Under the cover of night, trucks often dump rotting produce in an industrial community in downtown Los Angeles.
In the morning, along the sidewalks and sidewalks along Naomi Avenue are spreading crates of discarded melons, tomatoes and other overripe fruits, creating an ugly sight and a rotten smell.
According to local business owners, the problem has been going on for years, and they say city officials have not mitigated the problem.
The downtown community around Naomi Avenue is home to several agricultural product distributors and markets, and local residents suspect trucks delivering agricultural products make the street an unofficial dump, with agricultural products too old or spoiled to sell. On a recent morning, a sweet and sour smell drifted in the air, flies shrouded in the surroundings of overflowing produce boxes that had accumulated after weeks of neglect.
Local residents say the entire fruit turban often stays on the street.
“I’ve been trying to get the attention of the city, but it takes them weeks to respond,” Miriam Ronquillo said after the family market counter near Naomi Avenue.
Illegal dumping was reported this week Fox 11but Ronquillo said she had documented the problems for years. She said she sent photos to the city of Los Angeles through its Myla311 app, but often had to wait weeks to respond.
Longiro said her family paid for their own bin bin to dispose of their own trash instead of leaving it on the street to attract pests or other pests.
Fruit and vegetables spilled over the cartons of Hooper Avenue and Olympic Avenue in downtown Los Angeles.
(Gary Coronado/Times)
“It’s really frustrating because we do everything right and then you have other people who ruined the community for everyone else,” Rokilo said.
In a statement, Los Angeles City Councilman Ysabel Jurado’s office said she realized “continuous garbage was conducted at E. 10th St & Naomi Ave and has been working closely with the Los Angeles Department of Health and Environment.”
“The location was cleared again Tuesday morning,” Yurado’s office said. “We will continue to monitor the area and coordinate with Lasan,” the Eulado office said. [the sanitation department] Regular cleanups and long-term solutions. ”
The Los Angeles Department of Public Works, an agency that oversees the Department of Health, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Near the Olympic Boulevard, a group of workers stacked crates of fresh strawberries on the sidewalk and loaded some of them onto trucks. They fear that people who dump illegally on the streets will damage the reputation of everyone in the produce industry and livelihoods.
Horace Sandoval, who has worked in the city center for at least 12 years, said the work was hard. Often, it is believed that agricultural products can be used.
Sandoval says in Spanish: “People don’t want to think about the fruit they get.” “But that’s true. Sometimes, it ends here [in the street]this is very sad. I like it because someone chose it and then didn’t eat it. Just throw it down. ”
Along Naomi Avenue, several tents and temporary shelters are on the street. Colorful murals and graffiti adorn near walls near bursting watermelon and rotting lemon.
“We told them to stop and they just ignored us,” said a man named Chris, who lives on Naomi Avenue in the RV. “We don’t want that, but they keep walking and throwing them all.”
A woman named Brenda said that garbage seemed to be getting more frequent and rats were bigger.
(Gary Coronado/Times)
A woman said her name was Brenda and said she had lived in the street for about four months. Some nights she peeked outside her tent and saw trucks unloading their goods, while other times she could hear people dragging produce onto the streets with wheelbarrows or manual trucks.
“We didn’t tell them why they were carrying all of this. It’s for us, because we’re here?” she said. “I’ve tried some fruits. Grapes, watermelons and a few other things. But once you see mice gather around the food. They look big, the big mice are deformed.”
She believes that garbage has become more frequent last month and rats appearing on the streets are getting bigger and bigger.
“It’s not fair,” she said. “It’s almost like they left the food to laugh at us.”
