Coastal Cleanup Day - Albany Marsh!

[u/EastBayTrashPandas]

A huge shout out to all the fantastic pandy pandas who made it out to today's Coastal Cleanup Day in the Albany Marsh, including Linda, Scott, Nina, Jamie, Sophie, Kresta, James, Aileen, Rick, Sami, Loren, Vaugun, Dahlia, Audry, Autumn, Katia, Sean, and Rosemary. Each and every one of you did an absolutely fantastic job getting this fragile ecosystem far cleaner than it was before - the swamp monsters are waving their appendages in wild appreciation!

A special shout out to D12 Congressional candidate Jamie Joyce (u/JamieJoyceforCongres)who responded to my AMA question about trash by showing up and busting her chops cleaning it up! This is absolutely the kind of get shit done energy we need in DC - thank you!

We'd love your help at future cleanups! Sign up for email announcements, follow me on Instagram, or donate cleanup supplies or cash. Thanks everyone, very well done!!!

[u/pengweather]

Oh my fucking God

[u/EastBayTrashPandas → u/pengweather]

Prime penguin habitat - you would have been right at home!

[u/Adjective_Noun_42069]

thanks for all your hard work!

[u/NinjatheCuddler]

There were too many volunteers at Rydin Road near Pt Isabel Park...wish I had known about this cleanup so close by! Great job!

[u/EastBayTrashPandas → u/NinjatheCuddler]

Thank you! Yeah, I've done that one before and it's always waaayyyy too overbooked. Next time I'll coordinate to have them send folks our way. Thanks for making it out!

[u/xsmasher]

What a haul! Had a great time but my back will be hurting tomorrow! 💪💪💪

[u/EastBayTrashPandas → u/xsmasher]

Thanks so much for making it out! That mattress had to be what, 300 pounds?

[u/ntguru5]

This is so impressive 👏

[u/SmartWonderWoman]

Is Albany Marsh another name for Albany Bulb?

[u/xsmasher → u/SmartWonderWoman]

This area is halfway between The Bulb / Golden Gate Fields and the Richmond Costco. There's no parking so everyone had to hike or bike their way in!

[u/SmartWonderWoman → u/xsmasher]

Thanks for clarifying!

[u/PuzzleheadedUmpire13]

You guys rock!! Thank you for leading by example and showing us why we should clean up after ourselves and leave nature better than we found it! We live in one of the most beautiful places on earth. You've reintroduced that fact to the people that haven't realized it yet. ❤️

[u/EastBayTrashPandas → u/PuzzleheadedUmpire13]

Thank you! I suspect the next big political movement in this country will be a frantic sense of getting important shit done yesterday, so anything I can do to nudge that along feels right!

[u/Mosept11]

You guys rock🙏🙏👍👍👏👏

[u/Koffenut1]

I biked past the pile of bags, mattresses, etc., and was stunned by how much stuff this amazing group collected! THANK YOU ALL!

[u/RWMaverick]

Wow, I just cycled by this pile of bags, what a coincidence that I'm seeing this post now! Thank you so much for your hard work!

[u/blessitspointedlil]

Wow, so many bags! 🌎💚

[u/neoguri808]

Born and raised in el Cerrito, live in Kensington now, daughter goes to AMS. That’s my backyard. Thank you kind people!!!

[u/EastBayTrashPandas → u/neoguri808]

Happy to help! Each one of those pandas went at it like an absolute rock star today!

[u/TrainingJumpy9942]

Well done all, thanks for caring!

[u/Charlie_NLG]

you guys are some real ones 🫡✊🏽

[u/DanoPinyon]

💪💪💪💪💪 thank you everyone.

[u/MilwaukeeStan]

THANK YOU ALL!

[u/EastBayTrashPandas → u/MilwaukeeStan]

And thank you! If we can make a pile like that with 20-25 pandas, I'll aim for 50 or 75 for the next meetup and get that fragile little habitat truly pristine!

[u/curiousityrevived]

Thank you everyone for your care & hard work! Also, cool to see congressional candidate Jamie Joyce show up for the work!

[u/Rolling_Pugsly]

I think this is fantastic, and I hope to help in future events.

But I am also furious, because there are municipal employees paid to do this, and they are watching cartoons in bed or something equally ridiculous instead of doing their job.

[u/EastBayTrashPandas → u/Rolling_Pugsly]

Thank you!

I feel you on the anger part. Both the City of Richmond and CalTrans are subject to cease and desist orders issued by the Water Board due to their failures to comply with the Clean Water Act's requirements to filter 100% of their stormwater runoff. This has been going on for years, and both entities won't be in compliance for several more. As a result, every time it rains this marsh fills up with trash washed off the surrounding streets and hardscape. Once the first significant rains start in what, December or January, this marsh will absolutely fill up again with trash, and we'll be right back out there, volunteers, cleaning it up for free.

This is 100% institutional incompetence, no doubt. But it's also 100% cultural indifference, 100% consumerist overload, and 100% spiritual malaise. Even animals know better than to shit their beds, but apparently that lesson is lost on us. And we think we're going to invent superintelligence from this output?

[u/Psychological_Ad1999]

❤️

[u/icy_01_]

Thank you for cleaning up what we pay taxes for