There will be no parking tickets during street sweeping in residential areas of Los Angeles while the city is urged to stay indoors to stop the spread of coronavirus, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Monday.
The enforcement suspension is effective immediately for at least two weeks and covers other types of parking violations as well, the mayor said in an evening briefing.
(Editor’s note: The Los Angeles Department of Transportation announced on March 24 that the relaxation of street-sweeping enforcement will be extended at least through April 19.)
“There’s no need to worry about the cost of keeping your car at home while you practice safe social distancing,” Garcetti said.
However, street-sweeping tickets will still be issued in areas lined by homeless encampments so that officials can effectively clean the area.
The suspension of parking enforcement also applies to abandoned vehicles, peak hour restrictions and “parents and caregivers who are picking up meals around closed schools,” Garcetti said.
The city will also freeze parking fine increases for 60 days, and is delaying all payments on past due fines until at least June 1.
Garcetti said the new rules are meant to put greater focus on enforcement that ensures emergency access, so ticketing on colored curbs and meters spaces will continue.
Earlier Monday, Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia on Monday announced a similar suspension of street-sweeping tickets in the city “until we come up with a larger, better parking management plan.”
The move comes less than a day after Garcetti announced sweeping closures of gathering spaces, including restaurants, bars, gyms and movie theaters. The order was broadened Monday to cover all of L.A. County.
Also on Sunday, Garcetti also ordered a moratorium on residential evictions and ensured residents utilities such as water, power and gas wouldn’t be cut.
The mayor sought to comfort Angelenos Monday about the strange state of affairs — a lingering “eerie feeling like the city feels half-abandoned.”
“There’s a pace that will settle in,” he said. “This will seem less abnormal. And in the weeks that we have ahead of us, we’ll be able to settle into not only our routine, but getting through this together.”
