Communities involved in conflicts over local‐level environmental issues recognize that who they are and how their neighborhoods are portrayed can greatly influence the outcome of their disputes. In this essay, I explore a community‐level conflict in South‐Central Los Angeles where residents were opposing the construction of a garbage incinerator. I examine the ways that the rhetorics of place and identity were used to alter the siting of the unwanted facility. I find that boundaries between the personal and the public, the home and the community, and the insiders and the outsiders are all reconstructed as stakeholders attempt to reframe the controversy for their benefit. This study expands our knowledge of environmental communication research by examining the construction of place and identity, community activism, and environmental toxins.