San Francisco's Public Utilities Commission sees your drought-conscious "Ugliest Yard In SF" competition, Department of the Environment. And now they're ready to raise you, with the disquieting slogan "Brown is the new Green."
In this case, the drought-related "brown" isn't the kind that you're still encouraged to flush down even as your yellow mellows. Instead, reports KCBS, this is the PUC's way to make your water conservation a publicly-visible virtue, by allowing your green landscaping to die off — that is, go brown.
“In order to stay with the times and be the greenest San Francisco citizen that you can be, we want you to let your front yard, if you have one, your patch of green to go brown,” SFPUC VP Francesca Vietor announced from a "patch of brown grass at Marina Green."
San Francisco certainly didn't create this slogan or yard sign campaign: a quick Google image search shows that signs like SF's have been in use in drought-stricken areas for years. But now it's our turn, and Vietor is urging residents to pick up signs emblazoned with the slogan from the PUC and to display them "as a badge of honor."
According to the PUC's site, you can nab the signs, free of charge, at the SFPUC Customer Service Center (525 Golden Gate Avenue, 1st Floor). If you want a whole bunch, email them at [email protected] to set that up.
Oh, and SF residents aren't the only ones who will proudly hit the brown note, Vietor says. Per KCBS, "the city will do more too; starting with more responsible watering of parks, meadows and street medians. The effort won’t exactly kill off plant life, but things are expected to look a little shabbier."
