Expressing deep appreciation and acknowledgment of herculean efforts, the Los Angeles Board of Public Works honored everyone involved in the success of the Clean Streets LA initiative by sharing with them the recently awarded U.S. Conference of Mayors’ 2017 City Livability Award.
The prestigious national award was presented to the City of Los Angeles last month in Miami for the CleanStat LA program, led by the Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation. The award recognizes mayoral leadership in developing and implementing programs that improve the quality of life in America’s cities, focusing on the leadership, creativity, and innovation demonstrated by the mayors. Mayor Eric Garcetti received the first place recognition alongside Hattiesburg’s Mayor Johnny DuPree.
As part of Mayor Eric Garcetti's Clean Streets Initiative, aimed at improving the cleanliness and livability in Los Angeles, the City's Bureau of Sanitation drives all of LA's 6,500 miles of public streets and 800 miles of alleys on a quarterly basis, and gives each block a "cleanliness score.” The data is then used to deploy the necessary resources and equipment, organize cleanups, and allocate resources in the neighborhoods most in need of these services.
“We are beyond honored to have received national recognition for the CleanStat LA program, a Clean Streets LA initiative. The Mayor, his staff, and our dedicated employees at Los Angeles Sanitation who are part of this initiative deserve recognition for making CleanStat LA come to life,” stated Commissioner Heather Repenning, Vice President of the Board. “The City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles Sanitation are committed to continuing to transform Los Angeles communities through sustainable initiatives and are focused on enhancing the program moving forward for a stronger impact.”
“Hundreds of hard working men and women at Los Angeles Sanitation have played a key role in implementing the Clean Streets LA initiative and in making Los Angeles healthier and cleaner for all residents,” said Enrique C. Zaldivar, P.E., General Manager and Executive Director of LA Sanitation. “Being nationally-recognized for our work is truly an honor and motivates us to continue to move these initiatives and programs forward as we aim to meet sustainability goals for the City of Los Angeles.”
CleanStat has improved the quality and livability of life for residents by focusing on the cleanliness of neighborhoods. Each street is scored is based on four factors: litter, weeds, bulky items and illegal dumping, which is then used to coordinate resources such as hundreds of alley cleanups, thousands of bulky-item pickup, and thousands of new trash bins. CleanStat is being used to drive the daily operations of the Bureau of Sanitation, which handle on average 35,000 bulky items and illegal dumping requests each month. The program has improved the delivery of many cleanup and neighborhood services to communities across Los Angeles. Some overall results of the program include an 82% reduction in areas rated "Not Clean" and the addition of 2,500 new public trash bins deployed across Los Angeles using CleanStat data.