SAN DIEGO — Trash and recycling trucks made their way through Mission Beach Tuesday morning, cleaning up the mess left behind from the holiday weekend.
“There is plenty of trash,” said resident Quinn Chandler. “The whole alley is covered in trash. It’s crazy!”
"There has been a lot of trash especially in the alleyways,” said vacationer Marlon Whitfield.
The excessive trash piles and overflowing cans contribute to the severe fly problem in the alleyways, something which residents and vacationers know all about.
“There is a pretty good amount of flies around especially after a weekend like this,” said Chandler.
“There are flies everywhere,” said Whitfield.
During summer months, Mission Beach has traditionally seen an influx of out-of-town visitors, with many staying at short-term rentals in the area, and the trash stacks up quickly.
“So we wind up with open food and garbage,” said property manager Joe Fenton.
Marlon Whitfield and Cade Hilker have been vacationing from Phoenix, and they couldn’t seem to find any more room in their bins.
“We come out and we throw stuff away and there is nowhere to put everything else,” said vacationer Nalijah Alexander.
“They need to put a big dumpster out here or something because we need somewhere to throw it away,” said Phoenix native Cade Hilker.
The recently approved budget for the City of San Diego is now funding additional trash and recycling pickups for Mission Beach starting this week.
The additional pickup is usually funded for this area during the summer months to help with the fly problem, but it was not covered in last year’s budget, which made the situation worse.
“The flies don’t miss an opportunity,” said Joe Fenton. “They’re all over.”
The new collection schedule for Mission Beach will include trash pickups every Tuesday and Saturday, and recyclables will be picked up every Tuesday rather than every other Tuesday as the schedule was before. When asked whether the additional pickups will curb the fly problem, residents and vacationers were optimistic.
“Hopefully it does help because they are pesky,” said visitor Taras Somyk.
“Hopefully it helps with all the flies and everything, especially the stench of the trash and all the rotting food laying around everywhere,” said Chandler.
The new collection schedule for Mission Beach runs through Saturday, September 25.
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