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Health & Fitness

Blog: Dumping Bad Dumpster Etiquette

Dumpsters in front of businesses & apartment buildings & dumpsters surrounded by months-old garbage is bad for La Mesa's image, real estate values and crime.

“What would Madonna do” was something my friends and I used to say a lot in the 80s. What I like to say now, as a civic-minded, community involved La Mesa resident, is, “What would Coronado do?” 

Now before La Mesans get all hot under the collar, consider this: 

Last month while walking from one end of Coronado to the other, I noticed how clean every single EDCO dumpster is, especially the ground under and around the dumpsters – practically vacuum cleaned! (see last photo, they all look like this) 

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I turned to my sister who was walking alongside me and said, “You should see the EDCO dumpsters in La Mesa, there’s more garbage on the ground than in the containers!” (see photos)

It got me thinking. Does EDCO clean around the Coronado dumpsters? And if yes, why the heck do they not clean their La Mesa dumpsters? What are we, chopped liver?!

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An email through http://www.edcodisposal.com/ brought me a quick answer.

EDCO President and CEO Steve South and Vice President and General Manager John Snyder were very quick to email and call me back. 

I sent them photos of the Coronado dumpsters looking spiffy and ours looking like vacation homes for rodents and was told by Mr. Snyder, “Field staff is meant to clean debris around containers and in trash and recycling enclosures at the point of service when they are collected.”

He also said they are one of the few companies in the industry that does this and that it was obvious they needed to improve on their La Mesa routes. In his email, he guaranteed improvement.

Mr. South thanked me for bringing this matter to EDCO’s attention, promised to immediately address this situation and affirmed his company’s and my “Common goal of enhancing the quality of life in La Mesa.”

True to their word, five days later, I caught up with an EDCO truck in the alley behind my office where Mr. Manuel Avilez, Senior Route Supervisor, was riding shotgun. All the debris surrounding the dumpsters on La Mesa Boulevard and Allison had been cleared! Hopefully, they have been throughout La Mesa. Big improvement.

Two significant points to ponder:

a) How easy it is to fix a problem – all one has to do is take action. It helps when good companies such as EDCO are involved.

b) Why - in the first place - did La Mesa have this problem and Coronado did not?

I get that Coronado is a seaside town and very wealthy but what does that have to do with what Coronadians find acceptable or not acceptable and what La Mesans find acceptable or not acceptable? 

Like graffiti, abandoned shopping carts and weed-choked empty lots (all things the City of Coronado would not abide but for some reason we do), dumpsters ensconced in garbage all add up to blight.

Blight reduces property values, creates a tougher rental environment which brings more Section 8 housing, diminishes civic price but most importantly blight is linked to crime, see “Broken Windows” theory (crime is linked to physical and social disorder in a community, http://www.suffolk.edu/34417.html58).

Think La Mesa doesn't have a problem? Take into account that currently I am helping a young couple purchase a home in La Mesa because they “Can’t afford Santee.” We have more Section 8 housing on the market than Lemon Grove and Spring Valley and crime wise, we rank only behind National City in terms of highest crime rate in San Diego County! 

I receive more texts from 888-777 CITY OF LA MESA Crime Alerts than from my best friend – and she’s having marital problems!

It’s become a ghoulish past time of mine to go to LaMesaNeighborhoodWatch.com to read about the latest La Mesa assaults and robberies. 

Every time I read about a crime, I click on the Crime/Incident Map, plug in the address of the latest crime and frequently see so many crime “balloons,” the streets are obscured!

Guess where most of those robberies and assaults occur? In areas where blight has been allowed to fester.

On Tuesday, April 24th at University and Lois, a 58-year-old woman was strong-armed attacked, knocked to the ground and her purse stolen by two teenage thugs. Not coincidentally, on the corner of Lois and University is a cluster of neglected apartment buildings with birds-eye views of a dumpster that looks like it should be quarantined. (see photo with pigeons). 

And Waite Drive, where the robber/assaulters were thankfully caught, is even worse. These areas define blight.

Intensifying the looking-shabby problem is the visibility of dumpsters at all. Like panty lines and plumber’s cracks, dumpsters should remain hidden but in La Mesa many of EDCO's dumpsters sit on busy streets (!) and in front of businesses and apartment buildings – even though city ordinances on the books prohibit this (10.14.160 (h)).

Travel east on University Avenue, not one dumpster can be seen in Mission Hills, Hillcrest, Uptown or North Park – areas that enjoy jumping businesses and high real estate values.

But from City Heights through La Mesa here come the dumpsters (see photos). Empty or overflowing, they’re ugly. Now this might be alright for City Heights but for the “Jewel of the Hills?”

Fixing our dumpster problem is as cheap and simple as moving them from fronts to backs of buildings and keeping EDCO accountable for their maintenance. The dividend is a better community. 

The City of La Mesa employs a mayor, four council members, numerous police officers, firemen, code enforcement officers and field staff. Any of these city employees during their in-city travels could remind businesses and apartment building owners their dumpsters belong behind their buildings and out of sight.

EDCO has proven they care about our quality of life in La Mesa and will jump to action when they have not met our expectations – all we have to do is have them.

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