When L.A. rang in the new year by throwing out the old: Paper calendars rained down from office windows

It was a tradition of a different Los Angeles and a different workplace.

For years, downtown L.A. office workers tossed their desk calendars out the windows at the end of the year. The unofficial New Year’s calendar toss occurred around noon on the last work day of the year.

The event became something of a sport on the ground as well. Some believed it brought good luck to catch the page with your birthday on it.

At its height, the practice was so common that downtown L.A.’s streets were covered with the small pages of the daily calendars.

But the celebration raised the ire of city officials, who had to clean up the mess.

In 1973, one Times letter writer urged the City Council to figure out what businesses allowed the calendar tossing and bill them for the costs of cleanup.

In 1993, the city beefed up security patrols in City Hall and other buildings to cut down on the litter. Officials also made public appeals to other downtown workers not to allow their calendars to rain down on the streets.

“Although we attempted to prevent this practice in past years, a substantial amount of litter was thrown from Civic Center buildings,” Randall C. Bacon, general manager of the city’s Department of General Services, wrote in a memo that year. “The practice of throwing desk calendars from windows and rooftops to celebrate the end of the year has become a costly problem which we can ill afford.”

The city also tried to guilt-trip workers, according to a Times report.

“Before you throw, remember that some poor city employee who wants to be home has to go out with a sweeper to clean it up,” said Patrick Howard, director of the Bureau of Street Maintenance.

It’s hard to know whether the crackdown worked.

By then, the practice was fading. Modern high-rise buildings in downtown had windows that didn’t open. And a decade later, paper calendars were being replaced by electronic versions.