At the end of Garcetti's diary entry, he mentions some of trash he sees on Echo Park Avenue and then says he calls his office to have it removed the next day. Would I be correct in assuming that it isn't his office staff who will actually remove it, but LA City sanitation personnel who will be called by his office staff to have it removed? Followup questions: what is that number they will call, and can the average LA City resident get the same quick response? I have some LA-dwelling friends who would be THRILLED to know the answers...

NYC has a great 311 system (click my name for the link). It recieves thousands of calls daily (it's promoted using bumper stickers on every NYC cab, print ads around the City and TV ads on cable including NYC-TV the municipal station). Mayor Bloomberg touts it at every chance possible. Unfortunately LA's 311 is not well publicized.

Actually, anyone in LA can call their councilman's field office with concerns like trash removal, abandoned cars, etc. You generally get an aide who calls the city and gets the problem taken care of. It's no big thing, although I suppose it may vary depending on the council district. I'm in Villaraigosa's district, and generally it gets done in a couple of days.

LA has the 311 system now too. Call for any city services.

The field offices are itemized here

Thanks for the response y'all!

I was just at a City Hall meeting the other day with discussion about better publicizing LA's 311 system.

The operators/ambassadors handle 30-40 thousand calls a month, and I've heard 99% positive reviews from people who've used it (including me!).

Information Technology agency is doing a great job with this program but they don't have budget or expertise to adequately promote.