By Paul Dryden Santa Monica
They are everywhere, all the time. They can be seen (and certainly heard) at all hours of the day and night, on every street and in every alley in the city. The invasion of the garbage trucks, I call it. Santa Monica has many because of the tremendous amounts of waste generated hereabouts by the many restaurants and hotels concentrated in a small area. The waste removal companies must certainly love the highly profitable situation, and I expect that they bid aggressively for the contracts available to them from the city and private sector. And it may appear that they do a good job, but take a closer look.
The trucks are generally very dirty, loud, stinking from even across the street as they fly by breaking the local speed limits in town, and long in desperate need of a good pressure washing and fresh paint. And their hundreds of permanently parked alley dumpsters? Take a look behind all the restaurants along Main Street a little closer, or about anywhere in the Promenade sector. When’s the last time they were taken back to the various waste companies yards and pressure washed or repainted?
It seems to be a problem to me; eyesores and genuine health concerns for the many residents and tourists who travel as pedestrians to and from stores and restaurants on the Promenade and Main Street as well as elsewhere. The waste haulers/garbagepersons themselves may be at some risk being exposed regularly to filthy trucks and dumpsters, which could so easily be cleaned by the companies and repainted to look better in public. It doesn’t seem like a lot for the general public to ask for, nor a great expense to bear on the part of these multi-million dollar-a-year companies who do business here. Are there no standards that they can be held to by the city? Perhaps they could be encouraged to do these decent things, make a little change for the better for all concerned — amicably by strong suggestion of City Council members. Otherwise, perhaps they can be fined heavily to do so. Either way, Santa Monica would benefit from companies such as these doing cleaner healthier business/work in the community.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 19, 2002. Read the original PDF.