Do Real Planning #9: Arrest Visual Blight

Last week, the Los Angeles City Planning Commission unveiled a 14-point policy agenda to set the city on a course towards sustainability, using Planning Director Gail Goldberg's mantra of "DO REAL PLANNING" as an acronym for the platform. I am looking at each of these planning principles through the lens of my work in my own district and the potential for citywide direction along these lines.

While commercial signage has been a strong element in business districts throughout the country, the city continues to struggle to address the proliferation of illegal and unpermitted signs and supergraphics. In my district, I am working to secure funds to staff a permanent enforcement team that can focus on sign enforcement in the downtown Hollywood area, where for every illegal sign we get taken down, there seem to be two or three more popping up. I am also looking at legislation to increase fines for violating these laws and closing loopholes that allow "temporary" signs to be put up in a semi-permanent manner.

Note: the blog's not reliably kept the Flickr credit on these posts, where I've used public photos. I've recently used shots by birdw0rks (of a green roof), Atwater Village Newbie (of the fire), and [fq9] (of the green-built Audubon Center at Debs Park.