WORLD NEWS
Mobile Toilets Helping Clean Up San Fran Streets
A San Francisco neighbourhood has benefitted from cleaner streets in recent weeks thanks to the introduction of some new, solar powered portable toilets that have been rolled in four afternoons a week.
The Tenderloin neighbourhood of San Francisco is known for homelessness, poverty and crime, but since the
portable pit stops have been brought in, locals say it has made the area more liveable.
“Everyone has to go to the bathroom, that’s not something anyone can stop,” said Jane Kim, a San Francisco supervisor whose district includes the Tenderloin neighbourhood. “This programme affords people some dignity to take care of a human need.”
Kaven Harris, 54, an army veteran who has been living on the streets for around six months, said that before the mobile toilets were introduced, he was forced to go to the toilet in the street.
He said: “If this pit stop weren’t here, I would be in the parking lot. There is
no place to use the bathroom if you’re homeless and don’t have money.”
The mobile toilets are guarded by attendants, and have been so successful that city officials say that New York, Honolulu and Portland, Oregon have inquired about them in seeking solutions for similar problems.
The attendants work for a non- profit organisation contracted by the city, and as well as guarding the toilets, they make sure that they stay sanitary and are well stocked up with toilet paper, air freshener, soap, paper towels and seat covers. They also give users a ‘courtesy knock’ after five minutes.
And according to Mohammed Nuru, Director of San Francisco’s Public Works Department, the success of this pilot programme is largely due to these employees, who also make sure that the bathrooms are not misused as hubs for prostitution or drug use – something that has happened to other public toilets in the city.
He said: “We have seen huge success with staffing these facilities and making them decent for people.”
Nuru added that since the programme started back in July, the number of requests to clean faeces and urine off of the streets has dropped by a third.
New HQ On The Horizon For Nilfisk America
Nilfisk announced this month that it is moving its Americas headquarters across Minneapolis from Plymouth to Brooklyn Park.
For the past 28 years, Nilfisk has maintained its Americas headquarters in Plymouth, most recently in a 216,000 square foot facility located near the intersection of Minnesota State Highway 55 and 21st Avenue North. With its current lease set to expire in April of 2016, the company
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has opted to build a new 182,000 square foot facility in Brooklyn Park’s Northcross Business Park.
Diane Lapp, CFO of Nilfisk Americas, said: “With our lease expiring, we saw an opportunity to assess our needs as it relates to production capacity and work flow, and determine if our current facility was sufficiently meeting those needs. In the end, we decided that a new custom-built facility would serve us better, not just for today but for well into the future.
“Not only will our new facility better serve our employees, but it will allow us to further enhance our ability to provide world-class products and service to our customers.”
Lapp added that the move, which will begin in the fourth quarter of 2015 and be complete by the first quarter of 2016, will include all current Plymouth-based employees, approximately 300, and all operations as they exist today, including manufacturing and production, sales and marketing, R&D and product management, and corporate services.
Northcross Business Park is located at the intersection of Minnesota State Highway 610 and U.S. Highway 169, just 12 miles from Nilfisk’s current location. Nilfisk is working with United Properties and Pope Architects to develop and design its new space.
www.tomorrowscleaning.com
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