Blog Action Day: The Environment According to Los Angelista



It's Blog Action Day and I've pledged to devote my post today to some topic related to the environment. I hope next year they pick an action day around promoting racial unity, but I'm down for making changes on behalf of the environment too.

If you've read this blog over the past couple of weeks, you know I've been on a crusade to get the trash in my neighborhood cleaned up. It's terrible to think that there are grown adults that think nothing of throwing their In-and-Out Burger wrapper on the ground after they've eaten it. Adults who have no problem tossing soiled diapers and cigarettes out their car windows. Adults who drink beers and then leave the cans in the street. Oh, and let's not forget all the people who throw broken furniture out on the curb and leave dead, discarded mattress out for animals to urinate on and homeless people to sleep on.

We always think someone else is going to clean up after us. After all, how many of us leave the half-eaten bucket of popcorn, the empty box of Junior Mints and the soda container on the floor of the movie theatre? Or are you one of the few who actually tosses your stuff in the trash?

Of course, here in LA, all that trash tossed away sits on the ground until the rain comes and washes it into the storm drains. The flood channels and the LA River fill up with tons of rushing trash...all floating into the Pacific Ocean. You can't swim in the ocean for a couple of days after it rains here. It's too toxic. Even when it hasn't rained, everyone I know who swims in the ocean eventually gets sick: ear infection, strep throat, weird skin rashes that doctors have never seen before.

Some people might wonder why I should care when I'm not a beach goer. I don't know how to swim and I'm not a fan of my rear in a swimsuit. But, I'm always reminded of my childhood and the one and only time my family went to the beach.

My brother and sister had a class trip to the shores of Lake Michigan. I don't know all the details, all the whys and hows of the trip, and how exactly my family ended up tagging along, but I do know that we ended up at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.

It's a beautiful place. Sand dunes that rise over 100 feet in the air and rare species of butterflies. All that was pretty, but I really remember marveling at the beautiful smoke coming from the steel mills and other factories directly west of the dunes. Sure, the air smelled horrible when driving through Gary and Hammond, but from a distance, the billowing clouds of white and yellow smoke that poured from those factories were pretty. They were only a nuisance because they blotted out parts of the Chicago skyline. And I thought nothing of the possible pollution provided by the NIPSCO power plant on the eastern side of the dunes in Michigan City.

I didn't connect either the factories or the smoke to the dead fish floating in the water as I bounced in the waves. I threw one of those dead fish at my brother. He screamed in terror and rushed from the water to tell my mother. I was promptly sentenced to spending the rest of the afternoon sitting on a blanket next to her.

It was only years later when I lived in China that I really began thinking about the environment. If I didn't cover my nose with a scarf or an oxygen mask while I was out riding my bike, I'd develop nasal irritation. The snot that came out of my nose was black from inhaling the pollution. In China, I never saw a blue sky with the sun glowing like a ball of flame. Instead, the sun was obscured behind a thick haze of coal smoke and other nameless pollutants.

I know a lot of people who hate environmentalists. They say environmental activists care more about saving trees than saving people. They say being an environmentalist is a pastime for middle class white folks who need a cause to latch onto. They say that the same environmentalists that fight illegal toxic waste dumping by corporations would be horrified if their child had to go to school with black folks. Or, they say that Al Gore is a fraud who presents misinformation and has the public believing things about the environment that aren't even true.

Maybe. But it's still important work. I can't imagine what the air in LA would be like if environmental activists didn't do what they do. And, when I walk my two sons to school and I see the amount of trash that my fellow Angelenos throw on the ground, I know that it's not just CEOs at power plants that need to change the way they think about the environment.

We all have to do our part, including me. Thanks to blogger Sundry, I'm taking October and pledging to break the bottled water habit. I'm once more best friends with a Brita filter instead. If you want to join us, then go to this site and find out how you can make small changes too.


Every little bit we do counts.

Trash, Cosmotrash and Glamourous Trash...Thank God It's Friday

I don't know about you but my week's felt seriously long. Dealing with trash, bees, a lock down at my kids school yesterday afternoon right at dismissal...ugh!

If you're unfamiliar with lock downs, that's what happens when an armed bandit is running around the neighborhood. The cops call the school and tell them to lock all the doors so that no one comes inside and shoots anybody.

Helicopters were circling overhead as I sprinted to the school. Fortunately, I got to there right when they were about to shut the doors so I got locked inside instead of outside.

We were locked up for a good twenty minutes before the "all clear" was given. I went and got my son who wanted to know if I'd seen the bad guys. Um, no. Fortunately not. Of course, on our way home we strolled our way past trash and bee central -- and suddenly, I heard a voice behind me. It was the assistant principal at the school and he was talking to someone about getting everything cleaned up! Whoo hoo! Is that good news or what? See, all y'all who checked the "keep dreaming" option on my poll just needed to have a little more faith.

Happy about this development, and eternally grateful to Alejandra in Eric Garcetti's office, I came home and got to talking to a friend who suggested that I take that Myers Briggs personality test over again. She wanted to see how my personality's changed since I've been working from home and being the neighborhood vigilante. Last year, I was an INFP - an "Introverted Intuitive Feeling Perceiving" person. This meant that I was supposedly a "healer" type. And my, "tranquil, reserved exterior masks a passionate inner life". I could also find the good in anyone and devote myself selflessly to a cause.

I guess all that's over since I'm now an ISFP , an "Introverted Sensing Feeling Perceiving" person. I've also switched from being a "healer" type to being an "artisan" type. Now I'm lighthearted, easygoing and completely in tune with all my senses. One site told me that essentially, I've gone from being Mother Teresa's apprentice to being Jacqueline Onassis. I guess that's a good thing. But, then again, yet another place said that this is the "crackpot" personality. Great.

Or maybe someone is trying to turn me into a crackpot. For example, did you know that the October issue of Glamour magazine is it's "1st annual figure flattery issue"?

Yeah, I didn't know that either until a copy of the 340 page glossy mysteriously arrived in my mailbox yesterday. My name and address are on the label, but I have not subscribed.

Perhaps it's a gift from someone? Yeah, someone who wants to turn me into a dumb bimbo! Someone who thinks I need to learn, "101 Ways to Dress Your Body Better" and, "39 Sexy Things To Do With Your Hair".

I'll admit, in my efforts to get bees removed and trash cleaned up around my neighborhood, I have probably been slacking in the hot, sexy hair department. Yes, maybe the owner of the corner store down the hill is sick of seeing me with my hair slicked back into a granny bun and so decided to gift me with a subscription.

Or maybe someone somehow found out about the bowl of Breyer's Triple Chocolate ice cream that I ate the other night and now thinks I need to brush up on, "The Secret Reasons Women Gain Weight and How to Stop". Or maybe someone figured I needed to lighten up a bit and read all about, "The Guys Who Can't Stop Fantasizing About You".

Really, are women supposed to care about stupid crap like this? Just imagine, if I was focused so much on fantasies and the, "12 Things No One Ever Tells You About Sex," then there might not be people cleaning up the mess by my son's school right now.

**Update: It must have been wishful thinking on my part. I just came back from the school and nothing's cleaned. But they put some pesticide on the tree where the bees came out. Oh, and my son's teacher only got paid $10 because LAUSD screwed up the checks. Nothing like working for a whole month and then getting paid $10!**

So yes, after all this "trash" I think I'm going curl up on my couch tonight, watch some movies and order some red curry with tofu from my favorite Thai restaurant in LA, Leela Thai.

Yum.

I'll leave you with a song that's appropriate given the week I've had. I used to have quite a lovely collection of techno records. One of them, "Cosmotrash", was by an artist called Trashman. I have fond memories of dancing to this back in '92/'93 at the old Kaboom nightclub in Chicago. Unfortunately, someone stole the record from me in '96 and I've never been able to get another copy. So, imagine my surprise at finding it on YouTube last night! And isn't it a wonderful thing that I'm tech savvy enough to know how to rip the audio?

Take a listen - don't be scared, it's a great record to dance to. It's a very Friday night record. Back in the day I used to speed it up considerably on my turntables. Hmm...I wonder what my personality type was back then?

Trash, Trash, and Even MORE Trash!

I live in a "hot" neighborhood where homes are going for around $800K. The small bungalow across the street that was renting for $3500 a month must have finally been snapped up because the "For Rent" sign was down this morning.
But, despite the trendiness, I get to see this lovely sight while walking my sons to school. Yeah, that's some sort of meat in that pot. All this was there at 8:00 this morning, at 10:30, and again at 2:30 this afternoon. I guess the chef had to go out for more A1 sauce or something.

Hmm...I wonder if the Mayor of Los Angeles' kids also walk by this sort of thing on the way to school? Are there these sort of trash issues in Mount Washington or Hancock Park? Would this be allowed to sit on the street for days outside of the Ivy or any of the paparazzi-filled boutiques on Robertson Boulevard?

I don't know. For some reason, my guess is that Antonio Villaraigosa's children aren't seeing makeshift cook stoves on their way to school. And Paris Hilton isn't stepping over abandoned car seats as she exits the latest trendy store.

Some other parents complained to the principal of my kids' school about what your seeing in the picture since this is right next to school property. She claims that there's nothing she can do about it. She says she's called the city and nothing happens.

Given my success ridding my street of the pack of drunks (absent for a week now!), I decided to email my city councilman, Eric Garcetti about this situation. I sent him this photo and I detailed how the trash is so bad on one of the streets we walk on en route to the school that I have to pick my Pre-K son up because he's afraid to step through it. Then I told him how in the next block there's the mattresses and abandoned furniture propped up against utility poles and street lights.

There's also the tree that's infested with bees. The bees were going crazy today because someone left this beer case right next to the tree. I'm not sure if there are any bottles in it, but the bees were swarming. I don't know about you, but I'm not a fan of bee stings. I wonder if Mr. Garcetti likes getting stung by bees?

I got one of those generic, "Thank you for your email. You're important but we're really busy!" kind of replies. However, the email did say, "Most city services can be addressed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by calling 3-1-1. You can report a pothole, a sofa left on your street, graffiti or broken street lights by calling 3-1-1."

So I called 3-1-1. I got put on hold for awhile, then transferred around a few times. Ultimately though, I ended up talking to Operator 57. He wanted to know what my issue was. Man oh man, where to start?

I gave him a detailed list of all the locations where trash and illegal dumping have gone down in my little neck of the woods. After the fourth location I gave him, I could hear the weariness in his voice as he asked, "Is that all, Miss?"

"Um, actually, no. We also have a tree infested with bees."

"Bees?" I could practically hear him rolling his eyes and see him mouthing, "What the f***!"

"Yes, bees." I replied.

I told him all about the bees and he said, "So you have a bee hive that you want the city to remove?"

"Yes," I said. And to throw him a bone, I told him that that was the last of my issues.

He said he'd put in a request for all of it.

Good. I thanked him profusely for being so patient.

Now let's see how long it takes for everything to get moved. What do you think? One day? Two? I've added a little poll over in the sidebar. You can vote till Friday. My vote? One week. But maybe the city will surprise me. Keeping my fingers crossed...