2014 Moop Map: Abandoned Items

[sparkleBrony]

http://blog.burningman.com/2014/09/envi ... ever-seen/

Restoration has begun the task of returning the playa to an innocent and untouched state so it will be ready for next year's defilement. The first step is to make a sweep of abandoned items--the big stuff. Some camps greedily sucked up every last bit of moop as if they were former child stars pouncing on a pile of cocaine. Other camps were, shall we say, more avant-garde in their approach to Leave No Trace...

...that is to say, they didn't clean up and just left a 4-foot high pile of trash behind.

[Zealous]

How nice of them to leave a shade structure for DPW to use during their breaks while cleaning the area!

[danibel]

Wow. I read a thread about this camp on FB, and wow. I hope they never get placement again. Though I don't know how placement could ever ban someone from the playa. They could just use a different name/email/leader and try again.

What caught my eye about this map is that the two big plug n plays (9-K) have big red X's too. Just sayin'.

There are two red X's near where I camped and I know exactly what they are - one is a 3 gallon pee jug that sat there from Monday afternoon on, and the other is a wood pile and couch!! I don't get the leaving of huge pieces of furniture. How does that happen? You bring a couch, and leave it?! WTF? How can you not know that is left behind? And a pee jug/black water jug. Why?!

It's just gross.

[Sunbeam56]

Hah! Our camp (across 5:00 from Burning Sky) was clean!!! Way to go neighborhood!!!!
Way to go Elliot who was the last to leave and probably found all our little oopsies...

There is a little red x where the porta-potties were, on the other side of H street. That's odd. When I left I didn't see anything there. Maybe one of the portos leaked?

[Ano]

Hah! Our camp (across 5:00 from Burning Sky) was clean!!! Way to go neighborhood!!!!
Way to go Elliot who was the last to leave and probably found all our little oopsies...

There is a little red x where the porta-potties were, on the other side of H street. That's odd. When I left I didn't see anything there. Maybe one of the portos leaked?

I'd imagine it could be a leaking porto, or a late-in-the-strike-week-driveby... someone might not have been able to fit everything, and rather than solving the problem with more bungees on the roof, decided that the porto-potty was the closest thing to a place to dump things.

[Madgirl]

I saw quite a few left behind pee jugs on my way out of the city Monday afternoon. Ew.

[Lonesomebri]

As a map of abandoned items I at least expected to see one nice big red X at 6 and E where I left my hopes and dreams this year, but nothing marked where I camped.... But wait, what is that over on the 9 side, maybe those clustered X's mark the spot of that loss...

Odd, this photo and camp have nothing to do with ice sales....I had read a concerned eplayan discuss at length how detrimental ice sales are to the playa, more so than Plug and Plays......odd.......

[Elliot]

...

There is a little red x where the porta-potties were, on the other side of H street. That's odd. When I left I didn't see anything there. Maybe one of the portos leaked?

That was a cardboard box full of miscellaneous junk, up against the side of the first porto. It was there for several days, serving as a trash can. I left it there because it seemed secure from blowing around, and the Restoration crew would have no difficulty finding it and picking it up, and Millicent was already packed to the rafters -- and I was getting tired of cleaning up other people's crap. In retrospect, I am ashamed of leaving it there.

Same with the item on the same block, to the right of the first one. That was a garbage can, largely empty.

Yes, I could have put the cardboard box in the garbage can and found a place for it.

[danibel]

Yes, I could have put the cardboard box in the garbage can and found a place for it.

My goodness. I hope you don't feel guilty for not hauling off every piece of moop left by inconsiderate assholes. I walked past a pee jug about 10 times and never had a thought to take it in my van. I could not have taken the couch and firewood either, as I simply didn't have room.

Yeah, yeah. I feel bad that the resto crew has to deal with this stuff - but wow. Feeling bad for not taking big things.. really Elliot. You do a lot for the community, don't take on the guilts.

[Elliot]

Everything in the world is a matter of degree. At some point we all have to say "enough" and go home. No worries.

[maladroit]

It's probably worse for the event if you start strapping moop to the outside of your vehicles and it starts getting distributed along the highway.

I brought back what I could fit (couple trash bags in addition to my own camp moop sweep). Could have ranged further and gathered more, but would have had to strap them on the outside.

There's another phenomenon out there I've noticed. Sometimes people will leave a pile of what looks like abandoned stuff, but later on some of them will come back and get it. So it's hard to tell sometimes if they just left it, or if it's staging while they work out shared transportation etc. This is true even for bags of trash, although I've seen small stacks of fairly nice camping gear as late as Tuesday. The official word has been that you just don't take things off the playa that aren't yours, because of that gray area where you just don't KNOW if it's actually been abandoned.

There was just such a stack in my neighbor's camp...and there is now a red X there. So now I feel slightly guilty. But I left early Monday morning and no way to know for sure what their plan was.

But hard to deal with otherwise. What if people could put up some sort of marker when they leave, indicating "Sorry but we fucked up, this is abandoned!" Then neighbors can work together to get it off the playa. That works on one level, but the sort of people who would abandon stuff might not be bothered to put up a sign either. So then you have to officialize the process, getting the word out, patrolling and distributing markers...and now you've legitimized the act of leaving junk out there, so more people will do it, making the problem worse instead of better.

[MyDearFriend]

I am really tickled that Caravansickle and Lost Hotel had 3 red Xs each. Did they think they did not have to care about MOOP, and could they be right? Are BMorg Board members exempt from LNT?

[maladroit]

I am really tickled that Caravansickle and Lost Hotel had 3 red Xs each. Did they think they did not have to care about MOOP, and could they be right? Are BMorg Board members exempt from LNT?

Eh, probably not a great place to go fishing...even Center Camp had plenty of red X's if you want to talk about people who should know better.

[Elderberry]

I am really tickled that Caravansickle and Lost Hotel had 3 red Xs each. Did they think they did not have to care about MOOP, and could they be right? Are BMorg Board members exempt from LNT?

Don't you think if that were the case they would have instructed the clean up crew to not put those Xs on the map?

Does first camp ever get Xs or black marks? I've never actually checked, but my guess would be no.

[theCryptofishist]

Hey, no one should be bragging about how clean they left their campsite yet. This isn't the moop map--it's just a collection of exes where large piles of stuff (or small piles of big stuff) were left behind. The real moop map isn't made yet. We'll see who has bragging rights when it is.

[danibel]

Hey, no one should be bragging about how clean they left their campsite yet. This isn't the moop map--it's just a collection of exes where large piles of stuff (or small piles of big stuff) were left behind. The real moop map isn't made yet. We'll see who has bragging rights when it is.

Very good point.

[gaminwench]

Our across the street neighbors left Monday, late morning.
They came to us, concerned. A 'random' guy had shown up on Wednesday in their camp, dropped off a small pile of gear, then disappeared, not to be seen again.
They were uncertain what to do with his abandoned gear.
We suggested they leave a note (we provided dayglo paper/sharpie) with 'Random guy's stuff, 3:45/D' on the pile;
if it was still there when we pulled out Tuesday afternoon, we'd take it away.
Random dude showed up Tuesday morning and took his pile.
What he did without any gear during his entire stay is a mystery.

Communication between neighbors is always good.

side note:
Last to leave from our camp always takes photos of our 'plot' of freshly MOOPed desert, just in case there is a dispute later on.
A couple of years ago this proved beneficial, when a bag o' trash and a couple of bikes were 'gifted' to our empty space after we'd left.

[danibel]

side note:
Last to leave from our camp always takes photos of our 'plot' of freshly MOOPed desert, just in case there is a dispute later on.
A couple of years ago this proved beneficial, when a bag o' trash and a couple of bikes were 'gifted' to our empty space after we'd left.

I told myself last year to do this, but at the end of packing up everything and walking the entire area of my camp (the whole camp, not just where my van was), I was so tired I just got in the van and drove away. It was getting hot! Next year I will do this and try to make it part of the departure. Thanks for the reminder.

[AntiM]

I read the comments on the blog. Holy crap, that should be the required reading for every burgin who is thinking of flying in and joining a camp which provides everything. Due diligence should be part of radical self-reliance. Yikes.

[Eric]

Does first camp ever get Xs or black marks? I've never actually checked, but my guess would be no.

They do. The Org is shockingly honest on the MOOP map (this is from 2013):

[chuckularone]

and I was getting tired of cleaning up other people's crap.

I hope I mooped well enough. I'd feel horrible if I left anything behind for you to clean up!

[Sunbeam56]

That may be literal, Chuck. Remember, we were downwind from the Portos.
I found more than one tissue that had wafted in...

[Bounce530]

Flutter and I walked past this camp on Tuesday (during the event) and both commented about how they had a giant chunk of the block flagged off and empty, but instead of using contractors tape or the little flags, there were bags of trash and recycles lining the street. As well as a bunch of full trash bags shoved under a big rig trailer. I thought it was an insane amount of trash for that early in the week, then just assumed that they must be big art builders that had been there for a while pre-event.

Something that is kinda scary to me is that I called 4:30/H home for many years, these PnPer's could have been my neighbors this year had we not stalked BDC er, moved to a new neighborhood, and I am reading story after story now about high theft and hungry PnPer's that were not provided food they paid for. I wouldn't have been equipped to deal with that, let alone try and haul off that amount of left MOOP. Honestly I would have just thought that they would have had a truck coming in post event to pick up the piles. (as like what was to happen during the Africa burn a while back)

[Elliot]

and I was getting tired of cleaning up other people's crap.

I hope I mooped well enough. I'd feel horrible if I left anything behind for you to clean up!

Our camp was wonderful, Chuck. But on Wednesday the wind picked up and blew a great deal of crap around. (This wind blew in the exact opposite of the "usual" direction -- proof that this does happen.)

On a comical note, there was this piece of something that came blowing along, and I tried to put my foot on it, but it eluded me, and I took off after it, repeatedly trying to "tackle" it. I was half-way to 5:15 Street before I gave up the chase. I must have looked comical, running like a madman with a bucket in one hand, bum knee limping, repeatedly trying to step on this darned piece of moop that was outrunning me.

By "other people's crap" I meant all the stuff that came by on that wind. There sure was a lot of it, that "other people" had not secured. That was the stuff I had to concentrate on.

Now.... I want to point out that the streets near our camp were remarkably clean all week long, as well as after. "Other people" were clearly doing a good job of not letting it hit the ground. Three cheers!

[Elderberry]

side note:
Last to leave from our camp always takes photos of our 'plot' of freshly MOOPed desert, just in case there is a dispute later on.
A couple of years ago this proved beneficial, when a bag o' trash and a couple of bikes were 'gifted' to our empty space after we'd left.

Good advice. We do the same thing.

[TT120]

I picked up random crap that blew into my camp all week. One cheese wrapper in particular gave me a good run for my money, damn thing was QUICK! One cool thing was one of those red "Why the nose" noses which I kept and took some pics with.

[theCryptofishist]

One cool thing was one of those red "Why the nose" noses which I kept and took some pics with.

Does anyone else remember how we advised against those noses for that very reason?
*goes off ot have a private smirk*

[theCryptofishist]

Sometimes people have the perfect names--playa or real. Never trust a man named Moonshine...

[kittyrodriguez]

A Man Named Moonshine...

Sounds like a Tennessee Williams play.

[Tiahaar]

Leaving the playa home of Starship Palomino looking back towards 8:15 and J/K...that pile of bikes in the way background earned an x on the map, otherwise pretty empty.