Category: Safety & Security

90045 RV Fix

As I mentioned in my last post, the City is not legally able at this time to outright ban people from living in vehicles, so don’t wait on the City for your 90045 RV fix.

But if you’ve got some RV bad apples parked in your neighborhood, you are not without recourse. Your options differ, depending on whether or not homes front the street where you want the restricted parking.

For example, I worked with a group of neighbors (calling ourselves the “RV Working Group”) to get restricted parking signage on Manchester between Sepulveda and Emerson. That stretch of Manchester does not have homes fronting it, but there are homes backing up to that street that suffered mightily with a batch of bad RV actors. In our case, we went with the no frontage, no overnight parking alternative.

No Homes Fronting The Street – No Overnight Parking

If you don’t have houses or businesses fronting the affected street, your 90045 RV fix is signage for “no overnight parking.” You don’t need signatures from property owners, as you do with the other sign restrictions, but you do need to gather documentation of health, safety and/or criminal violations. Once gathered, you send your documentation, with an explanation of your problem, to your LAPD Senior Lead Officer (“SLO”). After reviewing your documentation and finding that public safety and/or welfare is at risk, LAPD will request the signs from DOT. Make sure that your description references “vehicles” and not “RV’s,” to minimize the controversy around the RV’s.

If you live west of Sepulveda, your SLO is Ruben Garcia. His email address is 33236@lapd.lacity.org and his cell phone is 310.622.3978. If you live east of Sepulveda, your SLO is Sophia Castaneda. Her email address is 35080@lapd.lacity.org and her cell phone is 310.622.3976.

(update February 2017: Sophia Castaneda is now the SLO for west of Sepulveda and she’s taken over Ruben’s phone number of 310.622.3978. Her email remains 35080@lapd.lacity.org. For east of Sepulveda, Karwon Villery is the acting SLO. His phone number is 310.622.3976 and his email address is 38717@lapd.lacity.org.)

When you send your documentation and description to your SLO, cc both Anna Kozma, Mike Bonin’s Westchester Deputy, at anna.kozma@lacity.org, and the RV Working Group at RVworkinggroup@gmail.com. Both Anna and the Working Group will do what they can to support your application with LAPD.

Once the LAPD acknowledges the health, safety and/or criminal violations associated with your request, a letter is sent by LAPD to LADOT asking that department to install the signs. This is where Mike Bonin’s office has been particularly helpful. I’ve heard of neighbors waiting a year for signs. The RV Working Group got the first installment of the Manchester signs pretty quickly with support from Anna.

Homes Front The Street – No Oversize Vehicle Parking

If you have homes (including apartment buildings) or businesses fronting the street where you want your restricted parking, your 90045 RV fix is to petition for the posting of signs that say “No Parking, 2 am to 6 am for Vehicles Over 7 Feet High or Over 22 Feet Long Except By Permit.”

The petition requires that 67% of the affected properties/businesses sign the petition. Why a petition? Because you want to restrict your neighbors’ (i.e., other property owners’) parking of oversize vehicles, as well as the outsiders.

Call Mike Bonin’s Westchester Deputy, Anna Kozma, at 310.568.8772 to get the petition and details on what happens once you have the signatures.

Sewage Dumping

If you spot an RV dumping sewage, call Watershed Protection and ask for Environmental Compliance. They take sewage dumping very seriously as an environmental hazard and they will send somebody out immediately. Call 323.342.6006 between 6:30 am and 4 pm, and 213.485.7575 between 3:30 pm and 1 am. Go here for information on the correct RV dumping protocol, in case you’d like to share it with the RV dweller. 😉

Other Possible RV Restrictions

If you think more stop signs or red curbs might be your answer, submit Department of Transportation requests through DOT’s website. Look for the orange “I want to” button on the upper left. You can also submit requests through the 311 system, through either the website or the app (apple or android).

To follow up on your stop sign, red curb or related request, contact our local DOT Western District Office:

1828 Sawtelle Blvd., Room 108
LA, CA 90025
310.575.8138
ladot.westerndistrict@lacity.org

If you don’t get help from DOT by following the guidelines above, call Anna at 310.568.8772. Anna told me that she prefers phone calls over email. If she’s not available, you can also ask for Nancy, Westchester’s Constituent Advocate at that same phone number. Anna absolutely wants to know if you’re having problems getting a response to your City requests. She will share your concerns with Mike and he can use the information at budget time to get more resources allocated to our community.

Abandoned RV’s

If you think an RV has been abandoned, use this link to report online or call 800.ABANDON (800.222.6366).

Commercial Vehicles

Commercial vehicles are not permitted to park on residential streets. If you come across a commercial vehicle that is parked in an unsafe or obnoxious manner, call parking enforcement at 213.485.4184 or 818.374.4823. Vehicles blocking driveways can be impounded if the blocked property owner meets the enforcement officer at the driveway and states that s/he cannot get out of the driveway due to the offending vehicle.

So, there you have it! Everything you need to know to get rid of RV’s that are making a nuisance of themselves. Got questions? Do you think the 90045 RV fix information provided here is helpful? Let’s chat in the comments below.

The 90045 RV Problem

What is up with all those RV’s? You know the ones. You’ve seen them everywhere. Recently, they were parked all along Manchester until shiny new restricted parking signage recently put a stop to parking between Sepulveda and Emerson.

RV’s parking on our City streets is not unique to Westchester. People are complaining in other communities, too. Recently El Segundo announced a tightening up on restrictions. The complaints in Venice are legendary.

And the problem is not new and it’s not pretty. Some people live in RV’s because they’ve lost their homes. Others make it a lifestyle choice. I once attended a Neighborhood Council meeting where a woman stood up and said that RV’s are the new thing and “Westchester better get used to it.” I had to pick my jaw up off the floor.

Houston, we have a 90045 RV problem.

Leave It Alone?

I think a lot of us would be willing to look the other way if it was just a handful of respectful people who need inexpensive housing. But it’s the self-entitled lifestylers that make me crazy. But I might even be able to ignore a few of those, if they didn’t stand up at NC meetings and flaunt their righteous choice.

But when the RV dwellers start dumping their waste, running criminal enterprises in their rigs and generally prevent kids and others from using the bike lanes and sidewalks, it’s time to take action.

Shouldn’t The City Take Care Of Our 90045 RV Problem?

If I had a nickle for every comment on NextDoor complaining that Mike Bonin is a bum for not getting rid of the RV’s, I’d be penning this post from Maui.

The truth is, the City is prevented from citing people simply because they are living in their vehicles. This comes courtesy of civil rights litigation sparked by Venice residents’ complaints about their RV problem a few years back, which prompted LAPD to dust off an old law from the 80’s to cite people for living in their vehicles. Four homeless people banded together and brought suit, with the result being that the 9th Circuit struck down the law as unconstitutionally vague in 2014.

Fast-forward to 2016 and it’s still not illegal to live in your vehicle. Why? Because the City of LA doesn’t have any alternative to offer, although there is movement toward rectifying this.

Although they can’t seem to get their housing/parking alternative act together, the City is not unsympathetic to our plight with RV dwellers who dump waste and run criminal enterprises on our streets with impunity. Even our Councilman, who is the biggest homeless advocate I’ve ever met, is willing to help restrict street parking when there is a demonstrable problem with health, safety and/or criminal violations.

So, while the City is not currently in a position to outright ban RV’s from our community, restricted parking by blocks is still an option. Click here for the instructions.

Sad State Of Affairs

It’s a sad state of affairs that we have to piecemeal a solution this way, and some neighbors call the process “whack a mole,” as the RV’s move from one street to another, but until there is a way for the City to legally address the bigger picture, this is what we’re left with.

What about you? Are you experiencing the 90045 RV problem on your street? What steps have you tried? Let’s talk in the comments below.