San Francisco: Flash Mobs Leave Messes for City to Clean Up

San Francisco is now in its fourth year of "flash mob" public happenings and is starting to get tired of the clean up duty. The events are "spontaneous", organized by text messaging, on websites or word of mouth. Recent events have included January's Pants-less Bart Train Ride,

the Valentine's Day Pillow Fight at Justin Herman Plaza

and the March 5th Pie Fight at the Powell and Market Cable Car Turnabout.


They do look like they are having fun, and while some argue that this party spirit is good for tourism, the clean up is a problem.


The city says the cost of cleaning up after the pillow fight was $20,000. But it does gets the city international attention.

Yes We CAN'T (Clean-Up After Ourselves)

After the Inauguration: the Obama multitudes left their trash for someone else to clean-up.



I am truely saddened by this. It reminds me of the book Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism: Who Gives, Who Doesn't, and Why It Matters. When I read that book, I came to understand why I had so often observed that the people who talked about the poor didn't actually give to charity. They believed it wasn't their job -- it was the government's. I am thinking now that in the same way, these people who came out for Obama's Inauguration don't believe that taking care of the environment is their job either.

Hat Tip IowaHawk