Abandoned Carts on Council Agenda

Due to the growing problem of abandoned shopping carts, Councilman Lou Lopez will ask his colleagues tonight to consider a policy that would permit the city to remove shopping carts immediately from streets and public areas.

Lopez also will ask the council to allocate money so city employees can remove the carts.

“We need to spend our own money and our own manpower to end this problem,” Lopez said.

Lopez said stores don’t retrieve their shopping carts quickly enough, and the carts have become an eyesore and a hazard to drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians.

“It’s a big, big concern,” Lopez said. “It’s just out of hand. We need those shopping carts removed immediately to keep our streets clean.”

Lopez said the city now must notify the cart owner and sometimes wait “several days before they pick it up.”

Lopez said that while the city is spending millions of dollars to put utility lines underground throughout Anaheim and to beautify the tourist resort area, abandoned shopping carts are countering that effort.

In recent months, city code enforcement workers have reported abandoned shopping carts to the California Shopping Cart Retrieval Corp. for removal. From Aug. 1 to Nov. 12, city officials said, 2,684 abandoned shopping carts were reported and ultimately removed.

According to a memorandum to the council, the city staff is continuing to work with the retrieval company and the California Grocers Assn. “to secure improvement in shopping cart retrieval and to continue to make them aware of the importance of this issue to the city.”

The meeting begins at 5 p.m. in council chambers, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd.