Clean LA with Me: How One Man’s Broom Sparked a Citywide Movement

When the city wouldn’t clean it up, Juan Naula picked up a broom. In this special episode, KFI's Heather Brooker followed the founder of Clean LA with Me from his early morning solo sweeps to the growing volunteer army that now joins him every week to clean up the streets of LA. It’s the story of how one man’s persistence and a few trash bags turned street grime into city pride.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Before the city wakes, Juan Naula is already out here, sweeping, bagging,
breathing life back into forgotten corners of La California.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
And La is such a beautiful place, and it's so
sad that it's so trashy.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
He tells me. He couldn't stand the side of all
the trash littered across La, La Land. So ten months
ago he started cleaning the streets of La with a broom,
a bag, and his own two hands, picking up bottles, boxes,
food wrappers, junk and gunk tossed aside by the masses.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
The elicious part. That was my first spot I started cleaning.
Then I started doing the streets Alice's neighborhoods, everywhere. So
whatever I can clean, I just do it. Wow.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
He's picked up about fifteen hundred bags of trash since then,
built several trash bins, and accidentally started a movement clean
La with me.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
We have to do something. If the government, if the Meyers,
if the governor, if they're not doing it, we have
to come and start doing it.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Videos of him picking up trash on the streets of
La have gone viral. Now. Wan says he's using the
power of community to mobilize volunteers across neighborhoods.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
All right, all right, thank you, thank you. I actually
got to know. I actually got you know, got to
know it. You can instagram.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
This isn't a city program. It's one man's persistence turning
trash into teamwork, grime into goals, and a Starbucks cup
into just another trophy in his trash bag.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Starbucks.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
David, So, what do you hope to accomplish by starting
this movement and what are you hoping that city and
state leaders see when they see you out there picking
up trash like this.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
I want to inspire more people. I want to inspire.
I want to inspire people. Saihborhoods. They started cleaning the neighborhoods.
I someday I hopefully, uh the you know, the city,
the governor, everybody that is in office see my videos,
they hear me, they see me, and they start doing something.

(02:15):
I know. People said this is impossible. I said, nothing
is impossible. When you really wanted to do it, I didn't.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Know what This band, what began with one room on
one block is now a weekly movement. Clean LA with
Me is turning quiet acts of care into a citywide
chorus of Change.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Thank you all my volunteerists. Thank to everybody that without
you guys, that would be not possible this. Thank you everybody.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
Heatherbroker ka I Fine News