Day 12: Government shutdown makes mess of Bay Area National Parks
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said it could take weeks to resolve the government shutdown.
It's been 12 days without pay for some federal workers and the trash and full toilets are forcing some national parks to close all access to the public.
Today we continued to see the impact of the government shutdown at the Lands End trail off El Camino del Mar in San Francisco's Sea Cliff neighborhood.
We don't know "who dunnit," but someone, perhaps a good Samaritan, came by this outdoor trash receptacle and took away some, not all, of the trash that had been collecting.
RELATED: Partial government shutdown hitting some Bay Area National Parks hard
Just yesterday the garbage was overflowing. The trail is managed by the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Clean-up crews have not been working because of the shutdown.
Unfortunately, the trash on the other end of the trail was piling up.
That's when we called the city's public works department to see if they were considering lending a hand.
RELATED: Government shutdown by the numbers
"It's an extra challenge for us to come out and do the cleaning, but we can do it. If it's a couple of garbage cans that we have to come out and service everyday or every few days until the shutdown is over, we can make sure we come out and do it. Our director, Mohammed Nuru made it very clear that he doesn't was us to just stand back, that if we can help we are going to come out and help," explained Rachel Gordon, spokesperson for the San Francisco Department of Public Works.
The Mayor of Washington D.C. also made the decision to have public works pickup trash on the National Mall and Memorial Parks until the federal government reopens.
Fort Funston in San Francisco is another park managed by the federal government. The garbage can on one of the trails was overflowing, yet people were continuing to leave their trash.
"Never like this, this park is so clean, everybody is responsible for picking up after themselves and it's always clean," said a surprised Yuka Johnson, a San Francisco resident.
"I guess we can all try to keep the bags with us, take it home with us and put it in the trash where it will be collected," suggested Lindsey Sommer, who was walking her dog.
RELATED: Access into Yosemite National Park limited due to government shutdown
The garbage cans next to Fort Funston's parking lot were relatively empty. That's because this gate kept people from parking their cars there.
The portable toilets had not been cleaned either since the shutdown.
More articles and information on the government shutdown are available here.
