After Nearly 175 Volunteers Cleaned Pico-Robertson, What Comes Next?

With Sukkot behind them, nearly 175 volunteers on Sunday, October 11, took to the streets of Pico-Robertson with gloves, trash pickers and brooms to clean up after the Yom Tov season, JNS reported.

The Annual Pico-Robertson Neighborhood Cleanup was staged at the Intiwasi Spanish Immersion School. It was organized by Boaz Hepner, a nurse and community organizer who has led neighborhood cleanups since 2009, together with Jewish Federation Los Angeles and the office of City Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky. Representatives from City Hall, a state Assemblymember's office, local shuls and businesses also took part, according to JNS.

Hepner told JNS he deliberately schedules the cleanup after the chagim. In the weeks before Sukkot, he said, vendors along Pico sell lulavim and esrogim and the debris ends up on the street, and then over Yom Tov, with people walking instead of driving and plenty of kiddush food, more trash builds up. Volunteers this year picked up cardboard and palm fronds, and one volunteer described a spot where a sidewalk lulav seller appeared to have left trash in the gutter.

Harold Schloss, a leader of Troop 360, an Orthodox Jewish Scout troop, came with fellow volunteers from Bank of America, where he works. He told JNS the volunteers bagged the trash and left it for city sanitation crews to collect, and also took down months-old event signs. A local store owner thanked his group warmly, he said.

Becky Sobelman-Stern, deputy CEO of Jewish Federation Los Angeles, told JNS the community wants to be a good neighbor, and wants residents to feel pride walking down streets they helped care for.

Keeping it clean after the volunteers go home

Hepner told JNS this year's turnout drew a wider mix of schools, organizations and shuls than before, and that more people meant a larger area was cleaned. He said he believes there is less litter on the streets than in 2009, but that homelessness has gotten worse, and that encampments leave behind large amounts of garbage when they move. He also pointed to leftover flyers and Jewish, Persian and Hebrew newspapers as sources of litter.

"There's not enough civic pride," Hepner said.

The cleanup is an annual event. The public reports reviewed for this article do not describe a more frequent maintenance plan for the neighborhood, how much trash was collected, which streets were covered, or how the city follows up between cleanups.

Sources

• Nearly 175 volunteers clean up heavily Jewish Los Angeles neighborhood after Sukkot holiday, Aaron Bandler, JNS, October 13, 2026