Updated at 4:15 p.m. June 12, 2015
The Los Angeles City Council approved funds Friday to be used for 200 automated trash cans in the 9th Council District, which covers South Los Angeles neighborhoods.
Trash cans are virtually nonexistent in the district, a situation that is “embarrassing,” Curren Price, the councilman for the area, told City News Service.
“Trash cans don’t exist — you don’t see them on the corners, you don’t see them at the bus stop, places where you would normally see them,” he said.
Instead, trash is left in bushes and strewn on the ground, he said.
Out of a total of about 1,000 city trash cans said to be distributed around Los Angeles, only about 12 wire receptacles and two automated bins are in the 9th District, council aides said.
The issue of dirty streets has been taken up by Mayor Eric Garcetti, who promised to add 5,000 more trash cans, with the first installment of about 1,200 approved in the upcoming year’s budget.
Price said with residents pitching in on monthly cleanups, he felt compelled to also “step up” and to “dip into” the council district’s discretionary funds to get the 200 trash cans, which will be on top of the mayor’s 5,000.
The council approved Price’s request Friday to transfer $42,856 from the 9th District’s discretionary AB1290 fund account to pay for the purchase and installation of the “automated litter bins.”
The new bins will allow sanitation trucks to pick up the trash cans automatically, according to public works spokeswoman Tonya Durrell.
The locations of the bins have not been finalized, council aides said.
— City News Service