THE HUTCHINSON REPORT: Sanitation crews must step up in South L.A.’s war on trash

A pile of trash, old shopping carts and even an old motorcycle is easily visible on West 51st Street near the Harbor (110) Freeway in South Los Angeles. Columnist Earl Ofari Hutchinson says the Los Angeles Sanitation Department must declare an all-out war against garbage in South L.A.

Photo by Earl Ofari Hutchinson

By Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Contributing Columnist

Over the past two weeks, I have stopped and taken photos and even filmed the mounting garbage and trash heaps increasingly strewn on countless South Los Angeles streets.

We’re not simply talking about papers and cans. Tires, broken and battered household furnishings, bikes, toys, mattresses and even burned out auto frames were among the sordid street piles.

In a prior column on the problem, I called it exactly what it is — a