Bayview Dumped On — Again

From The Bay Citizen,

Illegal dumpers have targeted one city street four times in the past five months.

San Francisco wants to know who dumped more than 10 tons of debris, including shingles and other roofing material, on a sidewalk in the Bayview district. A neighbor discovered the mess near 1347 Donner Avenue.

The Bayview has become a dumping ground for businesses that do not want to pay to dispose of their debris, leaving the San Francisco Department of Public Works to mop up. “The Southeast section of San Francisco is frequently targeted by large-scale industrial dumping activity,” said the Department's spokeswoman, Gloria Chan.

Read more at The Bay Citizen

Read more at ABC7

Read more at SFAppeal

SF Cracks Down on Illegal Dumping - KTVU

I used to call or tweet 311 sometimes five times a day about dumping just in my local area, but recently, I've actually noticed a decline in the trash.  I hope that DPW's recent push to alert residents to the problem and how to get their large trash items picked up has helped.  Still, there are the people from outside our district who still think we're a dumping ground.  Let's hope that continued reporting and pressure from the city, like the recent lawsuits filed by City Attorney Herrera, help the situation further.

From KTVU.com,

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera is cracking down on illegal dumping and has announced plans to sue two companies, but catching the people responsible in the act is a challenge.

Herrera provided KTVU with surveillance video with four different views of illegal dumping at Newcomb Avenue and Barneveld in the city's Bay View Hunters Point neighborhood on Jan. 18, at about 1:30 a.m.The video is dark and the action is hard to see, but it shows is how difficult it is to stop illegal dumping.“It's extremely difficult and it’s even more so in the Bay View Hunters Point District because it's a vast area with a bunch of industrial properties,” said Herrera. “Many of which that are located on streets with dead ends and it also has easy access to freeway ramps.”In the video, a truck pulls up and the driver turns off its lights.

Read more at KTVU.com

Two companies sued by SF for illegal dumping

From KGO

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- San Francisco's industrial areas have long been dumping grounds. City Attorney Dennis Herrera hopes a lawsuit he filed in Superior Court Tuesday will send a message to companies and individuals. The lawsuit charges two companies and their owners with illegally dumping more than 100 tons of roofing material and construction debris on public property in the Bayview/Hunters Point neighborhood.

SF Officials Going Door To Door In Fight Against Illegal Dumping

From SF Appeal,

San Francisco city officials are going door-to-door in the city's Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood this afternoon to educate business owners and residents about the effects of illegal dumping.

The San Francisco Department of the Environment and Department of Public Works are collaborating on the outreach effort, which is focusing on an area of the city that is a known hotspot for illegal dumping, public works spokeswoman Gloria Chan said.

The departments are about halfway through a six-week campaign targeting industrial and other businesses that dump waste and residents who leave bulky items like couches and mattresses on city sidewalks and streets, Chan said.

Read more at SF Appeal

Impose Heavy Fines on Illegal Dumpers - SF Chronicle

Supervisor Cohen called me the other night to tell me about the grant and to let me know that illegal dumping was one of her top priorities.  Thanks, Supervisor Cohen! Of the 2200+ reports of illegal dumping in 2009-10, I think I must have called in at least a fifth of them!   If you see dumping in your neighborhood, don't let it sit there - call it in to 311!

Jessica Kwon, SF Chronicle, writes,

Every other day now, it seems, Bayview resident Angelo King drives by piles of abandoned construction and miscellaneous debris in his neighborhood.

Truckloads of them.

And he’s sick of it.

“It looks like somebody just rolled up there and kicked crap off their truck,” King said. “People are breaking the law, trying to save a buck at the expense of our neighborhood. It makes it look trashy and drives me absolutely crazy.”

As one of the last major industrial areas in the city, southeast San Francisco is the frequent victim of large-scale illegal dumping. After recently receiving a $350,000 state grant, however, the Department of Public Works — which cleans up using taxpayers’ dollars — may finally be equipped to curb the problem. The two-year grant, awarded by the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, will allow the department to clean up and monitor 25 chronic illegal dumping hot spots in the Bayview and work with community organizations to educate neighbors on how to report incidents.