The majority of Dallas residents are unhappy with the amount of trash and litter they see strewn about the city and in their neighborhoods.
Recent polling conducted by The Dallas Express found that 58.6% of city residents are displeased with “the amount of trash, litter, or junk” they have seen in their community and “elsewhere in the City of Dallas.”
The results track with the larger share of 75.3% of respondents who claim the City is “on the wrong track.”
Respondents indicated that they believe the City government is doing a poor job of “keeping crime low; addressing homelessness, vagrancy, and panhandling; keeping public spaces clean; facilitating construction and expansion through its building permitting process; and providing a favorable environment to conduct business.”
Furthermore, 72.5% of residents said they disapprove of City Manager T.C. Broadnax and his handling of the fundamental responsibilities of local government.
The poll results also align with a City of Dallas satisfaction survey that found a majority of residents believe the City does a “poor” job of keeping Dallas clean.
Dallasites’ sweeping disapproval of how local officials have been maintaining city cleanliness comes after Dallas ranked among the top 10 dirtiest cities in the United States.
Some locals have also linked the trash and litter throughout Dallas to the city’s ongoing crisis of homelessness and vagrancy.
Relatedly, the City has advised well-meaning residents against giving food to the homeless, which can inadvertently cause more trash to accumulate on the streets.
Dallas was also ranked as one of the most pest-infested cities in the United States, according to a recent study.
The Dallas City Council recently approved a new $4.63 billion budget, of which $153.7 million was allocated toward the Sanitation Services Department, which serves 246,000 households throughout the city, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
Services provided by the department include residential trash removal, bulk trash collection, landfill services, recycling services, waste collection for City facilities, and the collection and disposal of animal remains.