Valentine’s Day brought yet another avalanche of green waste and cardboard onto our BID sidewalks in the flower store zone at 8th and San Pedro. This is a year-round problem but it’s especially true around Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day when tons of extra trash is illegally dumped by merchants and customers. The BID routinely deploys public safety officers and Clean Team members on overtime to meet the challenge of these holidays, but that’s only part of the cost. The BID also pays for trash removal by the ton, and with increased focus on one part of the BID it takes resources away from the entire BID.
After Valentine’s Day, our office received help from the office of Councilman Kevin de Leon. We have been meeting regularly with the Councilman’s staff, LAPD and LA Sanitation. We are doing this in collaboration with the Fashion District BID, which has similar illegal dumping problems with flowers. We are hopeful that this unprecedented effort will result in cleaner streets and sidewalks on Mother’s Day and beyond.
