CLOCK TICKS ON PARKED CLUNKERS ABANDONED CARS TOWED OR TICKETED.

Byline: Nicholas Grudin Staff Writer

Close to 300 cars apparently abandoned in North Hollywood were either towed, ticketed or marked Saturday, as Los Angeles City Council Member Wendy Greuel and a troop of volunteers scoured neighborhood streets for broken-down clunkers.

``We are sending the message that our neighborhoods will not be junkyards - either move it or lose it,'' said Wendy Greuel at her North Hollywood field office Saturday morning, as a group of volunteers looked on.

North Hollywood, along with several other Valley communities, has an ongoing problem with abandoned vehicles, according to North Hollywood Lead Officer Tito Mariscal.

In September alone, there have been 2,500 reports of abandoned vehicles reported.

``It is such a big problem that the majority of the calls I get every day are about abandoned cars,'' Mariscal said.

The vehicles are often broken down or stolen cars that have been left parked for weeks or months, Mariscal said.

Greuel and a team of volunteers had joined in a similar community improvement project in July, fixing about 750 potholes in North Hollywood.

``It's urban blight,'' said Sandy Munz, a North Hollywood resident who was glad to help rid the community of such vehicles.

``It's an eyesore,'' volunteer Marty Cantor added, pointing up the street to a particularly unsightly abandoned car.

Aside from being ugly to look at, many of the cars create other types of hazards.

Department of Transportation Sgt. Carl Jones considers the abandoned cars breeding grounds for more serious crimes.

``People start living in the cars, selling drugs out of them and having illicit sex,'' said Los Angeles Department of Transportation Traffic Sgt. Carl Jones.

``It is a major problem in the area,'' said Betty Harris of the Department of Transportation.

``Some people steal the cars and then just leave them here,'' said Vicky Lemus, who was glad to see the procession of volunteers, traffic officers and police hiking along the street, inspecting suspicious parked vehicles.

Some cars are left on the street by mechanics and garage operators who don't want to store them.

``There are at least 2 million cars in Los Angeles. That's a lot of cars,'' Jones said.

If a car has no registration and is valued at less than $100, it can be towed immediately. Otherwise, vehicles that possibly are abandoned are tagged and, if left for 72 more hours, towed.

On Saturday, neighbors in the 11000 block of Haynes Street were happy to see eight abandoned cars that had been parked along a short stretch of sidewalk were either tagged or towed.

When Rebeca Munoz' neighbors moved away, leaving two of their broken-down cars parked on the street in front of her house, she was shocked, she said. She was grateful to see the vehicles finally tagged.

``It's a big problem because we want to park, and the abandoned cars are taking all the spots,'' she said.

Munoz did not know that leaving cars parked for extended periods of time was against the law, so she had not bothered reporting them.

``One of the problems is that people don't know they can just call these cars in,'' Greuel said.

Neighborhood children on dirt bikes scurried around the traffic officers.

``We can't ride our bikes in the streets when the cars are always there,'' said 14-year-old Alex Reyes.

``We want to do tricks on the curbs and we can't,'' 11-year-old Maurice Jones said.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1) Department of Transportation Officer Debra Sandhu peers into what may be an abandoned car Saturday in North Hollywood, noting the mileage before she leaves a 3-day notice.

(2) Council member Wendy Greuel, right, confers with DOT Lt. Betty Harris about a car on Haynes Street.

(3) Community volunteers in North Hollywood receive maps of the area they will cover as part of the Move It or Lose It program.

Joel Lugavere/Special to the Daily News