SXSW

Fest mess no match for city's clean team

It happens every morning when barhoppers head home, but cleaning downtown streets during South by Southwest is a performance all on its own.

By Andrea Lorenz
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, March 23, 2009

It's the show no one comes to see but everyone would notice if it was canceled.

The group is made up of a dozen or so men and women who perform until dawn every night of South by Southwest, which wrapped its 2009 edition Sunday. Their instruments include backpack airblowers, sweeper trucks and the night's headliner — the flusher, a truck that guzzles water from fire hydrants, then spits it onto downtown streets.

The City of Austin's Solid Waste Services early morning anti-litter crew heads out every day at 2:30 a.m. to empty trash cans and clean around Sixth Street, South Congress Avenue, Red River Street and the Warehouse District.

A daunting task anytime, it nearly overwhelmed the new supervisor of the crew when he saw the damage early Thursday morning, his first shift during South by Southwest.

"When I pulled up to Sixth (Street) and (Interstate) 35, I couldn't believe my eyes," Don Anderson said early Friday morning, his second night but by now an old pro already laughing at his initial shock. "The crew could kind of tell the urgency of my voice. They told me this is the light day."

At 3 a.m. in the middle of the festival, downtown streets that by then usually are clear of revelers and taxis are still crowded as people make their way home, some needing more help than others. They walk over discarded copies of the SXSW schedule and stumble by trash cans overflowing with paper plates and takeout cartons from the street food that's become somewhat of a culinary art form during the festival.

Sixth Street, where the crew usually starts the night, is still too crowded, so the men and women carrying blowers have started in the calmer Warehouse District pushing litter from the sidewalks onto streets, kicking up clouds of dust and causing loud crashes as empty beer bottles fall off the curb.

Street sweepers follow behind, swiftly sucking up everything but cardboard, which is picked up by Anderson and LaPree Habbit, the former supervisor who's showing him the ropes, as they patrol the area in a pickup.

Habbit points to a trash can at Trinity and Fifth streets with trash piled a good foot or so high and spread out in a ring on the sidewalk below.

"It don't look nothing like this on a normal night," Habbit says.

By 4:30 a.m., the flusher truck is filling up at a hydrant near a gas station along Interstate 35, where a parked truck advertising an energy drink is the only evidence of the festival.

Over the intercom in Anderson's truck, a voice says, "You're gonna need a bucket truck for that alley."

Anderson and Habbit head over to investigate, finding several privately owned Dumpsters have been picked through for aluminum cans, they presume, with the remaining trash fanned out in the alley.

"My God," Anderson says, "there's no way we'll be able to get (the flusher truck) through."

The two debate whether to contact Waste Management, the company that is responsible for the Dumpsters, to remove the trash or to bring out a bucket truck to scoop it up, just one more challenge brought on by the week's festivities.

Later, once the blowers and sweepers clear the debris from the rest of the streets, the flusher will take over and wash the alleys while other crew members take to the sidewalks with power washers.

During South by Southwest, even though the city adds an extra shift from 3 to 11 p.m. to manage litter and empty trash cans, it will take longer for the overnight crew to finish, leaving less time for patroling illegal dump sites later in the morning until the shift ends at 1 p.m.

Even with the added burden, the work does get done.

"Come back through here at 6 a.m., and I'm telling you, you will not know this place," Anderson promises.

There will be a satisfaction to be had in the freshly washed streets and the for-now spotless sidewalks — "Keeping Austin beautiful," Habbit says of the crew.

Anderson knows they'll likely face the same mess the next night, and it'll be like, "Here we go again," but it's a worthy effort, he says. "We're doing our part to make sure our city is not only the Music Capital of the World but also the cleanest place around."

alorenz@statesman.com; 512-392-8750