Residents, businesses and government have all lowered their water use over the past year, but the industrial sector has increased use by 22%, says the Mayor's Office today. Here's out the reduction breaks down citywide in Los Angeles: Apartments: down 4.3% Single-Family Homes: down 7% Commercial Businesses: down 5.4% Government Sector: down 11.4% Industrial Sector: up 22% Overall, the city is down 5.1%. Some of the water usage cuts can be attributed to programs that......

Remember this apartment in Palms? | Photo by mondolind via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr There's good news coming out of City Council President Eric Garcetti's district about a problem largely unreported in the home foreclosre crisis. When a landlord goes into foreclosure, renters, even the ones who are in perfect standing, are being pressured by the new property owner--banks--to vacate. Tomorrow, the 13th distric councilman will present a motion to halt this activity......

Councilman Dennis Zine's, who created a regional Paparazzi Task Force this summer, has proposed an ordinance to keep paparazzi a modest 20 feet away from schools, hospitals and medical facilities when recording celebrities. Zine defines the prohibition for photographers and videographers taking photos/video for a "'commercial purpose" defined as the expectation of a sale, financial gain, or other remuneration. However, the celebrity or facility can give consent for photographs. But does 20 feet matter? With......

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who publicly supported the opposition to Prop 8, which sought to eliminate gay marriage in California, said Sunday that opponents should not give up and he would like to see the Supreme Court take up the issue again. "It's unfortunate, obviously, but it's not the end," he said in an interview Sunday on CNN per the LA Times. "I think that we will again maybe undo that, if the court is willing......

Found on Hollywood Blvd, East of Highland Ave. | Photo by Julie Wolfson/LAist Signed into law in 2004, the Silly String law is meant to curb the amount of silly string that used to trash Hollywood streets during Halloween. The city reasoned that the cans were a safety hazard, causing people, horses (for police) and motorcycles to potentially slip and fall in additional to being used as a drunkenly weapon projectile. The string itself,......

The pocket-sized Flip Video has come in handy for blogging | Photo by House of Sims via Flickr There will be two national voting documentation projects going on during Election Day. Veteran LAist readers may remember one of these groups, Video the Vote, who we teamed up with on Super Tuesday last February to interview Dharma and Greg actor Mimi Kennedy. The second project is the New York Times' Polling Place Photo Project where......

After more than six months since it was first proposed, Pasadena officials finally passed their new smoking ordinance last night. "The new rules will prohibit smoking in outdoor shopping and dining areas, in ATM and movie ticket lines, within 20 feet of building entrances and at outdoor events like the Rose Parade. That would make it nearly impossible to smoke in Old Pasadena, and other commercial districts of the city," reports the Pasadena Star News.......

The next in a series of local cities considering smoking in public bans is Pasadena. After a hearing in May and last week, the council is expected to vote and most likely pass a resolution that will "prohibit smoking in outdoor malls, shopping areas and centers; in outdoor dining areas; in waiting lines, such as at movie theaters, ATMS, ect.; and at public events like the Rose Parade and community fairs," according to the Pasadena......

One of the first steps to fighting a problem is informing the public of what's legally right and wrong. After yesterday's meeting of the Regional Paparazzi Taskforce led by LA City Councilmember Dennis Zine, the group released this one page document highlighting laws paps break on a regular basis to score that big money shot (laws cited are state, Los Angeles, Malibu and Beverly Hills). But what's a little ticket or some short jail time......

Photo by tomsaint11 via Flickr With around 84% of all cancer risk from air pollution due to diesel exhaust, the Port of Los Angeles Clean Truck Program began today immediately banning 2,000 trucks made before 1989. And By 2012, the new law will ban any truck that doesn’t meet the cleanest 2007 emission standards, ultimately taking 16,000 dirty-diesel trucks off the road. The trucking industry fought the plan saying it would "place an unconstitutional......

Photo by A.Wilson via Flickr Governor Schwarzenegger signed a bill today banning texting while driving in California. It will go into effect on January 1st, 2009. "Building on legislation already helping save lives in California, I am happy to sign this bill because it further encourages safe and responsible driving," Schwarzenegger said in a release via the Sacramento Bee. "Banning electronic text messaging while driving will keep drivers' hands on the wheel and their......

Fans of LA's ubiquitous Taco Trucks rejoice: The ordinance passed in April has been overturned, and the vittles vehicles can park and serve in unincorporated LA County to their hearts' content for more than one hour at a time. Yesterday in LA County Superior Court a judge overturned the controversial law. According to the LA Times: The language of the ordinance, Judge Dennis A. Aichroth said, was "vague" and therefore "unconstitutional" in its description of......

"There is really loud work near my house at 7 a.m. every day over the weekend. When are the quiet hours over?" Dear Reader, according to the city's municipal code 41.40, "construction in residential areas is limited to the hours of 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., during the week, and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays. It is banned on Sundays." In community meetings with police, officers have stated that someone on a construction......

Turn on that hose during the day and you may find you've been hosed--the LA City Council unanimously approved a change to the outdoor water usage ordinance yesterday that calls for one extra hour of banned watering time and double the fine. Between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. residents may not water their lawns; watering must take place before or after and can only run 15 minutes. Also, it is illegal to hose down your......

For some, taking a shopping cart out of a parking lot and using it to haul their purchases home is a regular practice. But this habit has multiple consequences, with companies having to hire retrievers to comb the neighborhoods in search of wayward carts, carts becoming regular hallway fixtures in some apartment buildings, and stores having to absorb the cost of the lost carts--which in turn often means having to raise prices, since most metal......

Painted out graffiti is reminiscent of a Mark Rothko painting | Photo by Lord Jim via Flickr In light of the new graffiti law Gov. Schwarzenegger signed into law this week, the Associated Press has looked into a concerning pattern about graffiti taggers and the public's safety. Over the past couple years, four people have died when approaching or witnessing taggers in action. To see how insane some taggers can get, one former tagger......

When a tagger gets sentenced, it's up to the judge whether or not being on a clean up crew is part of the punishment or not. Soon, it will be mandatory after Governor Schwarzenegger signed some new graffiti legislation sponsored by Los Angeles that forces part of their punishment to be cleaning graffiti. City officials say graffiti has increased significantly in the past few years, from "25 million square feet of graffiti-stained surfaces in 2005......

Photo by Roby Ferrari via Flickr Joe Dolce, former editor in chief of Star magazine, blogs at the Huffington Post about the increasing reported skirmishes between celebrities and the paparazzi. Dolce leaves the blame, not only on the paps, but on the magazines that pay for the photos and the celebs themselves. He offers suggestions for each involved party while knowing full well that it's all easier than said. Here's his thoughts on how......

Last night's 13th Annual Griffith Park Holiday Light Festival community meeting opened with the DWP reps explaining to the public that the Festival is off limits to cyclists because "these aren't public streets." Protests from the audience elicited a response from Councilmember Tom LaBonge to have the lawyers take a look at it. When it was pointed out that they are indeed public streets, operated by the City of Los Angeles and open to the......

Photo by stop.down via Flickr The LA Times has certainly taken the Mandeville Canyon story and run with it. But that's a good thing, it's a conversation that has been needed for a long time and to see the city's largest media outlet take it head on is a good sign for positive results. Here's some of the latest, which leads today's online California section: With the city of Los Angeles in the early......

A sign at Hollywood & Vine | Photo by discarted There's a common law that most bicyclists know in Los Angeles: sidewalk riding is legal as long as you do not have "a willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property." LAMC 56.15 also "disallows the riding of bicycles on Ocean Front Walk in Venice." Reading that, you would think that you can ride your bike on all the other sidewalks......

Bicycle advocate Alex Thompson wrote on his blog that he ran various red lights last night in Santa Monica. He explains his actions. "Because the decrepit signals wouldn’t change for me. Every time I visit Santa Monica City Council I run the light in front of the Police Department. I wait and wait and wait before I realize that the signal is not going to change for me. Then I look around, make sure there......

A Southern California Democrat in the State Assembly introduced a bill last month to ban the sale of alcohol at stores that only have self-checkout lanes. That, of course, singles out Fresh & Easy, who appears to be the only major food retailer in the state with only these types of lanes and no full-service lanes with employees operating them. AB 523 was introduced by Hector De La Torre (D-South Gate) and sponsored by the......

California and Weed | Anti/LAist We had a very big story on LAist, that got a lot of people excited about the potential for a new system that would legalize weed for all adults to be put on the ballot this November. The excitement was fueled with the hope of many that the nearly 700,000 signatures by Sept. 5, 2008 appeared very likely. The only question that was at the front of everyone's mind......

Last night, the Manhattan Beach City Council voted and passed a ban on plastic bags, according to the City Clerk's Office. A month ago, the city tried to pass the ordinance, but opposition claimed the city did not go through the correct environmental review processes. Nevertheless, one group said prior to last night's meeting they would probably still sue the city over the new law. The oceanside city joins Malibu and San Francisco in plastic......

After both San Francisco and Malibu successfully passed plastic bag bans in their respective cities, Manhattan Beach is taking up the issue tonight at their City Council meeting. The measure is similar in nature to Malibu's ordinance, but opponents, Save the Plastic Bag Coalition, say the city did not go through the correct process to initiate such a ban and threatens to sue. Another issue to them is that paper bags are not addressed, which......

It's been all the rage and everyone is talking about it -- today is day one of the new cell phone law. No more putting that phone to your ear unless it's an emergency. Otherwise, it's all about ear pieces or in-car systems (for more info on help buying the system for you, check out this post from LAist). And if you choose to break the law, it will be depend on where you are,......

If you plan on breaking the hands-free cellphone law tomorrow and in the future, your chances of being pulled over will be determined by where you are the LA Times finds. The California Highway Patrol plans to be the most aggressive about it and with the annual beef up (80% of officers on the roads) in staffing around the 4th of July, the two will go hand-in-hand well together. As for the LAPD, enforcement will......

Photo by Happy Birthday to Joe Shlabotnik! via Flickr Two brawls between surfers and paparazzi over the weekend are leading Malibu officials to look more closely into the law regarding 1st amendment rights. "The city of Malibu will do all it legally can to protect and preserve the natural beauty and tranquillity of our town," Malibu Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich said in a statement, per the LA Times. Last month, the Times reported that......

Using your cell phone after July 1st could get you a $20 ticket (up to $100 in LA County after fees and the such). But if you cause an accident that ends in someone's death, a misdemeanor manslaughter charge could come with that, resulting with a year in jail for each death, reports the LA Times. That's because driving while talking on a cell phone (except for when using a hands-free device) can more easily......