The sounds of trash day in Echo Park
Flickr photo Theron Trowbridge
For our readers: We recently added an “Opinions” category to the website as a way to separate out our posts from our more, well, opinionated articles. This would be one of those…
Wednesdays are rough days for me. They are not nearly close enough to Fridays, and the heavy workloads usually make me want to start drinking during the week again. But mostly, they are exhuasting as I just don’t get enough sleep in the mornings. They wouldn’t be, except for the lovely sounds of our neighborhood trash trucks.
Now before you comment on this article saying, “Kelly, why do you hate city services?”, let’s be frank. I actually like having my garbage picked up and the streets swept clean for (even if the street sweeping is half-halfhearted and infrequent). But sometimes… sometimes you’re just not so into it.
Here’s why I, and those who live above the alley in an apartment complex can feel me, despise trash day: My street seems to be a main thoroughfare for trash pickup in our part of Echo Park. Dozens of trucks come by, and by around 8 or 9:00 am they’ve all done u-turns below our bedroom window – squeaky breaks piercing through our single-paned windows, “beep, beep, beep” with every reverse, loud diesel engines working hard against the steep hill. It’s like shrill bombs going off every few minutes outside the window (again, single-pane windows).
And the beeps are the worst – because there are so many trucks needed in our high-density neighborhood, they start by 6:00 am, if not a few minutes before. Earplugs always ready by my alarm clock, I typically catch a glance at how early it is when I’m shoving those things in. I keep thinking, there’s just no way these guys can be in Echo Park at 5:54 am, beep-beep-beeping and crashing the heavy plastic cans against the curbs. But they are – and they can.
A quick Google search reveals city noise ordinances allow garbage trucks and such services to operate between the hours of 6:00 am and 9:00 pm. So much for my letter-writing campaign to the LA Bureau of Sanitation.
So some day, hopefully, my dear trash truck drivers: fix those incredibly squeaky, shrill brakes, spray some WD-40 on those arm thingies that lift the cans up and down, and maybe lightly (or less forcefully) place the trash cans on the curb. Then maybe on a Wednesday, I’ll be cheery at work from a nice, uninterrupted night of sleep.
My gripe on trash day (and the day before and the day after) has nothing to do with city services. Instead, it’s the clueless residents that drive me crazy.
If you live on a street with a bike lane, it’s illegal to block the bike lane with your garbage can on trash day (California Vehicle Code 21211: http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d11/vc21211.htm). And really dangerous. And extremely rude.
This is a constant problem in Echo Park and Silver Lake. That’s a lane of traffic people–have some common sense. Would you put it in the middle of the road? By blocking the lane with a trash can, you’re forcing cyclists to swerve into busy street traffic. If any injury does occur with your trash can as a contributing factor, the cyclist would have a really really good lawsuit against you.
whine whine whine
I have the same problem, only I live in the Silverlake Canyon and our pickup day is Thursday. The entire place echos on trash day.. squeaky breaks, the back up beeps. Today it was earlier than normal – 6:30am.
You should be up cooking breakfast for somebody.
Thankfully my bedroom is not as close to the street as it sounds like yours is. The issue I have in my neighborhood is the poor coordination of trash collection and street sweeping. Monday and Tuesday are street sweeping. Wednesday is trash collection which leaves my street littered with trash remnants, defeating the purpose of the street sweeping all together.
Nobody has EVER whined about trash trucks until gentrification set in. If you’re bothered by the hard-working people who pick up your trash, then move out of the hood. Your complaint about “noise” is absolutely ridiculous. If anything, there should be “no parking” signs on every narrow street that’s crowded with all those hipsters’ cars. Lined up cars make it hard for getting through streets on trash days – not to mention EVERY day. Try going through Landa on trash day! Get a life . . . . Join a monastery.
PROTIP: as soon as you use the word “gentrification”, you lose all credibility. everything you say after is just noise. i know its a big word, and i know it makes you feel like you know what the hell you are talking about, but trust me, you have no idea.
EP Urbanite: How the heck does a satirical “opinion” piece turn into a gentrification issue?! I’ll throw your suggestion right back at you: If you don’t like it, move out!
FYI, I’m pretty sure that “hipsters” aren’t the only ones living on every single narrow street in Echo Park. Try going through Atwater Village on trash days, fine if you get annoyed but don’t blame hipsters.
haha PROTIP
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