![\"LA](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/LDN-L-blumenfield.jpg\")
LA City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield (2024 photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)<\/p>\nCity Council members Katy Yaroslavsky and Bob Blumenfield introduced a motion aimed at cracking down on illegal street-facing advertisements in Los Angeles, it was announced Wednesday.<\/p>\n
If approved by the City Council, the motion would direct the City Attorney\u2019s Office, and the departments of city planning, and building and safety, to draft an ordinance to enhance enforcement, close so-called loopholes and protect the public right-of-way from such unpermitted ads.<\/p>\n
The motion will first be heard by the Planning and Land Use Management Committee before being considered by the City Council.<\/p>\n
LA City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield (2024 photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News\/SCNG)<\/p>\n
The council members proposed a framework for the ordinance that involves the following:<\/p>\n
\u2014 Require outdoor advertising operators to register with the city and submit a sworn inventory of all street-facing ads;<\/p>\n
\u2014 Establish steep daily fines of up to $50,000 per day for illegal digital signage, which is similar to a policy established in New York City;<\/p>\n
\u2014 Hold property owners and parent companies accountable when shell entities rack up violations; and<\/p>\n
\u2014 Declare illegal street-facing ads a public nuisance, allowing faster removal and recovery of costs through liens.<\/p>\n
The motion would also look to amend the city\u2019s temporary construction wall sign rules, which the council members say have been widely exploited to allow advertising on vacant properties with little or no real development activity.<\/p>\n
The council members proposed to repeal and replace the existing ordinance to improve oversight, require revenue-sharing with the city, and discourage continued vacancies that contribute to blight and safety concerns.<\/p>\n
Illegal ads can look like unpermitted digital billboards, a massive wall of ads, construction wall ads, mobile billboards, rooftop structures and window displays.<\/p>\n
For years, ad operators have ignored city penalties because the \u201csystem makes it too easy to profit without consequences,\u201d according to the motion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the absence of a real, funded enforcement system, rogue advertising companies have done whatever they think they can get away with,\u201d Yaroslavsky said in a statement.<\/p>\n
In Yaroslavsky\u2019s Fifth District, encompassing West Los Angeles communities, the councilwoman reported seeing entire buildings wrapped in ads. Additionally, she reported that there are vacant lots that stay vacant because selling ad space is more profitable than building housing.<\/p>\n
When ads rotate, torn posters are left on the street, according to Yaroslavsky.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur public right-of-way is being treated like free commercial ad space and a landfill. If companies want to advertise to Angelenos, the city and our neighborhoods should benefit,\u201d Yaroslavsky said in her statement.<\/p>\n
The issue of unpermitted ads across the city has exacerbated as the city prepares to host the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic games. The council members argue that without stronger enforcement tools, more illegal ad operators will continue to expand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City Council members Katy Yaroslavsky and Bob Blumenfield introduced a motion aimed at cracking down on illegal street-facing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[7,48,52,51,1071,23,47,5436,137,50,49,100],"class_list":{"0":"post-175338","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-headlines","11":"tag-la-news","12":"tag-local-government","13":"tag-local-news","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-city-council","16":"tag-los-angeles-county","17":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","18":"tag-los-angeles-news","19":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}