SFO beautification project

It has been a few days already; truth is that I was waiting for good photos/videos to be published before writing about out project. As it turns out, that will have to wait a while..


There were about 20 of us from Oracle (and guests), almost the same number from San Francisco's DPW and several people from SF connect. It all started at 8:30 AM, at a sub sandwich place at 8th and Harrison's. Free warm breakfast and lunch for all us volunteers! Car pooling from the peninsula and picking up someone meant I was going to be late, and I made haste to reach at 8:35. Thankfully, not many folks had turned up yet.

It was raining hard, and the whole event was in question. But, the DPW folks were well prepared, with rain ponchos for everyone, orange road reflectors for working on the streets, gloves, paint, rollers and brushes.

We all gathered, talked a bit, wore our gear and set out in three groups. One group actually cleaned up graffiti on the off ramp of 101. See some pictures here. Unfortunately, the photographer could only stay with one group, so the rest of us aren't quite represented in the photographs. Two other groups (including mine) set out to under the 80 freeway, and began painting pillars. Some had graffiti, some didn't, but they were all dirty. We were so enthusiastic to cleanup graffiti that some folks painted their own graffiti on the pillars before painting them over. :)

When the rain stopped a couple of hours later, we were ready to do what was originally planned; painting utility poles on the streets. Meanwhile, the day had begun for SFO residents and traffic had increased. We went about diligently doing our stuff and broke at 12:30, at which time hot lunch awaited us.

Meanwhile, the official videographer interviewed me about my role, what I do for a living and why I was doing this. I hear the videos will be shown in Oracle OpenWorld, and will be published on our websites as well.

It was a nice experience, organizing this event. And my fellow project leader Charlene did a great job too.

The sad part of it all was, we had to relocate (for want of a better word) several homeless folks who were sheltering by the pillars. They moved from pillar to pillar as we painted, and it made me sick in the stomach. I suppose they will find it a much cleaner place to be in, at least.

Join us next time, if you are in the bay area. You might find it to be a rewarding experience.

Graffiti, here we come !

The big day is here. It is hoped SFO's mayor will show up.

Tomorrow, I will finally wear the bright red Oracle volunteer project leader t-shirt and the black cap, and head to SFO to cleanup the graffiti downtown. Close to 20 people have signed up, including my good friends Karun and Archana and my hiking friend Javed. And my manager will be there too with his wife, he just called.

Hehe, for once, maybe I can tell him what to do ? 'make clean' (ya, a bad one, I know)

Whatever happens, I can never drive by 8th street and Harrison in SFO the same way again.

Graffiti cleanup in San Francisco

I am volunteering in a project to cleanup graffiti on the streets of San Francisco, come September. We will work with SF Connect. Sounds like fun, painting and cleaning up friends..

Friends and guests are welcome, so let me know if you would like to join in. Free lunch, free T-Shirt, loads of fun. I might not want to part with the paint brush, so bring your apples along to bribe me.

PS: Let's hope we don't have to cleanup some particularly pleasing art work. Would hate to cleanup beautifully done graffiti.