Festivities Over, and Mounds of Old Spanish Days Confetti, Trash and Decorations Get Tossed or Stored
John Palminteri
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Old Spanish Days in Santa Barbara has lived up to its reputation as the biggest event of the year, even with concerns about more enforcement both locally and possibly with federal immigration agents.
The crowds came out. The events took place and were still very full.
There was no shortage of food, drink, and flying confetti.
Now, there is no shortage of clean up duties.
Karena Straight looked around downtown and said, “there’s going to be confetti for days. It was really. bad are they going to clean it up? We need some tooth brushes.Santa Barbara is beautiful, we gotta keep it clean.”
It was tedious work. “It looks like it was quite a party and there is going to be quite a clean up on the other end,” said Ellen Shank. Her advice was, “maybe grab a friend maybe from both sides would be the best approach,” she said while watching a worker with a blower clearing the sidewalk off towards the landscaping and street areas.
At the Antique Alley Arnold Buckner laughed at himself while using a basic broom to take on the constant confetti cleanup challenge. Instead of using a vacuum or a blower he said, “We’re not that smart!” He did say daily efforts made a big difference and that’s why it looked much better than it could have. “I would have waited but there is no way of waiting because it would have piled up like this.” He said that while holding up about a three inch measurement with his fingers.
The next few days will be especially busy. Already, De la Guerra Plaza has been cleaned up in an agreement that required it to be finished by Sunday afternoon. That included the removal of all the booths for food and retail, along with the entertainment stage.
The Big Green company on a contracted job cleaned up the plaza and power washed the streets.
The next phase of work will be essentially that same tasks throughout downtown, the Funk Zone, and waterfront for either private companies, the city crews or the business owners.
Some businesses will be saving their bunting and signs for next year’s Fiesta.
Public works crews started out early Monday morning with sweepers and hand tools. They also picked up all the cones, barricades and signage left behind.
Some business owners were out front with brooms and blowers and will be for days.
The hardest part will be the confetti in the landscaping and that will take days of work. There will also be some new ground covering that will be placed in the landscaping.
Some of the healthy intersection plants were flattened out and smashed due to vendors who were setting up street food stands and using the planters for their supplies.
Sunday the non-profit, Tidy Seas did a beach area cleanup with volunteers and picked up numerous bags and buckets full of left over trash. That included plastic cups, food scraps, boxes from beverages and leftover items brought to the parade route and never taken away. The group also did a clean up after the 4th of July in the most impacted areas. Annually it will do several cleanups each month along the immediate coast and on the Channel Islands.
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