D5 Clean Team Saturday Sweep

A smile perhaps from McKinley's ghost this morning? Hundreds of District 5 neighbors converged around the slain president William McKinley's monument at the Baker street end of the Panhandle today to scrub, paint, weed, grab, and buff the neighborhoods.

(Come on, you do know this isn't just the east-end statue at Baker, right? President Teddy Roosevelt made his only stop in NOPA in 1903 to sanction the future memorial to his assassinated predecessor. Graffiti swipers and trash grabbers you'e on historical gounds.)

Our own supervisor, Ross Mirkarimi, deftly garbed in green helped out along with NOPNA president Kevin Rafferty and vice-president Jarie Bolander. We missed the opening send-off from the podium, but Dept of Public Works director Ed Reisken was there to rally the troops and thank them for their efforts. DPW trucks lined the block with supplies and ready to cart away all the (ahem, illegally) dumped refuse that bedecks our blocks every now and then. Do we need to declare a NOPA USED MATTRESS DAY?

We found our Graffiti Watch champ, Doug Dilboll, (right, in photo) strayed into the Haight with a mobile graffiti cart. Taggers beware.

Thanks, neighbors near and far. NOPA: Now ready for it's close-up.