All hands on deck? The politics of keeping Skid Row clean
Andrew Lopez
Skid Row is "The part of society that no one else wants to touch and look at it," said resident Katherine McNenny.
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — The piles of trash and debris on Skid Row seem to be mounting and when it comes to keeping the area clean, finger-pointing abounds.
So whose responsibility is it?
Skid Row is defined as the area between 3rd and 8th streets, and Spring and Alameda -- and no single governing body is responsible for maintaining it.
The L.A. Department of Street Services does the street-sweeping, trash pick up and some general maintenance. But they are only in charge of the actual streets -- not the sidewalks, where the bulk of the Skid Row residents live and keep their belongings.
"If it's in the roadway we clean that," said John Sapone, Division Manager of L.A. Street Services.
Sapone explained that there's 6,500 miles of street in Los Angeles, and only one third of that area has regularly scheduled and posted street sweeping schedules. The rest is "open" - swept on a rotating basis when needed.
Sapone said that commercial areas create more debris than residential, so many of these areas get swept multiple times a week. From 3rd Street to Olympic Boulevard and Los Angeles Street to Alameda, this area that encompasses Skid Row gets cleaned every day, officials said.
A five-person crew is hand-cleans blocks in this area from 8:30-11:30 a.m., Sapone said.
"They tell me that they come through here once every 24 hours to clean the street," Estela Lopez from the Industrial Business Improvement District (BID) said. "I suppose they must do it at night. I never see them."
Lopez said her BID is out cleaning certain areas of Skid Row for almost eight hours a day.
"If we had to depend on the city that stuff would be on the sidewalk every single day," said Lopez.
Surrounding the perimeter of Skid Row are three different BIDS -- the organizations where business owners pay extra taxes to help maintain safety and cleanliness in their area.
Much of Skid Row is included in Estela's Industrial District BID. This year the BID will spend $460,000 on maintenance in the area alone, said Estela Lopez from the Central City East Association.
It's not mandatory for these business owners to contribute this extra money but without it the Skid Row area would be "unimaginable," said Lopez.
"Everything you and I do at home is done on the sidewalk," said Lopez. "Eat, sleep, go to the bathroom, throw up, read."
Lopez said the hundreds of thousands of dollars go towards paying personnel, using trash trucks, buying brooms, trash can liners and gloves -- and picking up three to four tons of trash everyday.
The BID also pays to take the trash to the dump and with the rising cost of gas, Lopez expects their overall fuel costs to skyrocket.
Although the BID handles much of the area, many of Skid Row's most polluted streets, including San Julian and Wall Streets, fall outside the boundaries of any BID's responsibility.
Katherine McNenny, a resident and activist in the Skid Row area, said the worst sanitation problems are on San Julian -- and it's one of the areas that's getting the least attention.
"I'm wondering why the property owners haven't stepped up?" said McNenny.
There's no BID for San Julian because there's no businesses there, Lopez said, the street needs attention from the private sector because community volunteers can only do so much.
McNenny is one of these volunteers and is working with "Operation Face-Lift" to focus on the overlooked San Julian street.
"This is grassroots style," she said. "This is how we do it."
McNenny said there's a lot of misinformation and fear among Angelenos when it comes to approaching and interacting with the people living on Skid Row. Many of the homeless are mentally disabled and many are hardcore drug addicts, so its crucial to have an "insider" work with them on cleaning up the area.
"The groups are already there they just need the support of the city," said McNenny, referencing the work of organizations like OG's N Service.
ubrayj02 on March 08, 2012, at 10:51AM – #1
I find the BSS to be completely wrong in their interpretation of "Street". From the LA Municipal Code:
I am sure that the BSS is using the California Vehicle Code which states that "streets" are only for vehicular travel:
However, these aren't (by and large) state funded streets - these are local surface streets, and the city's definition adds the sidewalk to the state's definition. The BSS is responsible for the "street"!
ubrayj02 on March 08, 2012, at 10:56AM – #2
One more thing, regarding property owners and rubbish in the "street" (which includes the SIDEWALK, Bureau of Street Services!):
Anyone want to look up the results of disobeying LAMC 56.08?
Katherine M on March 08, 2012, at 02:46PM – #3
Thank you Hayley for this resident’s perspective of trash in Skid Row. A couple of clarifications: the City is currently NOT servicing San Julian St.- no matter what they have told you, but, the City- specifically Sanitation has done an excellent job of working with us residents to pick up the slack in garbage removal for the Toy District recently, since this area no longer has a BID.
Also, I want to mention the Skid Row Brigade- another local grass-roots community organization made up of Skid Row residents and supporters who regularly clean San Julian St. and other non-serviced parts of Skid Row. These are humble gentlemen who do this out of a love for the people on the streets and this neighborhood- all on a volunteer basis. Google Skid Row Brigade to learn more. -Katherine McNenny
JH McMath on March 08, 2012, at 03:32PM – #4
The real problem lies between 4th, 7th, Los Angeles, and San Pedro Streets. All other sections of the Skid Row/Toy District area are either covered by a BID or generally not subject to high levels of garbage accumulation on the street. Ron Lee at the Bureau Sanitation has been very helpful by providing wire mesh baskets in this area where there were previously no publicly provided trash receptacles. The streets are cleaner as a result.
Given the continuing unsightly look and poor sanitation of the San Julian Street vicinity, hopefully stakeholders across the community and in adjacent areas come together to definitively address this problem which ultimately is a stigma on all of downtown.
The community street cleaning effort Operation Face-Lift 2012 involves locals who are eager to take responsibility for their streets and keep them clean and attractive. They just need the resources do so such as receptacles, brooms, bags, etc. Volunteers of America on San Julian, the Bureau of Sanitation, and many others have generously supported the nascent efforts of Operation Face-Lift 2012.
Everybody with a stake in downtown should have stake in this effort. At the end of the day the problem area only comprises a few square blocks.