I live on a quiet, tree lined street, shaded by beautiful old oaks. Their leafy canopies provide shade from the oppressive summer sun.
Quite often, people will park under the tree and eat their lunch or make a call, or get a blow job. Then when they are done, they will open up their window or car door and throw out a cigarette container, sandwich wrappers, beer bottles and cans. And of course used condoms. It’s almost inevitable, that the strange car or truck driver, when she is done parking, and about to speed away, will open their door and litter.
What is the mentality that allows people to do this? Don’t these pigs understand that they inhabit the very same city which is now filthy and disgusting? I don’t think it’s endemic to just Van Nuys…and I’m sure I will hear the snickering comments about “Mexicans…” or “What do you expect from illegal aliens?”
But my Latino neighbors are very clean. In fact, the Spanish speaking families on our block have the cleanest driveways and gardens.
I’m talking about ANYBODY who throws trash out of their car and thinks that it doesn’t matter. They come in all ages, races, religions and sizes. And they all suck!
Here in Van Nuys 
I’ve seen middle class looking Americans toss trash from the car. It seems to occur most when people feel no ownership of their surroundings. D*mn pigs! I hate it.
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I couldn’t agree more…. and as a resident of Van Nuys I see it more than I did even when I lived in North Hollywood.
Tbyrd
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Tonight, while on Laurel Canyon in Laurel Canyon, the driver of the Mercedes in front of me threw a lit cigarette out the window.
I think it may be time for another national anti-litter campaign. Maybe we can get a real Native American to cry on camera this time, instead of an Italian.
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Will-
I’m secretly delighted that “upscale” Silver Lake is not immune to the trash throwing. Actually, it’s depressing.
A
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It’s a regular maddening occurence in front of my place in Silver Lake. I’m always picking up Starbucks cups and fastfood wrappers. I even suffer a subset of pedestrian litterbugs who’ll think nothing of leaving their 40-ounce bottles on my front steps. But by far my favorite is the repeat offending gardening duo that takes a break in their truck to down their cans of Bud and then just leaves thee empties on the curb. I caught them in the act once and read them the riot act. Small victory in a nonstop war.
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It’s neither a class nor a race issues. Crikey. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen every kind of race in every kind of car (from most expensive to cheapest) toss shit out of their car, especially cigarettes.
It’s a genuine selfish move and it’s infuriating. But don’t blame it on race or class.
Damn.
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Andrew,
First of all, thank you for devoting a post to this important subject. I’ve also posted on this very issue… Anonymous has it bang on when he/she writes about the loss of such values in our society today. I’ve mentioned this before, Andrew, that littering is akin to saying F–k you to “The Man.” It starts by littering, but as you mention, is associated with getting BJs and doing drugs in parked cars, theft, petty crime, etc. We need to nick this in the bud: slap hefty fines on those who toss their gum or empty cigarette wrappers in the street (and take the money to build our pathetic public transportation systems).
-TorontoVet
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Hmmm…this subject seems familiar to me. Not long ago, there was a post here showing how dirty a sidewalk next to a bus stop was. It seems that littering became the rule, not the exception. This behavior is quite simple to explain: no patrol = no men’s land. People feel free to do whatever they want assured that nothing will happen with them. Education and good manners are things we learn in our childhood. Each wrongdoing used to equal a slap in the ass from our parents. In the very beginning of the 21st century, seems that such values don’t really value anymore. Anybody with a better guess?
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This a western-world issue. Here in Belgium this happens also, despite many efforts of government, … to re-educate people ?
Alain
Belguim
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it’s a class issue. indigent, uneducated, lower class turds are the ones littering. and unfortunately, *most* of those turds are latin american immigrants. i’m a teacher at an inner city school populated predominantly by the poor and let me tell you: they can litter with the best of them! we’ve tried too many positive reinforcements to name here to dissuade them, and nothing has worked. as rob dawg alluded to, this problem is endemic to big cities; always has been, and probably always will be.
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Big cities, illegal residents, dysfunctional government. What’s to wonder?
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