Days of cleanup efforts underway after Old Spanish Days Fiesta wraps up in Santa Barbara
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - How do you pick up thousands of pieces of confetti, every few steps in downtown Santa Barbara? Santa Barbara's Public Works Department, private business owners, their staff, and others are all taking part in a massive cleanup from Old Spanish Days.
The most festive part of the event for many people is the cracking of confetti-filled cascarone eggs. They were sold on many blocks and the evidence is now on the ground.
One of the first areas to get cleaned up was De la Guerra Plaza.
All of the vendors moved out Saturday night after the Mercado De La Guerra closed at 10 p.m.
Sunday, the street was power washed by the Big Green Cleaning Company. It was returned to the city by Old Spanish Days by 4 p.m. The Old Spanish Days director in charge of the plaza, Sean Malis said the city is double checking all the underground connectors in place but no major problems were reported.
Darvik Productions from Ventura provided the stage for the four days of shows. It was down and hauled away Sunday to facilitate the final inspection.
The downtown work will take much longer.
Several blocks between the underpass and Carrillo Street were carefully cleaned starting before dawn.
On Tuesday, there will be another effort from Carrillo up to Sola Street.
Most of the intense impacts from Fiesta downtown were below Victoria Street.
In addition to the confetti, there's other liter in the form of alcohol bottles and cans and trash that overflowed from trash cans.
Working solo in front of Night Lizard Brewing John Piel said from the inside out it takes, "a lot of mopping and pine sol !" He didn't mind. The business had a solid and profitable weekend.
Working solo in front of Night Lizard Brewing John Piel said from the inside out it takes, "a lot of mopping and pine sol !" He didn't mind. The business had a solid and profitable weekend. As for the cleaning, " it takes about a week or two for it to finally disappear." He also said it was no uncommon to find some a couple of months later.
Ryan Still works in hospitality and said, "it lingers for a bit but it goes away somehow, eventually."
