By DANIELE HAMAMDJIAN Special to the Daily Press
It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s glad to do it. Long before the merchants unlock their doors each morning, eager to greet the throngs that stroll by the Third Street Promenade, Linwood Fenderson dons his gloves, goggles, safety belt and steel shoes and leaves his Compton home in preparation for the worst.
“Woody” Fenderson is a pressure-washer for the City of Santa Monica. The father of eight wakes up each morning at 3 a.m. and makes his way out to steam the Santa Monica streets and the sidewalks, from one commercial building to the next. With some 150 gallons of water set at a temperature of 270 degrees in the back of his truck, Fenderson, along with his team of scrubbers and sweepers, ensures the main city streets are as clean as possible before most city residents have realized yesterday has slipped into today.
Fenderson, who describes himself as a country boy at heart, says his biggest flaw is caring too much about the issues surrounding him. Despite his early-morning toils, the 55-year-old Fenderson inevitably bears the burden of criticism when people call in to complain about paper or trash debris on stairwells or “dog poo-poo” on the sidewalk.
“People don’t know exactly what happens on the Third Street Promenade until they come down here at 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning, then they see what’s really going on,” says Fenderson. “You see pressure-washers, you see the scrubbers, you see the guys dumping the trash, you see how the operation is really going on. That’s why, when people get here at seven or eight in the morning, the place is spotless.”
With 18 guys working against 10,000 people every weekend, insisted Fenderson, it’s hard to please everyone. He and his colleagues, including supervisor Eddie Greenberg, have asked the city for a larger crew, “but the city is limited and can only do so much,” he said.
Born in San Diego, Fenderson’s family — including six brothers and a sister — arrived in Los Angeles when he was just 5 years old. His father then spent the next 30 years working two jobs to make ends meet. Fenderson began working for Santa Monica a decade ago as a “foot soldier” with a night crew who picked up debris left on the Promenade. Today, as one of the city’s four pressure-washers, he earns an average of $3,200 per month and contends he’s quite happy with his job.
“I enjoy coming to work,” he said. “I enjoy doing my job and I get along with everyone. I’m putting three kids through college right now, so the benefits are great.”
Fenderson insists the likelihood of his transferring to another department are highly unlikely.
“We’ve had opportunities to go work for other departments, but we turned them down because we want to stay with Mr. Greenberg... he’s the man,” he admitted.
When out of his uniform, Fenderson, who grew up watching Roy Rogers, says he hunts, rides and dresses like a countryman. His next big venture will ultimately see him move to Fresno, where he his buying a ranch.
What’s the most disgusting thing you have ever seen on the streets? “(Laughing) I see a lot at 4 o’clock in the morning. Sometimes people are in trouble at 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning. We’ve stopped, I’d say, maybe two or three rapes. Guys attacking women, people fighting in the middle of the night after they’ve gotten drunk or used drugs all night. Chasing someone down the street or seeing something like that and trying to prevent it from happening.”
Do the homeless bother you in any way?
“I’ve had a couple of situations. I’ve asked someone to move and they refused to move. They try to start a confrontation, but we know how to prevent it, we just say ‘OK’ and walk away. I’ve had a couple of people who didn’t want to move, they got nasty about it and used profanity and so forth, but I know as a city employee I’m not supposed to be out here getting into fights. So I just turn and walk away. I continue to work, and after they get up and leave, or the community service officer or police officer gets them to move, I come back and finish the job... The majority of the ones who sleep on the Promenade every night, know who I am when I come through.”
“I’ll ride my horses into the sunset,” — said a smiling Fenderson
You carry around a shovel, why is that?
“Basically, sometimes I get calls... a business may call up and say ‘Hey, I got a guy that used a restroom in front of my store, could you come and take care of it?’ so instead of taking the pressure-washer and blowing it everywhere, I use a shovel to just pick it up, dispose of it and then I go back with the pressure-washer and steam the rest of it away.”
God bless you! “(Laughing) It’s part of the job!” You don’t get bored after 10 years? “No, because every day is a different day. One day, you may come out and you might get into a confrontation with someone and you try and let them know it’s no problem, we’ll take care of it and go around you. Then there are days, you come out and people are out jogging and they’ll say ‘Good morning’ to you and you don’t know who they are, and then that particular person, because we show courtesy to everybody, whether they’re homeless or not, turns out to be the mayor one day.
“Other times, I’ve been out working and a lot of movie stars and actors come down, like Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino, and you get a chance to talk to them. It’s interesting to see them and have a chance to talk to them.”
Who was your most exciting encounter?
Al Pacino. I sat down and had a talk with him while he was having coffee with his manager. He’s a real interesting guy. Real nice guy... Other days, you’re out there working, and the public always notices the work — ‘Hey, you guys are doing a fine job, we appreciate what you do.’ — That makes you feel good, to know that someone is looking at what you do on a daily basis.”
What’s your philosophy on the job? I think it’s a great job because the average city... they don’t take care of their city the way we take care of this one. We take it personal. We have a small crew and a good supervisor. Ten to 12 million people come to visit the Third Street Promenade every year, so we want to make sure that it is taken care of. We have businesses that come here, other Promenade supervisors have come here and asked us for advice on how we keep this Promenade so clean. Managers from Santa Monica Place came to ask me how I do my work, what it takes and how much time I spend. We’ve had people come from as far as New York to sit down with my supervisor, and he lets the crew sit in on it and they interview and ask us, ‘How do you guys do this?’ We explain our procedure and what we do, but 60 to 70 percent of the success comes from the employees, our attitudes, how we feel about the job and what we’re doing.
What is your biggest challenge on a daily basis?
The gum and the coffee that’s spilled and dropped on the Promenade on a daily basis. We have 75 trash cans on the Promenade and people will walk right up to the trash can, right next to it and pour the coffee on the ground. Gum — they just take it out of their mouth and throw it on the ground. I bet on average, I would steam up over 2,000 pieces of gum a week. On an average, I pressure-wash about 800 square feet a week... So, I see a lot of gum.
How would you make your job easier?
I would use a more powerful unit, which we’re in the process of getting. The unit I have now is a commercial unit. There are units with larger pumps and tanks that hold more water. I refill an average of five to six times a day. My tank is only 150 gallons and I can go through 300 gallons on one block.
Has it changed over the years? Have the streets become dirtier?
It depends on the time and the season. From the first week of June until the last week of September, of course, school is out so you have more people out and people are on vacation. The jacaranda trees have been one of our problems. The leaves are flowers that fall from the jacarandas. They’re beautiful when they’re on the trees, but when they fall on the sidewalk, the flowers are stepped on and it produces an odor that smells like urine. It’s very strong. So we have to make an extra effort and spend more time on steaming the sidewalk which causes the concrete on the sidewalks to turn black. It takes more time, more water and more effort during that season.”
What would you like to tell the pedestrians in Santa Monica?
“I’d like to tell the pedestrians, if they’re walking their dogs and they poo-poo, would they please pick it up. Also, would they put their trash in the trash can, and not on the ground?”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 26, 2004. Read the original PDF.