the main streets along the 16th Street Corridor don’t have trash cans. We have suggested where some might be useful. Map by Kelly Waldron

Follow Us

Founder/Executive Editor. I’ve been a Mission resident since 1998 and a professor emeritus at Berkeley’s J-school since 2019. 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 here.

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.

At ML, I've been trying to figure out how to make my interest in local news sustainable. If Mission Local is a model, the answer might be that you - the readers - reward steady and smart content. As a thank you for that support we work every day to make our content even better.

Leave a comment

Please keep your comments short and civil. Do not leave multiple comments under multiple names on one article. We will zap comments that fail to adhere to these short and easy-to-follow rules.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *