I have basically been living under a rock for 3 years (wfh and no social life to speak of) so I was very rarely traveling outside of Valley Village, but I just got a part time delivery job to make ends meet. This job pretty much takes me all over the city, with lots of trips to the downtown and surrounding areas that I have not been to in forever.

When I first got to downtown I was absolutely blown away at the amount of garbage that has completely covered almost every surface. Not just the homeless encampments, but what looks to be everyday litter just thrown on pretty much every single inch of the city, sidewaks, curbs, buildings. Also, the freeways leading to LA look like legitimate landfills, The embankments are completely covered in garbage and just filth. The amount of graffiti I see on every single flat surface is staggering, it was almost impossible to read any signs other than the green overhead signs because of the tagging on them. It reminds me of a third world country if not worse.

It used to be that there were a few clean areas of the city, but now that I drive through most of LA county, I only see a tiny handful of places that aren't completely covered in trash. Pasadena, Glendale, Northridge and most of Studio City are pretty clean, but basically everywhere else is disgusting. Boyle Heights, East LA the 101and 5 freeway look like something out of an apocalypse movie.

I know that sanitation crews weren't at full capacity during the pandemic, but now that things are mostly back to "normal" I wasn't expecting to see that much trash and general dirt. Are the crews just not working anymore? Are they overwhelmed by all the garbage so they just gave up?

I know I'm not the first person to call LA dirty, and I see posts every few days about people doing the garbage cleanup (like the one from the park yesterday) but I'm curious why there is so much of it there in the first place. Do people simply not have any pride in this city? Is it a cultural thing? Rather than having to do monthly or even daily litter pickups, wouldn't it be better to not have it there in the first place? Is litter enforcement even a thing in Los Angeles? I don't think I have ever seen or even heard of someone getting a littering ticket here. It's sad that we can't use a public park without having to clean up beforehand.

Everyone likes to joke about it, like we should be proud that the city is so dirty, but it is truly embarrassing. I can only imagine what a tourist would see coming here for the first time.

Is there anything that residents can do aside from trash pick ups and emailing local officials? Is there any way to get people to stop throwing their stuff on the ground? I don't even see the problem being addressed, just like everyone is cool with tons of trash everywhere because it's "big city living".