In the Works - Community Newsletter In the Works September 2017 | Page 55

made up of Eddie Pacheco and
Peter Kwan scoured the gritty
sidewalk for the benefit of
residents, shoppers, merchants
and visitors in this historic
neighborhood.
The special Stockton Street
spruce-up was a promise
that Mayor Ed Lee made to
merchants who have been heavily
impacted by construction of the
Central Subway in Chinatown.
Public Works has been taking
the lead on the quality-of-life
improvements, offering courtesy
graffiti removal on both private
and public properties for two
years, increasing cleaning around
public trash cans, bolstering litter
pickup and providing a one-time
deep cleaning of the sidewalks.
The efforts began Sept. 16.
The Stockton Street commercial
corridor is one of the busiest
pedestrian corridors in the City,
and the sidewalk gets sullied with
litter, grease, spilled food, gum
and the like. The true color of
clean concrete has been elusive. illegal postings on Stockton
Street from roll-up doors, walls
on private buildings, mailboxes,
lamp posts and other hot spots
for the illegal tagging. We’ll
keep up the effort with a goal of
maintaining a graffiti-free zone.
Deep cleaning the sidewalk is a
very labor-intensive and time-
consuming job. Each block takes
two seasoned workers a night to
clean – and that’s just one side
of the block. Each inch gets a
thorough washing. We targeted
the stretch of Stockton Street
from Broadway to the Stockton
Street Tunnel. While our specialized teams
are taking care of business on
graffiti and dirty sidewalks, the
regular cleaning team, headed by
Mario Montoya Jr. and Adam
Maroney, will make sure Public
Works crews remove debris and
steam clean the trash cans in the
early morning before most of the
neighborhood wakes up.
Meanwhile, our public property
and private property graffiti
teams, led respectively by Norflis
McCullough and Alisha Whitt,
have started abating graffiti and Public Works employees take
pride in what we do. Keeping
San Francisco neighborhoods
clean, safe and inviting is a goal
we work toward every day.
September 2017 - San Francisco Public Works Newsletter