For someone who promised a much better Houston, John Whitmire has been a great disappointment.
HOUSTON — A growing illegal dumping site in southwest Houston angered area residents, and after months of complaints, something was finally done about it.
The trouble spot on Albury Drive and Benning Drive was an eyesore. Benning is a dead-end street that became littered with mattresses, furniture and other discarded items.
After several months of complaints and 311 requests, residents reached out to KHOU 11 News for help getting the area cleaned up.
After we started asking questions, Mayor Pro Tem Martha Castex-Tatum announced that the city’s solid waste department would speed up the cleanup. She also said the City of Houston is going to put up cameras to catch the dumpers.
“The problem is I know residents want this picked up today, when they report it they want it picked up the same day but Solid Waste has to work this in with their regular trash pickup,” Castex-Tatum said.
Residents were fed up. Chinelo Odenigbo lives at the townhomes on Albury Drive.
“It’s an eyesore, a complete mess,” Odenigbo says the trash would block the entrance to one of her paid parking spots. She and her neighbors saw all kinds of different things at the dump site.
“Looks like it’s from contractors — fender liners, tires, purses, food, everything is over here,” D’Anthony Monroe said.
Monroe shared a surveillance video of people adding to the pile of trash in December. In the video, you can see a dumpster that townhome management eventually moved. But, the trash kept piling up.
