Swept Up in a Panic: Long Beach Residents Strain to Beat Sweepers
April 20, 2011 by RyanHamel · 4 Comments
The Contra Costa Times explores the issue of street sweeping, and the resulting tickets in the Long Beach area. According to Jim Kuhl, the city’s manager of environmental services, Long Beach’s 18 street sweepers pick up between 15,000 and 16,000 tons of trash per year. And, because people often forget to move their cars on the designated street-sweeping days, tickets are plentiful – and profitable for the city. In fiscal year 2007, for example, Long Beach issued 233,480 street sweeping citations. Since street-sweeping is only conducted four days per week, that comes out to over 1,100 such tickets each day. Those fines amounted to nearly $9 million dollars in revenue for the Long Beach government. “I totally understand why they do it. However, I think there’s more of a focus on giving out tickets to profit from it rather than to enforce the law,” said one ticketed resident.
Blocking My Own Driveway in L.A.
August 16, 2010 by RyanHamel · 6 Comments
I cannot believe that I just got ticketed for blocking ONE INCH of the very beginning of the slope to my OWN DRIVEWAY!! Does anyone know what this is going to cost me?
Does Exempting Red-Light Camera Program From Arizona Boycott Make L.A. City Council Hypocrites?
June 24, 2010 by RyanHamel · 2 Comments
Despite an official boycott of all things Arizona, by the Los Angeles City Council, in response to a controversial immigration law recently passed by Arizona voters, an exemption has been issued for American Traffic Solutions (ATS) – the private company which operates Los Angeles’ red-light camera program. Council members voted 13-0 on Wednesday in favor of the exemption, stating that the LAPD regards photo-enforcement as a public safety matter. However, with statistics showing that “about half of the 32 photo-enforced intersections have had no change in accidents or an increase,” according to City Councilmember Janice Hahn, many are questioning the integrity of the boycott as well as the exemption. When asked for their opinions on the matter, most readers who responded to the LA Times article argued that exempting ATS from the official boycott was hypocritical and motivated by the threat of lost revenue that the program generates for the city.
