1890s Los Angeles. LAPL Digital Archives.
Ever eager to view our region’s current events through the prism of its off-the-wall history, Friday’s garbage post (below) got me thinking: How did Angelenos handle their refuse problems, say, a century or so ago?
As you might expect, the answer isn’t very pretty.
Ralph Shaffer, history professor emeritus at Cal Poly, Pomona, has written an interesting online book entitled Letters From the People, which paints a vivid picture of late-19th-Century Los Angeles through the citizenry’s letters to the L.A. Times. Encompassing everything from politics to the city’s growing dog-catching dilemmas, lo and behold, Letters From the People also includes an amusing chapter on public health, streets and sanitation.
After reading it, you may conclude our modern infrastructure of landfills, storm drains, and blue, black and green bins isn’t so bad after all.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Thanks for the fantastic tip Michael. I look forward to reading this.