THE HUTCHINSON REPORT: City officials still fumbling the ball on street dumping

By Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Contributing Columnist

The instant I started videoing yet another street garbage dump site at a corner in South Los Angeles, neighbors came out and said that they had been doing the same thing for weeks.

One resident said that he had called the L.A. city Sanitation Department to complain. No response. He said he called various other city departments. No response.

His frustration and that of the others who nodded their heads steadily boiled over to anger over the city’s inaction. One resident was blunt. He said that if this were Westwood or West L.A., they couldn’t drop a candy wrapper on the sidewalk without it being quickly removed.

The meaning was clear. Even when it came to a basic city service such as trash removal there was a gaping difference between service in South L.A. and West L.A. All agreed the difference came down to one thing: race and clout.

South L.A. was predominantly Black and Hispanic, and lower income. West L.A. was predominantly white or non-Black, and mid to upper income, with plenty of political pull.

In a prior column on the problem, I called the duality of city services between South L.A. and West L.A when it comes to tackling the problem of garbage trash dumping on corners exactly what it is — infuriating. I detailed the findings from several environmental advocacy groups that documented the colossal health, safety, environmental, disease, contamination, and infestation dangers.

I also cited findings from the reports that the problem of garbage heaps on the streets is almost exclusively a problem in predominantly Hispanic and African American lower income neighborhoods. Nowhere is that more the case than in South L.A.

Just to be sure that this wasn’t an overreaction and unfair accusation targeting the Los Angeles City Sanitation Department for not doing its job, I went back to this location three times. Each time I sent emails, posted on social media, recorded a Facebook video, and even sent out a press release on the problem. No response.

Not only was the pile still there each time I went back, it was bigger and sprawled over several blocks with a makeshift homeless encampment abutting it.

The pile was not on an out of the way street or back alley. It was on a major thoroughfare on the Figueroa Corridor. It could plainly be seen by motorists, pedestrians and certainly the homeowners, apartment tenants and business owners in the area. It also could be seen by the sanitation department.

So, the perennial question I and many others repeatedly ask is why is this health and safety peril still there? And, more importantly, why does it make numerous social media blasts for city officials to act?

It’s hardly a new problem. A decade ago, the Los Angeles City Council was so fed up with the laggard response to garbage pick up and trash dumping in South L.A. that it called the city’s sanitation department on the carpet and demanded a report on why there was a disparity in trash pick up in South L.A. compared to other parts of the city.

That was just the start. In the next few years, the problem of garbage piles in South L.A. and the soaring number of complaints from residents about the problem continued to bedevil city officials. Things were clearly spiraling out of control.

So much so that a report by Construction Coverage, a research and product supplier industry for the building, in 2022 noted that L.A. had the dubious distinction of ranking number two nationally in the number of streets that had trash piled up on them. There is no evidence that that dubious distinction has changed since then.

The Los Angeles city controller, in a report on the issue in 2025, stated the obvious about the peril. “Illegally dumping thousands of tons of trash, debris and hazardous wastes on our sidewalks and streets lessens the quality of life in Los Angeles,” it said.

The City Council’s immediate response was to allocate a $100 reward to anyone reporting illegal dumping. That was a weak, ineffectual, almost laughable response to a critical, even life threatening, problem.

The sanitation department’s answer is no better. Its official website encourages citizens to report illegal dumping. The assumption is that the department will send out a crew to clean it up. What it doesn’t say is when the clean-up will take place.

Some critics point the finger and blame for the problem at the individuals who do the dumping. That’s too easy.

The Los Angeles Department of Sanitation is a public agency. Taxpayers handsomely fund it. Its director rakes in a hefty salary. Other department officials also are paid quite well.

As a public agency, it, not individuals, bears responsibility for ensuring a clean, safe, and healthy environment on all city streets. That means taking every step necessary to remove health-threatening trash and garbage dumps on public streets, especially those in South L.A. 

Unfortunately, this has not been the case. And until city officials declare an all–out war on garbage in South L.A. it won’t be. 

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His forthcoming book is “The Epstein Distraction” (Amazon ebook and Middle Passage Press) He also hosts the weekly news and issues commentary radio show “The Hutchinson Report” Wednesdays at 6 p.m. at ktymgospel.net and Facebook Livestreamed at facebook.com/earl.o.hutchinson.