LOS ANGELES, CA — The Los Angeles City Council voted 14-0 Tuesday to repeal a city law that prohibited residents from playing catch or other sports on public streets and sidewalks and in some parks.
Councilman Bob Blumenfield began the effort to repeal the law in August 2025 after his office came across the section, which he said was enacted in 1936. He described the regulation as an "uncommonly silly law" that could subject residents to a $1,000 fine and up to six months in jail for playing on a street, sidewalk or in public parks, except on designated courts or fields.
Municipal Code Section 56.16, titled Streets-Sidewalks-Playing Ball or Games of Sport, mandated that "No person shall play ball or any game of sport with a ball or football or throw, cast, shoot or discharge any stone, pellet, bullet, arrow or any other missile, in, over, across, along or upon any street or sidewalk or in any public park, except on those portions of said part set apart for such purposes."
Any serious activities in the code section, such as firing a weapon or shooting arrows, are already prohibited by other laws, according to Blumenfield.
City officials said the law was outdated and no longer appropriate for a modern city.
"What's worse, in an era of traffic violence, when traffic violence has become epidemic, this law sends exactly the wrong message about who should be held responsible for unsafe driving," Blumenfield said during Tuesday's meeting.
He noted that Los Angeles Police Department officials confirmed this particular municipal code is not very well enforced.
"The original intent of this law may have been benign, which was preventing injuries in children during the dawn of an era when automobiles dominated our streets," Blumenfield said. "But the fact remains, it's on our books, and when we have records — numbers of traffic deaths and injuries that are caused by aggressive and inattentive drivers — having this on the books sends the wrong message."
The council directed the City Attorney's Office to draft an ordinance for repeal in January.
City News Service
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