LOS ANGELES – Piles of rotting produce extend for blocks, mountains of it, near the Wholesale Produce District south of downtown Los Angeles.
What we know:
Naomi Avenue seems to be ground zero of a produce wasteland filled with flies, roaches, rats, but also people picking through the produce for edible fruits and vegetables.
Off camera, locals claim that smaller produce companies, that don’t have large waste bins, actually pay people to dump their unsellable produce at the site. The city of Los Angeles picks up some of it on garage day, but it piles back up again.
The entire thing is happening in front of a building labeled as a Los Angeles Fleet Service parking area, with cameras pointed at the corner. No one there would talk to us. Neither would anyone in any of the smaller produce companies we approached in the neighborhood.
“Why don’t they ask food pantries to pick the stuff up? Or even put it in bins outside saying free to pick,” asked one passerby we spoke to.
As it is, plenty of people are picking through the stuff, finding edible produce, but also sorting out fly-covered, rotten material that is a health hazard.
What they’re saying:
District 14 Councilwoman Ysabel Jurado’s office released the following statement, “Our office is aware of the ongoing dumping at E 10th St & Naomi Ave and has been working closely with LASAN on clean-ups. This site was cleared again on Tuesday morning. We will continue to monitor the area and coordinate with LASAN on regular clean-ups and long-term solutions.”
FOX 11 also reached out to the sanitation department for comment.
The Source: Information for this story came from original reporting done by FOX 11’s Christina Gonzalez.