Mardi Gras 2013 cleanup earns compliments from parade-route regulars

You might call them the unheralded Krewe of Clean: the nearly 200 sanitation workers, trailing after every Mardi Gras parade, that scoop up the menagerie of beads and beer cans lining the city's parade routes.?

This year, even the stalwarts along St. Charles Avenue, where Rex and Zulu passed just a few soggy hours ago, are paying compliments to the workers for a generally swift and thorough job of tidying the route, despite a tight city budget and a schedule that situated Carnival parades on either side of the Super Bowl.

?They definitely got to us on the route last night much sooner than years past and I think overall, they did a very good job,? said McKinley Eastman, managing partner at the Mexican restaurant Superior Grill.

That?s not to say that St. Charles is looking its best. With the rain that fell over the past few days, Eastman said, ?there?s not a blade of grass in sight, it?s just completely mud.? But given the situation, he gave the city passing marks on cleanup.

A few years ago, Eastman said, the city skipped his block entirely and threatened him with a $10,000 fine because of the pile of trash and furniture outside his restaurant (he says that was not his doing). So a little mud is not so bad.

Of course, it can be difficult to gauge from year to year what kind of a job city officials have on their plate after Mardi Gras and how well they?ve handled it. Years ago, City Hall stopped putting out figures on the total amount of trash left after the parade season because officials worried the practice encouraged residents to litter. This year the rain complicated the cleanup but may have also kept the crowds -- and by extension the garbage haul -- smaller.

Either way, city officials have long made cleanup a priority in a town that relies on a tourist-friendly image to attract business and visitors. Last week, with Super Bowl festivities over and the last stretch of parades ahead, Deputy Mayor Andy Kopplin urged residents to help keep the city looking well-maintained.

?To keep the city as clean as its been, it?s up to all of us,? Kopplin said during the city?s post-game press conference. ?We can make that happen but only with the support of the citizens of this great city.?

Consistent with the city?s approach over the past few years, a combination of city, contract workers and inmates from Orleans Parish Prison followed the parades this year, totaling about 200 people with 45 pieces of equipment.

In an email this week, Tyler Gamble, a spokesman for Mayor Mitch Landrieu, said the the effort was ?extremely successful,? with crews typically finishing each parade route between two-and-a-half to three hours after the last float.

Bonnie Rabe, owner of the Grand Victorian Bed & Breakfast at the corner of St. Charles and Washington avenues, said the city has done a better job in past years of getting to the trash that accumulates down side-streets. But the parade route itself looked spic and span by Wednesday morning -- a must, she said, for the area?s business owners.

?That?s the first impression and it needs to look good,? Rabe said. ?We were extremely pleased with the cleanup.?

Polly Watts, the owner of Avenue Pub down the street, concurred.

?Obviously, with the rain and everything, there weren?t as many people,? Watts said, but added, ?I think they did an exceptional job this year. Normally on big nights we don?t see the cleaning crews in our area until 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. or even midnight, but they were out and got it done within two hours this year.??

Source: http://www.nola.com/mardigras/index.ssf/2013/02/mardi_gras_2013_cleanup_earns.html

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