Delaney Hall

Yeah, so we were paying for design and development.

But the public didn't just complain about the cost of the trash cans.

They also eventually complained about the amount of time the whole process was taking.

This whole undertaking, the designing, prototyping, testing, and deciding which cans to go with, it all started back in 2017.

And the garbage cans are still not out on the streets of San Francisco.

Rachel says they should roll out this summer.

Everything Rachel's saying is true.

COVID created a real two to three year time warp when everything fell apart.

But take that away and you're still looking at six years to get a new trash can on the street.

It just seems like it should not take longer to pick a trash can than it takes to build a skyscraper.

What model did the city ultimately choose and how much did the public input affect that decision?

That was the narrow can with stainless steel bars on the outside.

So many jobs you never really think about.

You won't think about that.

I'm curious, why do you think trash and cleanliness has become a charged issue in San Francisco?

It strikes me that trash collection is this fundamental service that cities provide.

And I think sometimes if people see piles of trash in certain parts of the city, they make a certain logical leap, which is if the city can't get this right, it must not be working well in all these other ways.

Is that your sense of the way that garbage works politically?

Yeah.

It's like ultimately you can bring people to trash cans, but you cannot make them throw away their trash.