Dolores Park Trashed Again During Warm San Francisco Weekend
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) -- Residents near San Francisco's popular Dolores Park are losing patience with inconsiderate crowds of people who descend on the park on weekends and leave behind a monumental mess.
Rec and Park crews were back Monday morning, just like they were Sunday morning, to remove the trash strewn all across the park following a weekend of 70-degree weather.
The people who live around the park say they are fed up with people and what they leave behind.
"Usually you come out and there are couches and chairs," said resident Greg Bianchi. "It's just a pretty good mess out here for the city to come and clean up."
"So much of the food and I see all the dogs running around, they get cut with the bottle caps that get left around, and there's glass," said resident Heather Levine.
The people who use this park during the week say they see the same thing nearly every week: Rec and Park crews out on Monday cleaning all the garbage, only to have it turned back into a dumping ground come the weekend.
The multi-million-dollar renovation of Dolores Park was completed less than two years ago, which included well-placed signs saying "Keep Dolores Park Clean – Recycle, Compost Take it Home" and strategically-placed garbage cans.
"The trash strategy, I don't really understand" said resident Jamie Casello. "Clearly after two years, no one is going to hoof down to the corner to bring their trash. So without more trash cans, they're just going to leave it where it's at."
Trash cans used to be located in the middle of the park and on the rolling hills. Now, they are only along the perimeter, but they added over 20,000 gallons capacity to the receptacles.
From this weekend alone, 460 garbage bags of trash were removed from the park.
"You can't build your way out of a trash problem," said San Francisco Recreation and Parks spokeswoman Sarah Madland. "It's really a culture problem. It's about people wanting to take care of the park, not having enough receptacles."
