{"id":565968,"date":"2026-02-04T15:47:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T15:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/565968\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T15:47:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T15:47:11","slug":"mind-the-mess-koreatown-leads-la-in-illegal-dumping-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/565968\/","title":{"rendered":"Mind the mess: Koreatown leads LA in illegal dumping reports"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story<\/a> was originally published by The LA Local on Feb. 3, 2026.<\/p>\n

An old couch, the remains of a black massage chair and a refrigerator with its door open clutter 4th Street and New Hampshire Avenue on the grassy strip between the sidewalk and the street.<\/p>\n

On Berendo Street, two refrigerators, both full-sized, lay splayed out on the lawn on a sunny day in late January. Both were tagged with graffiti.<\/p>\n

The items are unremarkable, but they speak to the volume of trash that falls into Koreatown \u2014 one of the hardest-hit neighborhoods for illegal dumping, according to the latest available data from the city.<\/p>\n

Keep up with LAist.<\/p>\n

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\u201cEvery single person in my building \u2014 that\u2019s their top concern,\u201d said Tania Ramos, who was born and raised in Koreatown and serves on the Wilshire Center-Koreatown Neighborhood Council. \u201cIt\u2019s so horrible.\u201d<\/p>\n

From April 1 to Dec. 31, 2025, the city received a total of 206 illegal dumping reports at 4th Street and New Hampshire in Koreatown, according to an analysis of public data<\/a> by Crosstown<\/a>. The next highest count in that time frame was the 117 calls on the 7300 block of Lennox Avenue in Van Nuys, which leads overall for calls for service across the city.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles overhauled its data last March, making it difficult to compare data from previous years.<\/p>\n

Streets in L.A. with most illegal dumping reports in 2025<\/b><\/p>\n\nAddress<\/b><\/td>\nReports<\/b><\/td>\nNeighborhood<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n4th St. & New Hampshire Ave.<\/td>\n206<\/td>\nKoreatown<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n7300 Block of Lennox Ave.<\/td>\n117<\/td>\nVan Nuys<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n5767 Lankershim Blvd.<\/td>\n100<\/td>\nNorth Hollywood<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n722 E. Washington Blvd.<\/td>\n80<\/td>\nHistoric South-Central<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n8655 Belford Ave. <\/td>\n73<\/td>\nWestchester<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Period from April 1 – Dec. 31, 2025
Source: The LA Local | City of Los Angeles MyLA311 cases dataset<\/p>\n

Residents say the reporting system itself can feel ineffective.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the city tells us is to contact 311,\u201d Ramos said. \u201cThey redirect you, but you have to wait and wait, and we end up being the ones that have to do neighborhood cleanups.\u201d<\/p>\n

The most impacted neighborhood from the 9-month period of April\u2013December 2025 was Van Nuys, with 15,671 calls for service. Koreatown received 12,640 calls. Westlake ranked sixth, and Boyle Heights stood eighth, according to the data.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Councilmember Heather Hutt, who represents part of Koreatown, did not respond to requests for comment about the long wait times and the high volume of illegal dumping.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Koreatown residents say they often report illegal dumping in their neighborhood, but often face long wait times for any type of cleanup.<\/p>\n

(<\/p>\n

Jon Regardie<\/p>\n

\/<\/p>\n

The LA Local<\/p>\n

)<\/p>\n

Illegal dumping is a long-festering problem<\/a> in Los Angeles. While in some instances it involves an individual tossing a few trash bags on a corner, it often means discarded furniture, mounds of unsold fruit or construction detritus dumped in a vacant lot or an alley at night by someone who does not want to pay a disposal fee.<\/p>\n

Ramos said delays can stretch into weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecently, there was a toilet in front of my building, and it took four to five weeks for it to get cleaned up,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Pablo Cardoso, director of environmental services at the Koreatown Youth and Community Center, said illegal dumping has \u201calways been an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor our crews, yes, there have been more requests to go and pick up bulky items,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Cardoso believes convenience and limited infrastructure both play a role.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy personal opinion about it is that people are just lazy and the easy way to get rid of their unwanted furniture is to just dump it in front of their building,\u201d he said. \u201cI also don\u2019t think that these condos or apartments where they live don\u2019t have the dumping or trash bins for big furniture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neighborhoods with most illegal dumping reports in 2025<\/b><\/p>\n\n\nNeighborhood<\/b><\/td>\nReports<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n1<\/b><\/td>\nVan Nuys<\/td>\n15,671<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n2<\/b><\/td>\nKoreatown<\/td>\n12,640<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n3<\/b><\/td>\nNorth Hollywood<\/td>\n11,620<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n4<\/b><\/td>\nEast Hollywood<\/td>\n10,764<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n5<\/b><\/td>\nHollywood<\/td>\n10,611<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n6<\/b><\/td>\nWestlake<\/td>\n9,431<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n7<\/b><\/td>\nSun Valley<\/td>\n9,278<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n8<\/b><\/td>\nBoyle Heights<\/td>\n7,719<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n9<\/b><\/td>\nValley Glen<\/td>\n7,076<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n10<\/b><\/td>\nFlorence<\/td>\n7,069<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Period from April 1 – Dec. 31, 2025
Source: The LA Local | City of Los Angeles MyLA311 cases dataset<\/p>\n

Sometimes there are hazardous materials. At a Jan. 14 meeting<\/a> of the City Council\u2019s Public Works Committee, Nicholas Fuentes, with the city sanitation bureau\u2019s Livability Services Division, said asbestos in abandoned commercial and construction material is a problem.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez chairs the committee and said during the meeting that some residents don\u2019t use or know about the free hazardous waste drop-offs the city offers and instead resort to dumping.<\/p>\n

\u201cI come across buckets full of oil in my district, like on the side of the road,\u201d Hernandez said. \u201cThat means someone got the oil, put it in the buckets, put it in their mode of transportation, drove to this place and dropped it off.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city offers free bulky item pick-up<\/a> for residents getting rid of that old desk or mattress (it involves lugging the item to the curb on trash day). But illegal dumping is a criminal offense, and perpetrators can be fined up to $1,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo they call 311? I hope they do,\u201d Cardoso said. \u201cIs 311 the best system? It\u2019s there, but I don\u2019t know. What I know is that they\u2019re overwhelmed with requests.\u201d<\/p>\n

Awareness of the service remains low, organizers say.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I would promote 311, which is a free service, a majority of people do not know about it,\u201d said Pia Cadanela of No Harm KTLA, a volunteer group that does trash pickups in the neighborhood twice a month. \u201cEven people who volunteer with us would be surprised. They did not know that there\u2019s a free pick-up service by the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

The issue is not new. In 2021, then-City Controller Ron Galperin authored a report<\/a> titled \u201cPiling Up: Addressing L.A.\u2019s Illegal Dumping Problem.\u201d Yet the document\u2019s suggestions on how to combat the practice have produced few tangible results.<\/p>\n

Fourth and New Hampshire may be a dumping destination because of one corner: While apartment buildings and the Joohyang Presbyterian Church occupy three parts of the intersection, the southeast corner holds a vacant lot, with a series of tents by a retaining wall.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s likely already being monitored by the city. Fuentes said his team works on problem points in each of the 15 council districts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have identified with the directors of each council district those chronic locations, and we know that they need to be serviced on a regular basis,\u201d he said at the committee meeting.<\/p>\n

Although Fourth and New Hampshire suffered more than anywhere else in the city last year, it was not the only destination for frequent dumpers in Koreatown. There were 57 MyLA311 reports at 3525 W. Third St., a strip mall. That ranked ninth in the city.<\/p>\n

Koreatown addresses with most illegal dumping reports in 2025<\/b><\/p>\n\nAddress<\/b><\/td>\nReports<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n4th St. & New Hampshire Ave.<\/td>\n206<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n3525 W. 3rd St.<\/td>\n57<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n826 S. Hobart Blvd.<\/td>\n52<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n734 S. Ardmore Ave.<\/td>\n47<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n3918 Beverly Blvd.<\/td>\n44<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Period from April 1 – Dec. 31, 2025
Source: The LA Local | City of Los Angeles MyLA311 cases dataset<\/p>\n

Cardoso said dumping tends to snowball after the first items are left behind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI drive by the streets, and there might be one or a couple of chairs,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then later I drive by again, and it\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, now there\u2019s a sofa. Now there\u2019s a fridge.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople see that little pile, and they\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, let\u2019s add to that pile,\u2019\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

Ramos said residents are left frustrated by what she sees as a lack of outreach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never seen a city representative go door to door with resources and inform community members,\u201d Ramos said.<\/p>\n

She added, \u201cIt\u2019s a combination of a lot of things \u2014 a lack of community education, lack of city outreach, lack of getting to the complaints, long response times \u2014 which can discourage people from contacting 311 because they have to wait too long.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was originally published by The LA Local on Feb. 3, 2026. An old couch, the remains…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":565969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,46124,31956,176900,2961,224,5337,246619,246620],"class_list":{"0":"post-565968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-illegal-dumping","11":"tag-koreatown","12":"tag-ktown","13":"tag-la","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-trash-dumping","17":"tag-what-to-do-about-trash-on-sidewalk"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116013147624960245","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}