Bahama Kangaroo, a.k.a. Yukako Eozoe & Naoki Onodera (Sutter at Van Ness).The five can locations and participating artists are as follows: The six purchased by the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association were adorned with the work of local artists, and the Lower Polk CBD has decided to follow suit.įive San Francisco-based artists were given free rein to design the bins, the Lower Polk CBD's arts and placemaking manager, Erica Waltemade, told us. The cans are also proving to be an unexpected venue for public art. "They’ve held up pretty well, in our opinion." The duo "Bahama Kangaroo" provided the artwork for the Bigbelly can at Sutter and Van Ness, near the Regency Ballroom. It's responsible for all the costs of maintenance, graffiti removal, and engaging with vendors for replacement or repairs.īut even in one of the city's more challenging neighborhoods, the CBD’s maintenance and repair costs have been “relatively low," Pujals said. The Tenderloin CBD deployed five Bigbellies in October 2018, Fernando Pujols, the group's director of communications, told us. But because the CBDs and neighborhood groups are engaged in monitoring and maintaining the cans, repairs and vandalism fixes are typically addressed rapidly. The biggest challenge, Schneider said, is that the Bigbellies still are sometimes vandalized and damaged, like all city garbage cans. For example, in the year after five Bigbelly cans were installed near Civic Center, there were more than 100 fewer 311 service calls for overflowing garbage cans.Įach station is also cloud-connected and logs the volume of waste collected each day, to help ensure that Recology's collection schedule matches the cans’ level of use. The Fix-It Team's Schneider said the cans have proven effective in reducing sidewalk littering and containing a larger volume of garbage. In the meantime, neighborhood organizations are embracing the cans, which they say are working well. | Photo: courtesy of North Beach Citizens (A representative for SFPW wasn't available for comment.) North Beach welcomed Italian-themed Big Belly trashcans in February 2019. Last October, he said that SFPW was at work on their own design for new cans to replace the city's standard green trash bins.īut according to a recent story in the Chronicle, the agency is still in the planning phase, more than a year later. Yet SF Public Works (SFPW) director Mohammed Nuru has resisted taking the cans citywide, citing their high cost and the fact that they're leased, rather than purchased. And their built-in sensors can alert Recology when the cans need to be emptied, as well as inform the CBDs when they need maintenance. Their solar-powered trash compactors allow them to hold five times more waste than the typical sidewalk trash cans deployed by SF Public Works. The cans have some other virtues besides preventing rummaging. Recology still conducts the trash collection services, as it does for all of the city’s public cans. While the Fix-It Team performs data analysis to identify the optimal locations for Bigbelly can deployment, the CBDs and other neighborhood organizations are financially responsible for all the cans' on-the-ground maintenance needs. The funds are administered by a nonprofit organization established by the neighborhood. | PHOTO: STEVEN BRACCO/HOODLINEįor the unacquainted, San Francisco has 18 community benefit districts, or CBDs, each of which levies an assessment on property owners in their neighborhood to fund quality-of-life improvements like cleanliness, greenery, and business development. The Castro was one of the first neighborhoods to get Bigbelly cans. Four more are expected to be installed in the Excelsior before the end of the year, according to Fix-It Team deputy director Ian Schneider. The latest to get them are the Lower Polk and East Cut community benefit districts (CBDs), which each installed five new Bigbellies this month.Ģ5 cans have been installed this year, through a second round of funding allocated through the city's Fix-It Team in late 2018. But one by one, the city's community benefit districts (CBDs) have lined up behind the trash cans, which suggests they may be worth the expense. The cans, which are impervious to being rummaged through or toppled over, were intended to help eliminate garbage can scavenging, and the unsightly litter and clogged drains it causes.īigbellies are pricey, with a cost of $3,000/year to lease each one. A year and a half ago, in May 2018, then-Mayor Mark Farrell set aside funding to install 20 Bigbelly trash receptacles in the Castro, Tenderloin, Civic Center, and Central Market neighborhoods.
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