Amongst the items on the agenda for San Francisco’s Land Use and Economic Development Committee this afternoon, an ordinance which would “declare the illegal dumping of debris and waste construction materials or industrial materials, or of more than 100 pounds of any other waste, refuse, or debris, on public property to be a public nuisance” and as such “permit the City and County of San Francisco to collect civil penalties, costs of abatement, investigation, and attorneys’ fees against the individuals or entities responsible for the dumping.”
∙ Land Use and Economic Development Committee Agenda: 4/18/11 [sfbos.org]
∙ Declaring Illegal Dumping on Public Property a Nuisance [sfbos.org]
Does the destruction of Transbay Terminal and its accompanying roadway count? From what I understand, this waste material is being recycled on-site, but for now, a bunch of it has been “dumped” and is just sitting there. There is an exception for contradictions with state or federal law, and it’s possible there’s an overriding law here that allows this.
Is there something in particular that prompted this law? I’m assuming the issue is that the city can already seek injunctive relief against this behavior and for any damages caused, but wanted to be able to issue fines and recover attorneys’ fees as well.
How about the rampant sidewalk dumping of ratty mattresses, couches, piles of clothing, electronic waste, tires and just plain garbage? I find it amazing the fouling one’s nest has become the social norm in San Francisco.
“ratty mattresses, couches, piles of clothing, electronic waste, tires and just plain garbage”
Very few of those incidents would total 100 pounds. The other question I’d have is whether these items stick around and never find their way to the trash — presumably someone is taking those mattresses and some of the other things and using them. Encouraging use of unneeded objects isn’t a bad thing. I’m assuming people can already be fined for dumping garbage, although tires is a weird one.
Much of it is hauled away by the City to the dump, but frequently it’s covered with graffiti, smashed up and strewn around the sidewalk before that happens. Really, the notion that sidewalk dumping constitutes a virtuous act of recycling -rather than civic vandalism – is just a excuse for being lazy, selfish and inconsiderate.
I see the sidewalk trash discussion a lot here, and I’ll give my experience living in Ashbury Heights.
We have tastefully decorated our living room with cast-offs found on the sidewalk in and around Clayton/Frederick/Ashbury. Most things required some work, but if you’re creative and know your way around sandpaper, primer, paint, and a sewing machine, it’s all good.
We have likewise left stuff on the sidewalk that disappeared in hours.
In the 5 years I’ve lived here, we’ve NEVER had a sidewalk trash problem. Stuff disappears within 24 hours, usually much sooner. True trash is never left on the sidewalk – we use our Big Item Collection for those things.
Sidewalk exchanges like this are part of urban life.
One nice thing my condo association does is get a debris bin for about 10 days every quarter and sets it in the parking lot.
Can we apply this to the yellow pages? Wouldn’t take too many books to get to 100 lbs…
I used to live in Ashbury Heights as well – and you could leave virtually anything out on the curb and it would disappear in a couple of hours. It never seemed to be a problem for us.
Another law. Great! Now who’s going to enforce it?
I’ve witnessed illegal dumping in our neighborhood and called the police and basically was given the “what do you want us to do about it” runaround.