You can think of Los Angeles as a modern global city but there's a dark side to that image. The illegal dumping of furniture, tires and old toys in alleys has become a big problem for L.A.
According to Curbed L.A., the city is beset by the illegal dumping of furniture, tires and old toys in its alleys. This was established by the Clean Streets Initiative in early 2015, a project that will also add 5,000 new trash bins in the streets of L.A., starting this year until 2019. As of today, the CSI continues to have problems with street litter.
In East 108th Street, for example, residents have been complaining that they have only seen the city sanitation crew visit their neighborhood once in the past calendar year. It has become an inconvenience to everyone, to the extent that some would pay contractors to clean their driveways, an extra expense when sanitation is widely considered as a basic government service.
According to data examined by the Los Angeles Times, 33% of requests to remove waste from predominantly poorer areas in the county like Central, Northeast and South Los Angeles, were ignored by the city's sanitation team. This is amidst reports that almost all of the requests from more progressive areas have had responses.
When given the results of the findings, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti has said that they will be launching an internal investigation regarding the ignored requests. Garcetti commented that he was "disappointed" by this news, and that the difference in "service response times are unacceptable." He insists that there is so much that the city government can do to improve the situation. He aims to "reduce service response times immediately."
Part of the blame to this city-wide problem are the glitches that are haunting the new computer software that the city sanitation crew has been using to track service requests. Officials have warned that they are not responsible for ensuring the accuracy of data entered into the system since Fall of 2014.
A city-wide catalog of street cleanliness is expected to be built at the end of the year to help address the problem.
