Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Banning Shopping Carts in Parks: Thoughts?

A neighbor thinks the city should create an ordinance banning shopping carts in parks. Thoughts?
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9 comments:

  1. AnonymousJuly 28, 2009 at 10:12 PM

    Shopping carts are the only way many people without homes can keep their few belongings with them (that and old baby strollers, which you obviously couldn't ban). Seems like a back-door way of keeping people in poverty from using our parks vs. finding ways of addressing the underlying issues. Are shopping carts really the issue?

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  2. AnonymousJuly 29, 2009 at 5:20 PM

    Shopping carts belong in shopping centers. period. strollers and basket-wheels for transportation is fine. I'm with the ban. We need to start somewhere. There are many other cities that they can continue to steal shopping carts and use them in public like Los Angeles, plenty of places for that.

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  3. AndrewJuly 29, 2009 at 5:42 PM

    It's already illegal
    Sec. 18-352. Findings and purpose.
    (a) The city council finds that the removal of shopping and laundry carts from the premises or parking areas of retail establishments, and the use and abandonment of such carts, or parts thereof, on public or private property is found to create conditions tending to reduce property values, promote blight and deterioration, constitute a nuisance creating a hazard to the health and safety of minors, be aesthetically detrimental to the community, and is injurious to the public health, safety and general welfare. Therefore, the use of shopping or laundry carts on public right-of-ways, and the presence of wrecked, dismantled or abandoned shopping carts, or parts thereof, on public or private property, is declared to constitute a public nuisance.
    (b) The purpose of this article is to ensure that both customers and business owners take responsibility for the abatement of this public nuisance. This article requires business owners to take measures to prevent the removal of shopping carts from the business site, to make unauthorized removal of such shopping carts a violation of this Code, and to facilitate retrieval of abandoned shopping carts in a manner consistent with state law.

    etc...
    http://www.municode.com/resources/gateway.asp?pid=13712&sid=5

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  4. Pride in Garfield ParkJuly 29, 2009 at 8:50 PM

    Thanks for the information, Anduhrew. This ordinance doesn't seem to be enforced. I wonder why. Sure, the shopping cart recovery guy picks up abandoned carts around town (three cheers for this amazing service). But, there remain lots and lots of carts "in use" -- though not for groceries -- in the parks, on the roads, etc. Is this a code compliance issue? An enforceability issue?

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  5. AndrewJuly 29, 2009 at 9:08 PM

    it's code compliance, it may be hard to enforce if they don't know where the carts are from. I don't know what or if there is even a punishment for it.

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  6. goddess of pomonaJuly 29, 2009 at 10:20 PM

    I actually have more of a problem with the homeless folks and scavengers who use baby strollers. I just think it's very misleading and I don't think it's a good thing for it to become commonplace to see someone who has no baby, pushing around a stroller. I see it as a child safety issue. I am all for reuse, but strollers are for babies.

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  7. EdJuly 30, 2009 at 8:20 AM

    I noticed Stater Bros on Garey and Alvarado has installed the wheel locks to prevent theft of the shopping carts. Any other stores?

    As for taking the shopping carts off the premises, I would think you have a case of larceny (or petty larceny) and a citation could be issued by the police. Don't most carts mention this on that flap? The above municipal code places some onus on the business owner to secure the carts.

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  8. SkripJuly 30, 2009 at 12:25 PM

    A small Ranch market here (La Favorita) on Indian Hill has done the wheel lock thing to prevent cart theft and guess what? the neighborhood is not as littered with abandoned carts in the streets as much. I remember when some people moved into our streets about 3 years ago (yeah, the dead lawn and weeds, 8 car to a house type) and I literally saw the lady get her 2 bags and kid, and leave the cart right across the street from my house in front of me. I told her in spanish, Hey, take that with you. She replied, who cares, they'll pick it up anyways. I then replied, yeah, but that makes the neighborhood look ugly. She just kept walking to her house without saying a word.

    The good thing, they were foreclosed on and lost their house. Someone actually bought the house recently and they look like a good family (their lawn is green and there are only 2 cars to that house).

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  9. AnonymousFebruary 26, 2013 at 6:27 AM

    Consider other ways to get rid of abandoned shopping carts in Pomona. There is a free app, CartSnap, that uses GPS to locate the cart and send a report to the cart retrieval company directly. Check out www.cartsnap.com or https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cartsnap/id412776250?mt=8.

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