Daniel Kravetz sends in the following info…
In your interesting piece on Sam Yorty, you are uncertain about how he first came to be elected mayor of Los Angeles in 1961. Yorty was a Democrat, running one year after the dramatic Kennedy presidential victory and one year before Pat Brown defeated Richard Nixon for the governorship. He was challenging incumbent mayor Norris Poulson, who was criticized by many progressives for giving too sweet a land deal to Walter O'Malley for bringing the Dodgers to L.A. Even more upsetting to voters was Poulson's program for separating paper trash from metal and glass trash before collection, which Yorty described as demeaning to housewives in many TV appearances, most notably on George Putnam's news show.
Yeah, I remember that now. For a brief time, we had separate collections: You had to sort your trash and put out separate trash cans, and some people howled. I recall a big press conference when the newly-elected Mayor Yorty got it changed. People cheered as he poured tin cans into the same trash can as wastepaper. Odd how there's been no similar outcry today when we sort our trash and put out material to be recycled in a separate container. Thanks, Daniel.