San Francisco truly is a magical city, perhaps the most magical place in the world, insofar as it apparently has so few problems, so little responsibilities, and so much money that it focus on things like this:
The city's Department of Public Works famously decided no city in the world had ever placed a trash can on its sidewalks that would meet San Francisco's exacting standards and designed three bespoke, wildly expensive prototypes just for us. It took nearly four years and $550,000 to get this far, but now they need our help.
They're testing the fancy prototypes and three everyday, off-the-shelf varieties at locations around the city for the next two months. They want people to use their online maps to find the cans, test them out and use QR codes plastered on the sides to tell the department what they think.
With residents' input, the department will settle on the winner. The idea is that more than 3,000 of them will land on city sidewalks sometime in 2023 in what must be the most complicated purchase of a trash can in human history.
What a life! As the Chronicle has noted, the prototype trashcans "cost $12,000 to $20,000 apiece, while "when mass-produced, the cost per can will drop to an estimated $2,000 to $3,000."
So the city is looking at several million dollars to distribute the trash cans throughout the city no matter which model they settle on.
We thought it might be helpful, however, to let the leaders of San Francisco know just which trash can would be the absolute most obscenely offensive waste of money among the three. That's where you come in!
Don't get us wrong: They're all ugly, stupid, wasteful pieces of junk. The city could spend $450 per can, get the job done, and save millions—literally millions—of dollars. But since they're not doing that, it's down to the voting public to make our voices heard.
Vote: Which potential San Francisco trash can is the stupidest and ugliest money pit of the three?
Every vote counts, people!
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