L.A. will be ticketing on street-sweeping days again starting Oct. 15

Dakota Smith
·2 min read
The east side of Kingsley Drive, north of 8th St. in the Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles on Jan. 8, 2015.
A stretch of Kingsley Drive in Koreatown is free of parked cars on one side to make way for street sweeping in 2015. (Los Angeles Times)

The Los Angeles City Council moved Wednesday to resume enforcement of street parking violations following a department report that cited complaints about trash piling up on roadways and a drop in city revenue.

City officials halted enforcement amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which cost many Angelenos their jobs and forced others to work from home, ultimately creating more competition for parking spots in some neighborhoods.

Now, traffic officers will return to handing out $73 street sweeping enforcement tickets beginning Oct. 15. Enforcement of rules pertaining to abandoned and oversize vehicles, overnight restrictions, peak-hour and anti-gridlock zones, and expired registrations also will resume on that date.

The impounding of vehicles that serve as dwellings will be delayed while the city comes up with a "next step" plan, under an amendment submitted Wednesday by City Councilman Joe Buscaino.

Enforcement of expired preferential parking district permits will also start Oct. 15.

Parking citation revenue has plunged, according to a Department of Transportation report released last month. The pandemic-related delay of normal parking enforcement is one of the main drivers for the $6-million revenue loss each month, department officials said in the report.

Revenue may continue to drop following planned city employee furloughs, a recently approved separation agreement with unions, and position vacancies, according to the report.

The report noted that "after months without street sweeping, the debris and trash build up around unmoved vehicles creates a public health and safety concern with vermin and rodent infestations."

"Even with the [complaint] line closed, LADOT receives daily complaints from disgruntled residents requesting vehicles be cited and/or removed. Prior to COVID-19, LADOT's abandoned complaint line received an average of 10,500 abandoned vehicle complaints per month or 126,000 per year," the report said.

A new program ordered by Mayor Eric Garcetti will award a $20 discount to parking citations paid within 48 hours, the Department of Transportation announced Wednesday night.

Garcetti first talked about launching a program to encourage people to pay citations early during his first run for mayor in 2013.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.