Homeowners Muster for Roadside Cleanup

Her neighborhood is upscale--and so is its roadside trash, Woodland Hills resident Sue Blifeld discovered Saturday.

When Blifeld joined other homeowners in a volunteer cleanup of a half-mile section of Mulholland Drive, one of the first pieces of litter she picked up was a discarded $5 bill.

The cash went into Blifeld’s jeans pocket. Everything else found along the roadside during a three-hour scouring went into large plastic Caltrans litter bags.

If the discovery of greenback trash was improbable, so was the cleanup campaign itself, organized by the year-old Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization. The hillside area south of Ventura Boulevard where most of the group’s 100 members live is hardly an eyesore.

Anonymous Dumpers

But trash often piles up along isolated stretches of hillside roads at the edge of the San Fernando Valley, where passers-by can anonymously dump, said Gordon Murley, a founder of the organization.

“People know they can get away with it because there’s no police patrol to speak of up here and there are few houses,” said Murley, who helped pull several rusty junked car tops from a ditch. “Gardeners and contractors will leave stuff up here so they don’t have to pay at the dump,” he said.

“On Saturdays and Sundays, you’ll see 25 or 30 pickups going up to Mulholland to dump stuff. Some throw the trash as they drive along so they won’t be caught as easily. The police are cooperative, but someone has to see them in the act and call the police before anything can be done.”

Sixteen volunteers--including several youths from Pacific Boys’ Lodge in Woodland Hills--collected about three tons of litter Saturday, cleanup coordinator Bob Cook said.

‘Do Our Own Cleaning’

“Trash builds up out here, but I certainly don’t blame the city for that,” Cook said. “This is our neighborhood and I think it’s up to us to do our own cleaning.”

Mulholland Drive residents, surprised by the sight of other homeowners scouring the public right of way, said they agree.

“This is great. I saw them and said that’s a good thing they’re doing. I’m thinking about getting the kids and going out and doing the same thing,” said Chris Brekke, a 15-year Mulholland Drive resident.

Blifeld said several passers-by stopped to praise the volunteers for their work.

As for the $5, “I’m going to use it on lunch for the boys from the lodge,” she said.