I'm trying to find a word or expression in English that is used to refer to streetlamps, benches, dustbins, street signs, recycling containers... all the things that are set out in our streets and are public property.

In Spanish we call this stuff "mobiliario urbano" ( urban furniture ), but I can't remember if there is a name for it in English.

Thanks!

I have seen it referred to as "street furniture."

Most of it, here, appears to come from the Salvation Army. brit site

I have never heard the term street furniture, and to my knowledge the items you mentioned are not referred to as a group. That is, when they're referred to, we name the individual item(s), and call it public property. Hmm--I suppose they could be called street furnishings, come to think of it. Never heard that one either, though.

well mongo is used (well by some here in NYC) for sidewalk shopping. (the upper east side of manhattan is a great spot, but forest hills in queens has pretty good picking too)

discards that are perfectly serviceable, but no longer desired.. shelves, bookcases, lamps, plastic storage bins, or plastic 'drawer units'. great for storing all the stuff you should throw out!.

my current coffee table and dining room table are both mongo. the coffee table is so so, but the dining room table (once it was cleaned) is quite nice.

the table got hauled out on to the terrace (high rise patio) the metal (chrome) legs got scoured and polished, the table top got cleaned with murphy's oil soap and refinished with a tung oil.. both tables are oak, (the coffee table, veneer, the dining table, solid.

I think that sidewalk shopping is different from what Mariana is asking about.

Jackie, once you have gone to that British site, you will have heard of street furniture.

Yes, street furnitire is the widely recognised term here, at least amongst architecture and urban planning professionals. It is an analagous term to door furniture which refers to all the locks, push plates, closers, signs and so on fixed to er, doors!

Marianna, I have heard the term "urban decor" to describe these things, as in, "that bench is part of the urban decor" but this term will also encompass plants and trees.

Looks like "street furniture" is right, Mariana! Lotsa google hits, including this one from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_furniture

(I'd never heard this term before. Live and learn!)

What the heck? Is it the act of picking the stuff up--er, that is, the looking till you find something you want? Or is it, um, an adjective or a noun for the stuff itself? Do you say, for ex., "I went mongoing"? Or, "I picked up a fine piece of mongo today"? Or maybe, "That couch was mongo"--meaning you got it free off the street, and brought it home?
Is there really all that kind of stuff sitting around on the sidewalks of NYC? Constantly?

Yep. People just can't get enough of throwing stuff out, here, and you can do pretty well for yourself that way, if you want. Even eat.

I thoought Mongo was where Ming the Merciless lived.

Ok, so the name for this stuff really IS that straightforward, at least in British English.

From that Wiki site:
"Streetlamps are designed to illuminate the surrounding area at night, serving not only as a deterrent to criminals but more importantly to allow people to see where they're going."

I guess they had to clarify that

Oh, and "mongo"?!? Love the name. Does anybody know where it came from?

Thanks, everyone!

Alex Karras was Mongo in my favorite movie, Blazing Saddles. I heard that Brooks is rewriting the script to Blazing Saddles to capitalize on the success of Brokeback Mountain.

>>at least in British English

And apparently in American as well

Is there really all that kind of stuff sitting around on the sidewalks of NYC? Constantly?
Yep.
How odd. Here, you only see that in the specific neighborhood(s) where it's junk pick-up week. Or maybe with the occasional eviction, but the city clears that up pretty quickly.

It always makes me chuckle when I go up to London - there, the wealth means people are throwing away stuff that would be eagerly bought second-hand in poorer parts of the UK. The net effect is that the waste disposal medium becomes more valuable than the contents, so a skip in London attracts loads of other people's rejects whereas a skip in Cardigan gets emptied as fast as it's filled (literally often true!) This was beautifully observed in an episode of One Foot in the Grave - Victor is forced to splutter "I don't believe it!" when he finds that someone has put a complete car in his skip overnight...

One foot in the grave.
That looks like a fabulous show. I'd have loved to see it. D'you think it's on the net somewhere?

Mongo

In Montréal, you have what is called "Le temps des grosses poubelles" - the time for big-garbage.

Generally, after moving day (July 1st) the city picks up all the stuff people threw out that they did not want to move.

During this week, you can see hundreds of guys driving around the city in pick-up trucks, sorting through the big garbage looking for some finds. Sometimes, they leave with everything.

Officially, you are supposed to keep the big items in your home until the week after moving day. However, if you have something big that you just can't keep around until moving week, you have to call the city and advise them that you have a big item so that they can send the appropriate garbage truck to pick it up.

Sometimes, somebody'll simply put something on the curb, but it can stay there for a couple of weeks until the regular garbage guys finally tell the head-office that a big-garbage pick-up is required.

========

In Laval, the island right beside Montréal, where I live, you can put out big garbage any time and the city will pick it up withing the week. Generally though, if the item looks serviceable, somebody'll pick it up.

It's different than Montréal though because folks'll usually knock on your door and ask if they can take it.

The first time this happened I was really surprised. When I lived in Montréal, it was in an iffy neighbourhood - things'd get stolen right off of the front porch, so having somebody knock on my door and ask if I was really throwing away those shelves and was it o.k. if he took them really made me smile.

...and then there was the story of the farmer whose zucchini plants had produced beyond all expectations. He put several on an old chair out by the road, with a "free" sign propped up. When he went out later on to check, he found the zucchini on the ground and the chair gone.

every monday, the NYTimes runs a column called the metropolitan diary.. one episode recounted was a couple (dressed to the nines) on their way home from a concert at carniege hall passed a dumpster (skip) and saw a cello peeking out of the top..

the husband climbed into the dumster, (in his tux) fished out the cello, and then found the case, and with a bit of poking, even found the bow. he handed all of these to his wife, then climbed out of the dumpster.

they desided the haul was too heavy to continue walking home with so they took a bus the rest of the way..

you find working TV's lamps (i have several mongo lamps), shelving. (my first apartment after my divorce, i got all my shelving for bookcases, (and a open kitchen pantry) from mongo. recently, i was disappointed to be in manhattan with out my car (i rarely drive into manhattan, public transportaion is so much easier) and missed out on some good stuff..

Oh. I wondered what a skip was. I'm still not sure what mongo is; sounds like it can be both an adjective and a noun?
Y'all Yankees sure say things funny. -)

> Y'all Yankees sure say things funny. -)

Sorry - clean forgot all y'all call 'em dumpsters - but mongo is a new one for me! -)

BelM, whatever chance you get, One Foot in the Grave is addictively and cummulatively hilarious