Litter on Washington

Unlike the rest of Five Points, litter at the bottom of Washington street tends to build up over the weeks.  

Fellow resident, John Lomac had noticed it driving up the canyon one day and mentioned it a few weeks ago because was particularly bad.  We took a walk over to see it and noticed a lot of cigarette butts, fast food wrappers and drink bottles, straws, etc.  

Along India Street, the business owners do an amazing job of sweeping the sidewalks, and generally keeping everything very clean and welcoming. 

But as soon as you turn up the canyon, over in the bike lane parking, it's full of litter.  So what's happening?

During the day, employees for some of the businesses tell me they park there.  It's not a metered area, so they don't have to move their cars if working an 8 hour shift.  That said, I do not think they would be eating fast food and leaving the litter there.  

I think the litter is coming from folks who come late at night to Bar Dynamite, which pretty much becomes a club atmosphere with a DJ late at night.  This crowd which likes to get their drink on, their dance on, and also needs to satiate their drinking with fast food.  So, they go out for drinks, grab some fast food, then head to Bar Dynamite to kick up their heels.  Sounds like fun, but they're leaving all their nasty trash when they leave.  

It would be great if the business owners could get a crew from each business out to clean it up every morning.  

Debris of every type of fast food you can think of: cups, straws, bags, boxes, lids, containers, and all plastic!

Lots of bags that blow around and end up everywhere else.

The litter is all the way up the hill as far as the cars park.

It blows across the street onto the other side too.

Here's a bag trapped by some weeds, halfway up the side of the canyon.

When the first rains come in the Fall, all the litter will flow down the canyon, into the storm drain, and then wash out to sea, where it ends up on our beaches.

One of the big benefits of implementing the bike lane, is that this area will have a proper footpath, and these cars will be parked elsewhere.  I imagine the City will have a place for trashcans too, so hopefully this mess will get resolved once the bike lanes are in.