Dear Friend --

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted our city in many ways, including a significant increase in trash produced. Last year, our refuse workers were tasked with collecting an additional 18 to 19 thousand tons of trash.

On top of this increase, our Public Works team was personally affected as many staff had to quarantine or care for family during the pandemic. I’m proud of the extraordinary work that has been done to continue residential and commercial refuse service even as we have had to pick up more trash and illegally dumped items.

In fact, in one year we picked up 25,000 mattresses. That’s a lot of trash. And we still have a long way to go to ensure we become the cleanest big city in California. But we have a plan to get there.

A few years ago, we launched our Clean Long Beach Initiative. We doubled clean teams and implemented new technology like the Go Long Beach App. And a few months ago, I announced the Long Beach Recovery Act, which included an additional $4 million for clean city improvements.

Over the next year we will double our clean team staff again to help us meet these goals. Cleanliness is an important part of civic pride and is essential to our economic recovery and to the quality of life for every Long Beach resident. Our neighborhoods and businesses rely on having clean, inviting public spaces for families to use and enjoy, and we as a city are committed to ensuring we meet this basic need.

Read our full plan here.

On Tuesday, our City Council met to discuss initial plans and our recommitment to a clean city, and over the coming weeks I look forward to finalizing how we will all work to make Long Beach cleaner than ever.

Thank you,

Mayor Robert Garcia