CARTED AWAY 2004 LAW FAILS TO CUT GROCERS' LOSSES, CLUTTER, SO NEW APPROACH TO BE TRIED.

Byline: KERRY CAVANAUGH Staff Writer

Nearly three years after promising to crack down on the clutter of abandoned shopping carts, City Councilman Tony Cardenas launched a pilot project Monday to have city workers clear them from the streets of Van Nuys.

In announcing the six-month program costing $55,000, Cardenas conceded that an ordinance prohibiting customers from taking or dumping carts has been ineffective, as has an effort to get supermarkets to retrieve them voluntarily.

``The ordinance hasn't worked,'' he said. ``By this time next year, we will have a solution that will literally make this problem go away.''

The money will pay for a Bureau of Sanitation worker to cruise Cardenas' district -- which includes Van Nuys, North Hollywood and Sunland -- and collect carts. The buggies will be taken to an East Valley yard, and city staff members will notify retailers that they have 10 days to retrieve their carts. Uncollected or unmarked carts will go to metal recyclers.

Glendale and other smaller cities have imposed tough regulations on grocers and retailers in an effort to prevent carts from being abandoned on the streets. Suburbanites consider this a significant quality-of-life issue.

L.A. City Councilman Greig Smith undertook action in 2004, sponsoring an ordinance to require stores with at least 10 carts to contract with a company to retrieve abandoned carts within 24 hours.

The ordinance was later modified to create a voluntary program, with the Bureau of Street Services notifying grocers of abandoned carts.

On Monday, Smith called for a stronger program that requires retrieval of discarded carts.

``We need a proactive ordinance in the city to hold the markets' feet to the fire and make them do it,'' Smith said.

Cardenas said he's open to the possibility of a permit or fine system after this trial run with city funds.

But some neighborhood activists immediately criticized the program, saying taxpayers' money shouldn't be used to collect shopping carts for grocers and other retailers.

``Are they charging the markets a storage fee? No. If they tow my car, I have to pay an impound fee. They're not charging them for storage and for pickup. There are no consequences for the market,'' said Edwin Ramirez, a Pacoima activist and the campaign manager for Lisa Martellaro Palmer, who has challenged Cardenas for the 6th Council District seat in the March election.

But Van Nuys residents and activists Don and Prudy Schultz said something has to be done about the carts piling up in their neighborhood.

``The problem has reached a peak because there just aren't enough markets in the area doing enough to retrieve their shopping carts,'' Don Schultz said.

He praised the local Jons Marketplace and Walgreens stores that installed cart-containment systems, which use a magnetic field to prevent customers from taking carts off the store lot.

``We're hoping the councilman can convince the other stores to do more,'' he said.

Under current city rules, retailers are not obligated to hire cart-retrieval services or install cart-containment systems. Someone who removes a cart can be fined $50, but officials concede that violators are never cited or fined.

The California Grocers Association, which opposes mandatory cart-containment systems, said carts can cost up to $150 each so owners want to prevent walk-offs.

``We consider it stolen property,'' said Jennifer Forkish, director of local government for the grocers group. However, she said the association was disappointed that Cardenas did not first meet with her members before finalizing the project.

kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com

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2 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) Abandoned shopping carts clutter a bus stop area at Fallbrook Avenue and Victory Boulevard on Monday.

(2) A Los Angeles city employee, Robert Garcia, loads abandoned shopping carts onto a truck Monday on Lennox Street in Van Nuys under a new pilot program to get carts off the streets.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer

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