The Janitors' Closet

An update on the homeless encampment, and the Old Station, from an old friend

 Bob, a few days back you posted a story titled 'Homeless in My Neighborhood' about the Old Station, an old gas station that's been converted into a cute sandwich shop in 'the Zone'.  As your article mentioned, the Zone refers to the epicenter of the homeless population in Phoenix, both various homeless resource providers and the large encampment.

I also recall, as you mentioned, ordering lunch from the Old Station when I worked at CBN.  They have good food.  

As you know, for a couple of years I worked for a homeless service provider located about a block from the sandwich shop.  I, along with several of my coworkers from the shelter, would frequent the Old Station for lunch about once a week; the owners where really wonderful.  I frequently saw the challenges they faced trying to operate just a couple of blocks from three homeless shelters and two soup kitchens... I thought the least I could do was buy a sandwich from them once a week.  

Something else that you mentioned in the article was a reference to 'The Duce', and the old produce market that used to be located near downtown Phoenix. 

I grew up in Phoenix and attended Old Saint Mary's High School; my dad was a Phoenix Police homicide detective, and my uncle sold melons, onions, and corn at the old produce market.  I actually knew several families that bought and sold produce there as well.  I have fond memories of eating breakfast with my dad and uncle at the old Busy Bee Cafe next to the old produce market. 

So, a few points of correction for the article you posted.  You referred to the 'The Duce', the proper spelling is 'The Deuce', and while 'The Deuce' was near the old produce market, the name had no reference to produce.  The word deuce means 'two dollars', and referred to an area in old Phoenix that was infamous for prostitution. 

When a newspaper reporter once asked Former Phoenix Mayor Margret Hance, 'why is that area called 'The Deuce', she quipped back 'Oh come on boys, that's what it costs'.  That is one of my favorite Maggie Hance stories, the other being when she appeared on stage for a Junior League costume and talent show charity benefit, dressed as Noblesse Oblige.  The mayor strolled on stage handing out cake, and even had the accent of the 'second estate' down.  I really miss that gal! 

See the map I prepared that shows the epicenter for homeless services located in The Zone, near where CBN's office is located, and where the Old Station is.  

The map also shows where the 'The Deuce' and the old produce market were once located.  Close, but different places.  

Bill 

Perhaps we ought not "whitewash" history

Folks ignorant of history make some ironic decisions.

Recently, both the national Audubon Society and its New York chapter have contemplated removing Audubon's name from their names, having (apparently) recently discovered that Audubon owned slaves.  The national society elected to retain the name; the New York chapter is removing it.  The New York chapter seems  oblivious to the rather more odious "York" in their name (and in that of city and state as well). The "York" was James II, Duke of York and brother to Charles II later king in his own right. New York was named for James after a James-organized expedition stole New Amsterdam from the Dutch.

For the irony: In around 1660, James founded the Royal African Company, with assistance from King Charles and London merchants.  The company was created to enjoy a monopoly on all British trade with the African coast, including that in silver, gold, ivory and slaves.  James was governor of the company until 1688, and its largest shareholder.  That would have made him one of the largest slave traders of his day, not to mention (further irony for a conservationist organization) one of the largest ivory traders. Audubon was small potatoes by comparison. 

The recent push to remove disreputable names from our lexicon seems rather double edged.  While, as it were, dishonoring some of the dishonorable, it allows us to avoid reminders of our history, warts and all.

Perhaps modern Germany has a better idea.  Shortly after the war, Germans contemplated demolishing the Nazi concentration camps, removing painful reminders of the Holocaust. On consideration, the kept some, turned them into museums, and encouraged the public to visit.  They have also, more recently, installed metal plaques into sidewalks, identifying homes where Jews once lived - thus giving neighbors a daily reminder.

Those who do not remember history are likely doomed to repeat it.  

Include the periodic floor and window work, and sanitation - in good times and in bad

I uncertain times, given banking challenges, inflation, labor and other shortages, I suspect we're soon to see commercial janitorial clients, ours and others, looking at ways to cut costs.  Here's some notes I put together a few years ago, during another uncertain period:

When the economy went south a while back, many firms around the Valley cutback on facility cleaning - either dropping the janitorial service entirely, or cutting services to a minimum, with periodic jobs such as burnishing and refinishing tile, carpet cleaning, and window washing eliminated.  (Or, if those periodic cleaning items were not included in the ongoing janitorial price, they were put off to another day.) 

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with saving a few bucks, particularly if it avoids layoffs, or bankruptcy.

Sooner or later, though, deterioration of your facility and furnishings, due to lack of proper periodic maintenance begins to show, and expenses multiply - deep shampooing of heavily soiled carpet is considerably more costly than the bimonthly or quarterly carpet cleaning we normally provide; burnishing tile is a lot less expensive than the refinishing job that’s needed if you skip the burnishing. 

Moreover, a building that is not being properly cleaned and sanitized - not just restrooms, but touchpoints through the building (due to a cheap but less than thorough janitorial service, or to one’s own untrained employees) - leads to a less healthy, and less productive, workforce. 

Now might be a good time to evaluate whether less frequent but thorough cleaning and sanitizing schedule (perhaps once or twice per week in a smaller facility) coupled with periodic burnishing, carpet cleaning, window washing and so forth, might make economic sense over the long haul.

We clean a lot of facilities on that kind of schedule.  Our client gets one reasonable and consistent monthly price, a better-looking and healthier workplace, and a happier and more productive staff.

Homelessness in my neighborhood

Caught a New York Times article today about a sandwich shop a bit over a half mile from .  It's called Old Station Subs, and we've ordered take-out from them from time to time over the years.  Phoenix's huge homeless encampment (1100
and counting) is a block or two from the shop; the article deals with the issues longtime small business owners face with drug dealing, theft, murder and general crime occurring on their doorstep.

The neighborhood abuts the old "Duce", along the rail yard.  the name is variously attributed to it's being the old produce district, it's situation between 2nd Street and 2nd Avenue ("duces"), or that the local "ladies of the night" (the prime neighborhood industry) used to charge that.

It was seedy but perhaps not as dangerous or hopeless as today.  We had a couple of clients in old warehouses in the district; here's a bit I wrote a dozen or more years about our janitor at one of those clients:

"Getting the job done"

Some other janitorial services have all sorts of excuses for why the client received no service last night, and I hear them when preparing cleaning packages: had a flat tire, someone out sick, got confused about which places are on tonight's schedule, and so on.

Brings to mind an incident of many years past.  We were cleaning a string of small industrial facilities in Phoenix's tenderloin area, called the "Duce", from its origin as a produce warehouse district.  We had a tough middle aged gal - tougher than me - cleaning the route; she couldn't have been over 5'2", maybe 100 pounds.  She was thoroughly used to rolling winos (the then current term) out from in front of client doorways, so she could get in to clean.  In the wee hours of one evening, in the middle of her route, she tried to move the expected wino, and found him to be a body instead.  Called the police.

She got the building cleaned, and the rest of her route - just barely.  Hadn't called us at the time, because it really wasn't a problem she couldn't deal with herself.  Next morning, she dropped by our office - needed to vent.  Seems the cops had kept her answering questions for several hours - and she had WORK to do. 

We've not had any clients in the Duce for over a decade; most firms there have closed.  But we still do get the job done.

Benefits of including periodic floor service

Some time ago, I presented a quote to a small medical facility whose floors had really deteriorated, because their current janitorial service charges extra (a LOT extra) for refinishing ("waxing") - and likes to refinish often, because they are not burnishing in between.  

Vinyl tile requires regular maintenance - to retain appearance, and to help provide a safe, injury free and sanitary workplace.  While glossy floors may look slippery, modern floor finishes meet or exceed Federal standards for traction, even when wet; they are generally more slip resistant than bare tile. Worn finish (or bare tile) is porous, and thus renders less effective any germicidal mopping (the critters have a place to hide.)

Frequent burnishing (ultra high-speed buffing) hardens the finish; harder finish lasts longer, so needs less frequent refinishing.  Burnishing is quick and inexpensive; refinishing is not.  As a bonus, the floor looks a lot better - ongoing.

Likewise, if carpet is cleaned on a regular basis, and a protectant applied, it looks fine ongoing, and each cleaning is easier to do (and thus less expensive) than having to do the occasional heavy "restoration" cleaning.

We offer our clients "full-service" — periodic burnishing, refinishing, carpet cleaning, ceramic scrubbing and window washing  — on a regular schedule, pro-rated into the monthly bill.  No extra charges, no surprises, and the place looks good ongoing.  Often doesn't cost more than a "let it deteriorate, then restore it" approach.

Robotic Window Washers

Should have looked further.  Just after I posted yesterday on innovations in window cleaning, and speculated on some sort of robots designed for high-rise buildings, I found in my in-box my daily feed from Building Service Contractors Association International (CBN has been a member since 1985)..  Included was an article on exactly that.

It seems that a couple of innovative firms (both Israeli, go figure) have systems up and running.  One places a robot on (essentially) an existing platform; the other has a light weight device, suspended by a rope, "climbing" down the building using suction cups.  The latter uses no water; it simply cleans the glass mechanically. Neat advantages are cameras and other sensors that look for cracks, gaps and so on.

Mentioned in passing is that high-rise window washers are hard to come by.  The work force is ageing, and few new folks enter the trade.  Thus there is a certain impetus to supplanting people, over and above cost and liability.  One sees the same dynamic in, among other fields, long haul trucking (driverless rigs look to replace the current inventory at least as soon as a given rig ages out); McDonalds is said to be testing an automated restaurant somewhere in Texas.  We're soon to see lots of folks out of work, with no work available given their current education or skill set.

Future Window Cleaning

Here's a good article on the Future of Window Cleaning, from our friends at CleanLink.  It talks about pure water cleaning, ultrasound, cobotics (essentially, extending one's reach), and drones.  

I suspect quick adaption of existing high-rise rigging (when you see a platform hanging on cables from the top of a high-rise, the window crew on the platform washing floor by floor) to facilitate some sort of robotic system to replace the guys on the platform. 

High-rise window cleaning has  always seemed to me to be a major safety risk; I gather that's why workers comp insurance for window cleaning firms is more expensive than for janitorial firms, like mine . We get to stay on solid ground, doing at the moment nothing higher than three stories.  Plus, there's my fear of heights. 

But, we generally include periodic window cleaning, and well as burnishing, refinishing and carpet cleaning, as part of our ongoing service and price.

Be interesting to see how quickly various systems are adopted.

Poop on your shoes

Interesting article in Smithsonian's daily magazine, on recent testing for animal fecal matter on sidewalks, shoes and interior floors in New York City.

The supposition (quite reasonably) is that the poop plops (as it were) on sidewalks, spreads via water and traffic, and enters one's building.  Rather evocatively, in testing for bacteria load, per the article:

"They detected the highest amounts of enterococci in the building’s entryway and smaller amounts on interior floors. And carpets had more bacteria than bare flooring: While a carpeted entryway had around 22,000 enterococci per square meter, uncarpeted floor in the same area had only 100 per square meter".

Thus, it appears that carpeting in the entry area (doesn't say how much, as in how far you must walk over the carpet for the observed effect) seems to do a marvelous job stopping bacteria.  Stopping various varieties of "dirt" is the rational behind entry matting; a rented, regularly laundered and treated mat should perform even better than a hunk of carpet.

That's why we suggest them to our clients.  The more dirt (and poop bacteria) stopped at the door, the cleaner the building stays.  Better for our cleaners, and better for our client.

I'm reminded of bleach and vinegar

It's been a while since I've had to put much thought into the dangers of various cleaning chemicals; we use only Johnson/Diversey chemicals, monitor what's in our janitor closets and on our vans, and train our crews in safety and proper chemical usage. So an article from our good friends at Cleaning Maintenance Management, about the danger of mixing bleach and vinegar, served as a useful wake-up:

"While the hazards of mixing ammonia and bleach might be more widely known, there’s another common cleaning product that can cause a deadly situation if added to bleach, and that’s vinegar.

"When vinegar, often used to clean floors and glass as a natural and safe alternative to chemical products, is mixed with bleach, the combination produces chlorine gas, which according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) can be deadly."

As we point out to our crews, chlorine gas killed a whole lot of folks on the Western Front during World War I; we don't want to replicate that experience in our accounts.

Fungal invasion

Early on in the Covid pandemic, we started doing quite a lot of electrostatic disinfection jobs, both for own ongoing janitorial clients and others, to help mitigate Covid exposure.  I also did my best to keep on top of the fast evolving science on the pathogen, risk and means of transmission, and so on.  A part of that was following, religiously (if I may combine religion with science), a column by an epidemiologist . 

Much of her work, while certainly useful for anyone in the prevention business, was a bit depressing.  I was delighted to see this morning a column exploring a recent sci-fi flick about a mutant fungus taking out humanity.  Anyone remember "Invasion of the body Snatchers", a generation ago, or "Day of the Triffids". a generation before that?

She runs a fact/fiction analysis, point by point.  Take a look; I shan't spoil the suspense.  Several unexpected conclusions, at least to me. But the fungus is real.

She does, however, note that present day funguses kill quite a few folks world-wide (more than malaria, for instance), and are often encountered in healthcare settings.  I'm delighted that our go-to disinfectant, Diversey's OxivirTB, if fungicidal.