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Tuesday, March 12, 2013

After Waiting for More Than a Month - Donation Bins Finally GONE

It's finally GONE!  Took you long enough.
After an entire month of waiting and some heavy handed persistence to the city government to do something, the donation bins blocking public a parking space and meter have finally been moved away.

Initially when I reported on the bins at the corner of Evelyn and Portola, I got a surly response from San Francisco 311 that they want me to call the donation bin company for blocking a city parking space, therefore the SFMTA makes zero revenue on the parking meter.  After giving the 311 folks a kick in the shin, they forward my request to DPW to get the ball rolling.

Three weeks after my initial request, the bins still remained and the city "escalated" the issue because it was taking too long for the task to be completed.  The city contacted the company on February 11th and demanded for them to remove the bins.

Sometime within the last seven days, the bins finally departed.  I know for sure they were still there on March 2nd because I always pick-up some lotto tickets at the market on the corner.

I'm happy that the city took action to get the donation bin company to move their bins off of public property because on some weekends, the lot can get full, and the city doesn't make any revenue on the parking meter.  But I'm very disappointed at the long wait because DPW should have moved it themselves after giving a week's notice and send the bill to the donation bin company.  Those donation bin companies knows they are NOT supposed to put those on public property and should only be on private property with the permission of the land owner.

2 comments:

Mark Taylor said...

Not surprised it took so long. Bureaucracy is slow to react. Stanley Roberts did something a while back about how some bins are actually profit centers for the business and very little of the items donated goes to charity. Always put donated items clearly in a bin marked by that charity.

Anonymous said...

I noticed one of these today at city college of san fran right near the Cafeteria

I have no idea who to contact at city college
but it should go

BTW love yr webpage
Kev