Here's Your Stuff

A Community Garbage Project
February 16, 2007

> Take the Here's Your Stuff Survey
> Drop Us a Note to share your thoughts

> Find out more about Byxbee Park

The Story Archive
Mr. Snyder and the Garbage Tax
Best Job I Ever Had

Have you been to Byxbee Park in the Palo Alto Baylands? Have you seen the installations there and heard the machinery at work? Have you ever wondered what those poles are for? Or the posts with the ropes dangling between them?

And did you know that the park is made from garbage—your garbage, maybe? If you did know, then I’m willing to bet you didn’t learn it from walking around in the park. There are hardly any signs at all inside the park, nothing to explain what you are looking at, and certainly nothing to acknowledge the contributions of thousands of Palo Altans over several decades of happy-go-lucky toss-and-bury waste disposal.

The project “Here’s Your Stuff” would like to change that. As the rest of the Palo Alto dump is converted to park and integrated with Byxbee in the foreseeable future (possibly as early as 2011), we’d like to see some displays to help visitors get oriented to the nature of the park, such as it is.

Envision it for a moment: It’s the year 2011 and Byxbee Park finally opens in its full glory. The entire Palo Alto landfill has been transformed into an art park. Of course, the rolling hills of garbage are still home to a system of trails, a series of land art installations, and many species of birds, armies of squirrels, and families of fleet-footed jack-rabbits. The view from the mounds over the Bay is still spectacular.

But in addition, there are displays that record the stories of people who have stopped off to deposit the trash they couldn’t fit into their garbage cans; stories of the men and women who worked on the dump; stories of how the place came to be what it is now. There are photos of earlier times, when bulldozers sculpted the trash and screaming gulls tried to snatch the edibles from under their treads. Or going further back, times when instead of rolling hills there were only waving reeds.

The possibilities are endless. Imagine a display that illuminate aspects of the science and engineering of garbage. Or displays that explain what happens to Palo Alto’s garbage now that the dump is completely closed and shows people on a map where they could find their things if they ever cared to go look for them.

Perhaps there are interactive displays that allow people to access web sites using their cell phones and sign the visitors log, upload their pictures, and share their own local garbage stories. where they can find out more about Byxbee and also share their own stories.

Park visitors go home with some fresh air in their lungs, with a little bit of the peace and quiet that is so characteristic of the Baylands habitat, and, not least, with a little food for thought and a little more insight into the ways we transform the places we love.

If this vision appeals to you, then there are a few things you can do:
1. Take the survey to let me know what you think about Byxbee Park
2. Drop us a note at heresyourstuff@gmail.com

Marijke Rijsberman