By Jon Regardie for The Eastsider
Originally published July 9, 2025
Some unsolicited advice for anyone visiting Barnsdall Art Park or Children’s Hospital in East Hollywood: When hunting for parking, read the street signs closely.
In the first five months of 2025, 50 tickets for parking in a street-sweeping zone were given to vehicles at nearby 4600 Maubert Avenue, more than any other Eastside address.
Another 25 tickets were dispensed on other parts of the block.
Street-cleaning tickets are endlessly frustrating—how did I miss the sign?!—but stunningly common: From Jan. 1–May 31 this year, 32,335 were dispensed in the 17 neighborhoods The Eastsider covers. That’s 32.6% of all tickets written in the area.
The Bureau of Street Services conducts street sweeping on approximately 4,700 curb miles in the city; formerly weekly cleanings now take place every other week.
Failure to move the car earns a fine of $73. If each Eastside ticket this year was paid on time, it would generate $2.36 million for city coffers.
It’s no surprise that dense, heavily-trafficked neighborhoods see the most infractions.
Boyle Heights tops the Eastside list with 6,972 street-cleaning violations this year, according to Department of Transportation data analyzed by the nonprofit newsroom Crosstown (Venice ranks first citywide, with 7,479 tickets).
The 2025 count is consistent with last year, but the Eastside total is 28% fewer than the nearly 45,000 street-cleaning tickets issued in the same time frame in 2019 (vacancies in the Traffic Enforcement division propelled the decline).
Most Eastside neighborhoods have seen steep drops.
Some notable Eastside findings:
- More than 230 tickets were written along Echo Park Avenue this year, topped by the 16 at 101 Echo Park Ave.
- The second- and third-most ticketed Eastside addresses are 800 Heliotrope Dr. (45 citations) and 700 Heliotrope Dr. (31) next to L.A. City College.
- 1718 Pennsylvania Ave. in Boyle Heights ranks fifth, with 24 citations. More than 85 tickets were written on that and two adjacent blocks around Mariachi Plaza.
- Wednesdays brings the most tickets—11,599, or 36% of the Eastside total.
Pro tip: Punch your address into a Bureau of Street Services notice system to get reminders 24 and 48 hours before street sweepers hit the block. You can be warned.
Jon Regardie is a veteran Los Angeles reporter, editor and columnist. @JonRegardie
