TITLE
Recommendation to request City Manager to return to the City Council in thirty days with an update on staff's efforts to implement the Shopping Cart Ordinance (Long Beach Municipal Code Chapter 8.61), adopted by the City Council on March 21, 2006.
DISCUSSION
The issue of illegally removed and abandoned shopping carts has plagued cities throughout California for many years, resulting in the adoption of a variety of ordinances designed to make particular businesses responsible for containment and retrieval of their shopping carts.
The City of Long Beach has struggled with this issue as well for over 15 years, as residents complain of abandoned shopping carts in their neighborhoods contributing to visual blight and public safety hazards. Since 1999, Long Beach has contracted with California Shopping Cart Retrieval Corporation (CSCRS), a subsidiary of the California Grocers Association, to provide retrieval service to "non-member" stores that do not contract directly. Most major stores have contracts of their own with a cart retrieval service however; it is difficult to know the total number of carts being abandoned on a daily basis and how effective a citywide retrieval system is working.
In March 2006, the Council responded to failures in the system outlined above by adopting an ordinance calling for twenty-four hour warnings to businesses, administrative citations and possible mandatory physical containment systems. The City Managerwas charged with developing a plan for implementing the ordinance as ameansof reducing the sheer number of shopping carts illegally removed from businesses and cutting down on the turnaround time for their retrieval. After more than a year, residents and the City Council would benefit from an update on the effectiveness of the ordinance and our efforts to work with local businesses to ensure compliance.
SUGGESTED ACTION
Approve recommendation.
Respectfully Submitted,
Bonnie Lowenthal, Vice Mayor, First District
Suja Lo...
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