Dive Brief:
- Since 2010, Los Angeles sanitation crews have failed to respond to more than 20% of residents' requests to remove illegal trash from sidewalks and alleyways, a Los Angeles Times analysis found.
- While some wealthy areas had poor service, the majority of neighborhoods with problems were low-income: More than one-third of pleas to remove garbage from dozens of neighborhoods in Central, Northeast and South L.A. were ignored even as crews responded to 99% of requests in other parts of the city.
- Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement Friday that he would launch an internal investigation into all outstanding service requests and would direct staff to "clear the backlog and reduce service response times immediately."
Dive Insight:
Complaints about illegal dumping have persisted in Los Angeles for years. Some frustrated public and private groups have taken on the task themselves. The Times analysis comes four months after the mayor launched his Clean Streets Initiative.
Public Works Board President Kevin James acknowledged the inequities, but said they result from greater demand for sanitation workers in some areas. He said earlier this year that it would take at least $25 million annually to keep the city clean, but the mayor and the City Council only gave the bureau a $9 million budget for illegal dumping this year.
Other issues have also contributed to the problem: new computer software, installed last year for tracking service requests, has had glitches; and responsibility for cleaning up dumped trash switched in 2012 from The Bureau of Street Services to The Bureau of Sanitation.
Los Angeles is a big city, and keeping it clean is a big job. Whatever the reasons for the backlog, the city owes poor neighborhoods the same level of service as others.
