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Valentine's Day Pillow Fight Was Cheap Fun
Pillow fight in Justin Herman Plaza, 2008
The cleanup of yesterday's Valentine's Day pillow fight in Justin Herman Plaza cost the city of San Francisco considerably less to clean up than last year, the Department of Public Works said.
"Right now we're looking at around $3,500," public works spokeswoman Gloria Chan said.
Feathers, trash and debris from the annual pillow fight in 2010 cost the department $35,000 to dispose of, according to official estimates.
Bad weather likely led this year to fewer attendees, which contributed to the lower cost.
Chan said that between 300 and 600 people attended the event this year.
The pillow fight is not an organized event, Chan said. Organizers do not apply for permits that would provide portable toilets and security and cover the cleanup costs.
"It diverts our resources and manpower," she said.
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Jennifer Small
I'm seeing newswire reports about the total cost of the SF pillow
fight, which are leaving out the main reason the cost went fom $35000
to $3500 - my organization and our hard work!
Pillows for Puppies coordinated 30 volunteers who stayed until 10:30pm
cleaning the plaza, along with dozens of helpers who were happy to
fill a bag with fluff before heading home. We filled 150 big trash
bags with the stuffing from burst pillows and left much less work for
the city employees. We left a very light smattering of feathers,
rather than the usual 4-6 inches of fluff, feathers, and empty
pillowcases. Next year we’re bringing power washers of our own -
that’s all there was left to do!
Our volunteers reduced the clean up cost for the city from $35,000 in
2010 to $3,500 in 2011, according to Gloria Chan of the DPW. This
ninety percent reduction is due to our amazing volunteers and the
participation of pillow fighters in cleaning up after themselves when
offered trash bags and loving encouragement to pick up.
This event
is going to be much less of a burden on the city as it becomes a habit
for the participants to self-regulate the event by cleaning up. Pillows for Puppies will be there to help.
See our website for some great pictures of the hard work we did cleaning up:
http://pillowsforpuppies.tumblr.com/
Michael Smith
Let's see, a few hundred participants at a cost of $3,500 for 10 minutes of fun. At about $10 for 10 minutes per person that actually works out to be quite expensive, with a bonus of a huge amount of crap heading into landfill. Somehow I don't think "pillowsforpuppies" is going to get any compliments on this one.