As we recently reported, the problem of human feces on the streets of San Francisco has gotten so bad that the city is launching a new ‘Poop Patrol’ to deal with it.
We cited this San Francisco Chronicle report by Heather Knight:
It’s no laughing matter — SF forming Poop Patrol to keep sidewalks cleanIn a city where filthy sidewalks are many residents’ No. 1 complaint, City Hall has come up with a new way to deal with No. 2.It sounds like silly elementary school banter, but it’s real. San Francisco is about to launch the Poop Patrol.In about a month, a team of five Public Works staffers will begin patrolling the alleys around Polk Street and other hot spots in a vehicle equipped with a steam cleaner.They’ll begin their shifts in the afternoon, as the city starts losing its sheen from overnight cleaning. The Poop Patrol’s mission? To spot and clean piles of feces before anybody complains about them.
What we didn’t know until now, is how lucrative such a profession can be.
Matier and Ross of the San Francisco Chronicle report (emphasis is mine):
San Francisco Public Works has a $72.5 million-a-year street cleaning budget — including spending $12 million a year on what essentially have become housekeeping services for homeless encampments.The costs include $2.8 million for a Hot Spots crew to wash down the camps and remove any biohazards, $2.3 million for street steam cleaners, $3.1 million for the Pit Stop portable toilets, plus the new $830,977-a-year Poop Patrol to actively hunt down and clean up human waste.(By the way, the poop patrolers earn $71,760 a year, which swells to $184,678 with mandated benefits.)
Really? $185K in pay and benefits to clean up after adults who relieve themselves on public streets?
Emily Zanotti of the Daily Wire has more:
In addition to the Poop Patrol, the city is spending $72.5 million on a street cleaning budget, $12 million on cleanup services for homeless encampments, $2.8 million on biohazard removal, $.23 million for specially designed street sweepers that use steam (which can effectively sanitize areas affected by human waste and drug use), $3.1 million for a series of portable toilets that won’t be open at night, $364,000 for a “needle team” similar to the “Poop Patrol” but charged with locating and eliminating drug use waste, and $700,000 for a “needle cleanup squad” that requires its own vehicle to transport bio-hazardous waste.
This March 2018 tweet from Kamala Harris has a whole new context now:
California is the future?
Let’s hope not.
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