Fine park mess
Despite a $20 million overhaul and endlessly patient efforts to accommodate San Francisco’s least conscientious recreators, picturesque Dolores Park keeps living down to its sorrowful name, thanks to garbage-strewing weekend hordes. It seems the city has tried every available means of dissuading the littering swarms from breaking the law — with the exception of actually enforcing the law.
One otherwise beautiful April Sunday in the park left it carpeted with enough garbage to fill 460 bags, and yet The Chronicle reported last week that park rangers have yet to issue a single ticket this year for littering there. While officials protest that catching litterbugs in the act is difficult, a reporter witnessed several instances on a recent Saturday.
Supervisor Jeff Sheehy proposes raising the fine for littering in Dolores Park from $196 to as much as $1,000, which won’t make much difference if the punishment remains theoretical. More important, Sheehy’s legislation would empower rangers to impose administrative penalties for littering, with no need for prosecution by the district attorney’s office.
No one expects the Recreation and Park Department to make a federal case out of the remnants of anyone’s picnic or to catch everyone who dares leave a cigarette butt behind. But officials have lined the park with trash receptacles, added restroom facilities, spent $750,000 a year on cleanup and hosted discussions about changing the park’s “culture.” All that is fine as far as it goes, but a few well-placed fines are bound to go further. For motivating anyone selfish enough to treat a public park as personal dumpster, there’s no substitute for self-interest.