Published: Wednesday, September 6, 2006

The dirty jobs
They work under the radar, but keep Palo Alto running smoothly

Jimmy Arroyo makes his way down Park Boulevard with the morning trash.

Photographs and text by Norbert von der Groeben

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As the first light of dawn bathes Palo Alto in its warm glow, gently nudging residents to wake up and begin their daily routines, the city's hardest-working folks are already at work, tackling some of the dirtiest jobs around.

Each weekday morning, Palo Alto Sanitation Co. garbage collectors pick up trash from homes and businesses, emptying the contents of cans lined on the curb.

The crew at the Palo Alto Golf Course has a similar schedule.

Groundskeepers begin mowing the lawns and greens in very faint light. They need to start early to stay a few steps ahead of the first golfers.

A little later in the morning, members of a downtown street-cleaning team working on the sidewalks of Lytton Avenue. Just five blocks away, a man steam-cleaned the concrete in front of a coffee shop.

Outside the public eye, clippers at Classic Pet Groomer had already gone to the dogs. The groomers were busy giving our four-legged animal companions baths and haircuts.

Early in the afternoon, workers at Lozano's Car Wash busily vacuumed, washed and waxed customers' cars. With time to kill, patrons snacked on popcorn and sipped lemonade.

The final destination was University Avenue, where Luther Jackson polished a pair of black dress shoes for a customer who presumably had an important meeting on his afternoon schedule.

Junior Museum and Zoo curator Rob Steele takes a break from cleaning the duck pond to give Alexander the goose a shower.	The duck pond is cleaned three times a week, a task taken on by Steel because his regular volunteers are currently attending college. He hopes that new volunteers will arrive soon.
Workers clean the windows of an auto that is about to roll out of the Lozano Brushless Car Wash.	Ryan Mahoney, assistant manager of The Safe, power washes the sidewalk in front of his business and   Peets' Coffee at the corner of High and Homer. Mahoney washes the sidewalks every three to four months to clean spilled coffee, dirt and gum.
Luther Jackson works on shining a pair of his customer's shoes at his University Avenue stand.	David McBay, 47, with Toyon Valley Tree Service works on clearing away dead branches on a Pitusporum tree in Palo Alto.
McBay has been trimming trees for 28 years. Below, McCay's hands, battered by years of working on trees.	Ben Tapia cuts the greens at the Palo Alto Golf Course. The greens are cut every day even holidays starting at 6 a.m.
Chuck Henderson rakes the sand trap at the golf course.	Luis Chavez of the Palo Alto Sanitation Company works his Park Boulevard route. A team of two garbage collectors cover around 14 miles a day, which translates to about 700 to 800 homes