We've been talking a lot about troubles and general weirdness at Dolores Park lately, from bottles smashed in a sandbox to their guinea pig encampment to vandals who caused over $100K of damage at the park. And the Chron is on it! Last month, CW Nevius called for more cops to bust park drinkers as a solution to the problems, then this week chided "the blogosphere" (aww, we blush!) for looking critically at that plan. Taking back the blogosphere, he posted yesterday on the sheer amount of trash that those drinkers (and others) leave behind every weekend, and Matier and Ross followed up with even more stats on DoPa dumping. Let's take a look at the numbers, shall we?
- 2: The number of rangers SF employs to protect all of SF's parks from crimes like littering
- 220: the number of SF parks those two rangers must cover
- $400,000: What San Francisco's Recreation and Park Department spends, [pr year, to pick up weekend trash left at Dolores Park
- 7,000 - 10,000: The number of people who congregate to Dolores Park on a warm (above 65 degree) day
- 14: The number of acres Dolores Park covers
- 8: The number of 96-gallon “toters" trash cans in the park
- 20: The number of 30-gallon trash cans in the park
- 1: The number of six cubic yard debris boxes in the park
- 2: The number of times, per day, Rec and Park empties all those trash cans
- 4,921: The amount of trash, in cubic yards, left at Dolores Park per year
Also, here's a photo Scott Wiener posted today of broken bottles and syringes found in the playground "a couple of nights ago." Really? Syringes? Are those unused syringes?
All facts and figures: Dolores Park — thousands of pounds of trash each weekend and Dolores Park trash far exceeds Golden Gate Park’s, SF Chronicle, March 3 2015
