It took a tiebreaker to decide the color of Coronado’s new trash cans, and that tiebreaker was slightly colorblind.
Green prevailed after the City Council debated green or black during its Oct. 6 meeting. Ultimately, Councilmember Carrie Downey broke a tie in favor of green.
“These are the important decisions we make in this community,” Councilmember Kelly Purvis joked, but behind the council’s lighthearted tone, the deliberations carried weight: The choice came as a part of phase one of the city’s Orange Avenue beautification project, which will give the street a consistent design for years to come.
The Coronado City Council voted 5-0 to approve a sole-source purchase of up to $580,000 in benches and trash receptacles. The council also authorized staff to put the project out to bid. Most of the item was routine. The color of the trim was not.
Staff presented two options: the city’s traditional Coronado Green, or black. Senior Engineer Kelly Crowe said state law complicated the choice. Under SB 1383, California’s organic waste law, trash lids must be black or gray and recycling lids must be blue. Crowe said the brightly colored lids might dominate the green, and suggested that the black version looked “more harmonious.”
Councilmember Amy Steward agreed. She said she surveyed her family and called Discover Coronado Executive Director Todd Little, and all of them found black “the classiest.” She also worried green trim could confuse residents, since EDCO and the city have spent considerable time teaching people what each bin color means.
“We can be green in other ways,” Steward said. “We have lots of green around.”
Councilmember Mark Fleming also backed black. He noted the current benches on Orange Avenue already have black trim, adding that black may be easier to color-match for repairs in the future.
Mayor John Duncan liked the green, saying it adds “part of Coronado” to a project that is meant to beautify downtown. Purvis put it more plainly.
“I’m a green girl,” she said, “and I think the green is Coronado.”
That left the matter 2-2, with Councilmember Carrie Downey yet to weigh in. Earlier in the discussion, she had told the council she is slightly colorblind and would “defer to people that actually can see colors as they’re meant to be.”
Duncan turned to her as tiebreaker.
“I just find that so funny,” Downey said. “A slightly colorblind person is going to make the decision.”
Downey sided with green, saying she’d wanted to see the color downtown for years.
Phase one, estimated at roughly $2 million, will replace street furniture along Orange Avenue from First Street to R.H. Dana Place. The new bike racks, tree grates, and benches are the same models already in use downtown and will replace the existing ones. The trash receptacles are new and come from the same product line as the benches. Their lids will carry large labels showing what goes where, as SB 1383 requires.
Both the benches and the receptacles will use synthetic lumber instead of wood. The material, a high-density polyethylene, is about 75 percent recycled content, and is more durable than wood, which can stain or deteriorate over time, Crowe said.
Phase one is expected to go to bid this month. The contract award is projected for the council’s Dec. 15 meeting, with construction starting around late April 2027. Phase two, which includes full replacement of the sidewalk, curb, and gutter, plus new streetlights on the 800 block, has finished conceptual design and goes to the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) for preliminary review Oct. 16. Its design should be complete by August 2027, with construction in May 2028.
Furniture for the 800 block will be bought along with everything else and stored until that block is ready. The 800 block is on a longer timeline because the work there requires a major Caltrans permit. Swapping out furniture requires a much simpler approval.
