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Pack it out, Cal Anderson

For a look at how we’ll need to change and adapt along with changing economic times, let’s dig through the City of Seattle’s trashy weekend. It appears that Seattle Parks Department’s furlough days sandwiching the weekend plus an explosion of use on gloriously sunny spring days left Cal Anderson Park — and other popular outdoor spots across the city — with garbage receptacles overflowing. Via Twitter, @picklepocket documented the Capitol Hill park’s trash:


what’s up with garbage cabs in Cal Anderson? All been over flowing for days

Seventy degree weather and gatherings for fun like Eeyore’s Birthday are going to draw a crowd. We don’t know exactly how the maintenance schedule works for Cal Anderson, but it looks likely Friday’s cost-cutting furlough day added to the mess. From a Parks e-mail sent out last week:

Many Seattle Parks and Recreation facilities will be closed on Friday, May 7, and Monday, May 10, for a furlough day. Youth Violence Prevention Initiative sites, also known as Extended Hours Program sites, will furlough on Wednesday, May 5.

City of Seattle employees are taking 10 days off without pay in 2010 to help fill the budget gap. Seattle Parks and Recreation has worked hard to schedule furlough days in a way that has the smallest possible impact on customers, and that provides as much coverage as possible. 

These facilities and services are closed on Friday, May 7

  • Grounds maintenance
  • Community centers (except child care and late night programs, which will still operate).
  • Swimming pools
  • Environmental Learning Centers
  • Lifelong Recreation (except Food and Fitness programs, which will still operate)
  • Business Service Center

We’d give Parks a call — but their administrative office is closed today for its furlough day. Here’s the remaining schedule of 2010 furlough days (Schedule A is for the resources listed above, Schedule B for things like administration):

Schedule A                             Schedule B

Fri., May 28                          Tue., June 1

Fri., September 10            Mon., September 13

Fri., October 8                    Mon., October 11

Fri., November 12            Mon., Nov. 15

Thu., December 23           Mon., December 27

CHS brings this to your attention not to champion increased budget for Seattle Parks garbage can clean-up (though we probably wouldn’t argue against). Instead, we’re here to change the world! It’s time to start thinking and acting differently in public spaces, it seems. The ‘pack it out’ ethos is integral to preserving our public wilderness — seems like it’s time to pack it out in the city, too.

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tom
tom
13 years ago

Hey, here’s an idea… give them their furlough day on WEDNESDAY! this isn’t about giving them a 3-day weekend. This is about saving money and still providing an essential service, SOOOOOoooo the Parks Dept needs to pull its collective head out of its collective nether regions and get it right! At least then ONE piece of city government would do something that requires a little common sense. Lord knows the moron elected to be Mayor never will do anything worthwhile

Me
Me
13 years ago

Ditto!

And yesterday, on a nice, sunny Mother’s day, Volunteer’s bathrooms had no TP! At least the bathrooms were open though!

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13 years ago

Looks like furlough days are being treated as long weekends by the Parks Department. It seems they need to adjust their schedule to better serve the community.

Oskar the grouch
Oskar the grouch
13 years ago

I would hope that more recycling containers be available in parks to help distribute the garbage flow a little more…but the issue is compounded by restaurants and to go businesses (coffee cups, etc.). Busy weekends at the parks tend to make them more gross, and Cal anderson is only going to get dirtier, more worn out, and more expensive to maintain in the coming months and years. Let’s return the trash and recyclables to our homes and the places of origin if possible. Let’s patronize businesses that promote composting and recycle.

I see it around the city, but i think the real key is cutting consumption while increasing the solid waste disposal fees for businesses in Seattle. I know i am getting a little sick of the high fees i pay every two months for the little amount of trash, compost, and recycling i generate–having the fees based on weight/volume would greatly decrease the amount of materials we have to re-deal with on the other end.

Everything is connected, we pay several times over for our disposable coffee cups and to-go containers.

archie1
archie1
13 years ago

if you worked paycheck to paycheck and someone told you that you would only be allowed to get paid for 32 hours next week, that day should at least be a Friday or Monday. Making it a Wednesday is just plain mean on top of what is already a shitty situation.

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13 years ago

I spent many years working paycheck to paycheck. I never knew what days I would work the following week nor how many hours in my jobs. That’s life!

This is also government and you work for the people.

Tiko Tronik
Tiko Tronik
13 years ago

You bring up a great point. Next year we’ll bring trash cans and haul our trash away. We did leave the park cleaner than we found it, but we put the trash into the park’s overflowing trash cans.

I’m new to event planning and am very open to suggestions on how to make this event happy and low impact.

Pigs
Pigs
13 years ago

So much stupidity, so little space…

1.) The furloughs were negotiated by the Nickels Administration

2.) The city, working with the unions, set the dates. It’s been common knowledge for months. Just because some spoiled hipsters, who are also incapable of cleaning up after themselves, didn’t know that isn’t anyone but the piggy hipster’s fault. There’s no need for city employee’s to set dates that are convenient to slovenly hipsters.

3.) You don’t like it? Tough S@#t. Move to another city.