LA City Council votes to repeal ban on playing catch on residential streets and parks

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday unanimously voted to repeal a law that could subject people to fines or jail time for playing catch or other sports at parks or on public and residential streets. 

All 14 council members present at the meeting voted to draft an ordinance that will repeal the law, Los Angeles Municipal Code Section 56.16, which is titled "Streets-Sidewalks-Playing Ball or Games of Sport."

The lone absence from the meeting, Councilman Bob Blumenfield, introduced the motion to repeal in August last year. At the time, he described the regulation as an "uncommonly silly law."

The current law, which city officials referred to a outdated and no longer appropriate for a modern city, mandates that "no person shall play ball or any game of sport with a ball or football or throw, cast, shoot or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."

People were subject to up to a $1,000 fine or six months of jail time if they were charged with violating the law. 

Blumenfield's motion noted that any of the more serious activities listed in the code section, including firing a weapon or shooting arrows, are already prohibited by other city laws. 

City officials believe that the law was enacted in 1945, which is the first year that documentation referencing the motion could be found.