L.A. to Act on Day Laborer/Home Improvement Store Ordinance

The N.Y. Times has an editorial on the Los Angeles City Council’s expected vote today on an ordinance requiring home improvement stores to protect order and safety when day laborers gather in their parking lots looking for work. “The ordinance is primarily aimed at Home Depot, which has 11 stores in Los Angeles and would like to open at least a dozen more. It would require new or renovating stores to have a plan for what to do when the day laborers show up, as they almost always do when Home Depot moves in.”

Many cities have sought to limit the efforts of day laboerers to seek work.   Many of those ordinances, such as that of Redondo Beach, CA, have been successfully challenged in court.  The City of Los Angeles, if the City Council enacts the ordinance, would be staking out a different — and more constructive and realistic — approach to the day laboer issue. 

We will let you know what the L.A. City Council does.

UPDATE  The Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved an ordinance requiring certain home improvement stores to develop plans for dealing with day laborers who congregate nearby in search of jobs. The ordinance mandates that proposed big-box stores obtain conditional-use permits, which could then require them to build day-labor centers with shelter, drinking water, bathrooms and trash cans.

KJ