This report examines whether LADOT's communication plan effectively informed Los Angeles residents about the resumption of street sweeping enforcement on October 15, 2020. Analysis of 172 tweets from 5 city officials reveals that digital outreach was inadequate — LADOT's 14,200 Twitter followers represent less than 1% of LA's adult population, and only one-third of LADOT's tweets mentioned parking enforcement. Major news outlets (KTLA, LA Times) did not publish until enforcement day itself, despite LADOT's mandate to conduct "outreach to press." Statistical analysis confirms that all 9 days with significantly elevated citation revenue (z-score > 3, p < 0.15%) occurred after October 15, with a Cohen's D of 6.57 — a massive effect size. The city's own creation of relief programs after the surge is an implicit acknowledgment that the enforcement rollout caused measurable harm. The evidence indicates that the communication plan was dead on arrival.
- Quantify the financial impact of street sweeping citations on Angelenos in the first 30 days following the resumption of enforcement (October 15 – November 15, 2020).
- Evaluate whether LADOT's digital communication channels had sufficient reach to serve as an effective public warning prior to enforcement resumption.
On March 16, 2020, the Mayor of Los Angeles relaxed parking enforcement across the city, putting a temporary halt to the issuance of street sweeping citations. Suspending citations allowed residents to practice social distancing during the outbreak of COVID-19. Angelenos are typically required to move their parked vehicles to make way for routine sweeps; failure to do so results in a $73 citation. (Source)
The suspension came at a steep cost to the city. Pre-pandemic, Los Angeles collected $135 million annually in parking citation revenue. By FY 2020-21, projections had collapsed to $55–60 million — a $85.5 million shortfall (62% below budget). Meanwhile, LADOT received 10,500 abandoned vehicle complaints per month, and officials warned of "debris and trash buildup around unmoved vehicles creates vermin and rodent infestations." (Source)
Between September 30, 2020, and October 14, 2020, LADOT and City Council conducted public outreach to inform Angelenos about the resumption of street sweeping. The mandate was explicit:
"Per Council instruction, LADOT will conduct outreach to inform Angelenos on timing of resumed enforcement as well as financial assistance programs via social media and outreach to press."
This is the standard against which the entire analysis measures LADOT's performance. Both channels — social media and press — failed.
| Date | Milestone |
|---|---|
| Mar 16, 2020 | Mayor suspends parking enforcement citywide |
| Sep 30, 2020 | City Council approves outreach period |
| Oct 1–14, 2020 | Education and outreach period |
| Oct 15, 2020 | Full enforcement resumes (street sweeping, expired registration, overnight/oversize, peak hour, abandoned vehicles) |
| Nov 2, 2020 | Early Pay LA launches ($20 discount for 48-hour payment) |
| Jan 1, 2021 | Scofflaw booting and impounding resumes |
| Feature Name | Description |
|---|---|
| issue_date | Citation date formatted as yyyy-mm-dd |
| issue_time | Citation time formatted as HH-MM-ss 24HR Military Time |
| rp_state_plate | State license plate of the vehicle (e.g. CA, TX) |
| plate_expiry_date | License plate expiration date (yyyy-mm-dd) |
| make | Car manufacturer (e.g. NISS = Nissan) |
| body_style | Body style of the car (e.g. PA = Passenger, four doors) |
| color | Color of the vehicle |
| location | Street name and number where the citation was issued |
| route | Route that issued the citation |
| agency | Issuing agency. See city-documents/LADOT/agency-names.pdf |
| violation_code | Alphanumeric code indicating the type of violation |
| violation_description | Short description of the parking citation |
| fine_amount | Citation fee in $USD |
| latitude | Latitude of the citation location |
| longitude | Longitude of the citation location |
| day_of_week | The day of the week the citation was issued |
| issue_year | Year of the citation issue date |
| issue_hour | Hour of the citation issue time (24HR) |
| issue_minute | Minute of the citation issue time |
172 tweets collected from 5 city official accounts during the two-week outreach window (September 30 – October 14, 2020): @LADOTofficial, @MayorOfLA, @CD15Buscaino, @CurrenDPriceJr, and @CD6Nury. Includes tweet text, post time, and engagement metrics.
6 news articles tracked across the outreach period and enforcement date, sourced from local blogs, TV stations, and major newspapers. Publication dates reveal a critical coverage gap — mainstream outlets did not publish until the day enforcement resumed.
Access the Los Angeles City Council documents from the Los Angeles City Clerk's Office here.
| Document | Key Findings |
|---|---|
| LADOT Transition Plan | $135M annual revenue, $85.5M shortfall, phased enforcement timeline |
| Enforcement Press Release | Outreach mandate: "via social media and outreach to press" |
| Citation Pay Program | Early Pay LA details, LADOT GM Seleta Reynolds quote |
| Public Outreach Period | City Council motion establishing the two-week outreach window |
| Relief Report Motion | Council members Bonin & Ryu push for expanded relief programs |
| Public Comments | 8 public comments — pro- and anti-enforcement voices |
Parking Citation Data
Download the dataset here stored as parking-citations.csv. The dataset contains approximately 7 years of parking citations issued in Los Angeles, California (January 2017 – March 2021).
Twitter Data Tweets from Los Angeles City Council members and the Los Angeles Department of Transportation. Requires a Twitter API Key and developer account.
News Articles 6 articles tracked from local blogs (Venice Paparazzi, Venice Current), transit media (The Source), TV stations (Spectrum News 1, KTLA), and newspapers (LA Times). Publication dates reveal a critical coverage gap during the outreach window.
Missing Values
- Dropped rows missing
latitudeandlongitudedata (99999.0 indicated a null value). - Dropped rows missing license plate expiration date.
- Dropped columns:
vin,marked_time,color_description,body_style_description,agency_description,meter_id,ticker_number. - Dropped remaining rows with missing values.
Data Type Casting, Metric Conversion, and Formatting
- Converted all numeric date columns to datetime.
- Converted
issue_timefrom a float to Timestamp. - Converted
agencyfrom a float to an integer. - Converted
latitudeandlongitudefrom US Feet coordinates (NAD1983StatePlaneCaliforniaVFIPS0405_Feet projection) to standard coordinates using thepyprojlibrary (EPSG:2229 to EPSG:4326). - Removed capitalization and spacing from column names.
Feature Engineering
- Created
day_of_week,issue_year,issue_hour, andissue_minutecolumns from existing date/time fields.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Pre-COVID annual citation revenue | $135 million |
| Projected FY 2020-21 revenue | $55–60 million (62% below budget) |
| LADOT Twitter reach | 14,200 followers (<1% of LA adults) |
| Mayor's tweets mentioning enforcement | 0 of 100 |
| LADOT tweets mentioning enforcement | 15 of 46 (one-third) |
| Major news outlets covering story before Oct 15 | 0 |
| Statistically significant revenue days post-resumption | 9 (all after Oct 15) |
| Cohen's D (effect size) | 6.57 (large) |
Daily revenue was visualized from January 2017 through March 2021 to establish a baseline. A clear anomaly appears between March and October 2020 when enforcement was suspended due to the Local Emergency. After enforcement resumed on October 15, 2020, daily revenue spiked above historical norms.
October 2020: The Most Citations in the Fewest Days. The monthly view reveals that October 2020 generated significant revenue despite having the fewest business days with enforcement activity of any month in the dataset.
Of the 172 tweets from 5 city officials during the two-week outreach window:
- 100 belonged to Mayor Garcetti — none of which mentioned parking enforcement.
- LADOT posted 46 tweets, but only 15 (one-third) mentioned parking enforcement.
- City Council members Nury Martinez, Curren D. Price Jr., and Joe Buscaino tweeted once or not at all about enforcement.
- Despite being the most active about enforcement, LADOT's total engagement was minimal compared to non-enforcement tweets.
| Date | Source | Type | Timing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 7 | Venice Paparazzi | Local Blog | 8 days before enforcement |
| Oct 13 | Metro Source (The Source) | Transit Blog | 2 days before |
| Oct 14 | Spectrum News 1 | Local TV | 1 day before |
| Oct 15 | KTLA | Major Local TV | Day of enforcement |
| Oct 15 | LA Times | Major Newspaper | Day of enforcement |
| Oct 15 | Venice Current | Local Newspaper | Day of enforcement |
Only small, niche outlets covered the story during the outreach period. Major outlets (KTLA, LA Times) published on October 15 — the same day enforcement resumed. By the time most Angelenos could have read the news, citations were already being written.
- Social Media: LADOT used Hootsuite to manage outreach across Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. However, @LADOTofficial's 14,200 followers represent less than 1% of LA's 3.1 million adults.
- Press: LADOT was mandated to conduct "outreach to press," yet no major news outlet covered the story until enforcement day. The press channel failed entirely during the outreach window.
- Flyers: LADOT placed flyers on windshields to notify vehicle owners. (Source)
- Mayor's Account: @MayorOfLA has 417,900 followers, more than all other city official Twitter accounts combined, but posted zero tweets about parking enforcement.
Public comments submitted to City Council reveal a community divided:
Pro-enforcement:
- Armen Makasjian (Aug 17): Reported rat infestations from long-parked vehicles on N. Berendo St.
- Scott P., El Sereno (Sep 28): Reported homeless encampments — "used 311...nothing has been done."
Anti-enforcement:
- Jeanne (Sep 30): "Tickets and tows will cause greater financial burden for low-income and unhoused people."
- Jazmine Johnson (Sep 30): "Recovering that revenue stream should not come on the backs of LA residents."
- Daniel Gaines (Sep 30): "During a previous suspension, Council passed a motion that would give people a week notice before enforcement resumed. Why no advance notice this time?"
Both sides were right — and effective communication could have served both. (Source)
Is the daily citation revenue after 10/15/2020 significantly greater than average?
Pre-COVID daily revenue (January 2017 – March 2020) was used to establish the baseline mean and standard deviation. Z-scores were computed for all daily revenue values.
Confidence Interval: 99.7% (3 standard deviations)
$H_0$ : Daily citation revenue after 10/15/2020 is less than or equal to the average daily revenue.
$H_a$ : Daily citation revenue after 10/15/2020 is significantly greater than average.
Reject
- All 9 statistically significant dates (z-score > 3) occurred after October 15, 2020.
- The first two weeks of enforcement (10/15 – 10/29) accounted for every significant date.
- The probability of these outcomes occurring by random chance is less than 0.15%.
- Cohen's D = 6.57 — a large effect size, confirming the revenue increase was not only statistically significant but practically meaningful.
After the citation surge, the city created several relief programs — an implicit acknowledgment that the enforcement rollout caused harm:
| Program | Details |
|---|---|
| Early Pay LA (Nov 2, 2020) | $20 discount for citations paid within 48 hours |
| CAPP | 1,070 participants, 14,238 community service hours, $559,783 in citations converted |
| Low-Income Payment Plans | Up to 18 months, late fees waived |
| Citation Amnesty | Waive late fees on citations 3+ years old |
| Unemployment Citation Amnesty | Relief for pandemic-related job losses |
"Early Pay LA is one of several new programs we hope will ease the financial sting of parking tickets."
— Seleta Reynolds, LADOT General Manager (Source)
On November 2, 2020, Council members Bonin and Ryu pushed for expanded relief, noting people were "falling through holes in the safety net" and directing LADOT to report on denied and incomplete low-income payment plan applications. (Source)
These programs were reactive — every one of them launched after the citation surge had already begun.
October 2020 produced the most citations in the fewest business days of any month in the dataset. All 9 statistically significant revenue days occurred in the first two weeks after October 15, 2020, with z-scores ranging from 3.0 to 5.3. The $73 citations hit during a pandemic in which many residents were already financially struggling. The city's own creation of relief programs after the surge — Early Pay LA, CAPP, amnesty — is an implicit acknowledgment that the enforcement rollout caused measurable harm.
LADOT was specifically mandated to inform Angelenos "via social media and outreach to press." Both channels failed:
- Social media reached less than 1% of LA's adult population. Only one-third of LADOT's tweets mentioned enforcement. Mayor Garcetti's account (417,900 followers) posted zero tweets about enforcement.
- Press outreach produced no mainstream coverage during the outreach window. Major outlets (KTLA, LA Times) published on October 15 — the same day enforcement resumed. By the time most Angelenos could have read the news, citations were already being written.
The two-week outreach period was dead on arrival.
- Leverage the Mayor's platform. The Mayor's Twitter account should amplify city service announcements. During the outreach period, none of the Mayor's 100 tweets mentioned parking enforcement — a missed opportunity to reach a significantly larger audience.
- Diversify communication channels. Twitter alone is insufficient. LADOT should utilize the StreetsLA notification system, which allows residents to receive email alerts 24 hours before a sweeper arrives.
- Extend outreach periods. A two-week window was too short for a policy change affecting millions of residents. Future enforcement changes should include a longer outreach period with repeated, multi-channel messaging.
- Engage community organizations. Partner with neighborhood councils, community groups, and local media outlets to extend the reach of announcements beyond government social media accounts.
- Build press relationships before enforcement dates. LADOT was mandated to conduct "outreach to press," yet no major outlet covered the story before October 15. Future enforcement changes should include press briefings and embargoed releases at least one week in advance.
- Bundle relief programs with enforcement, not after. Every relief program (Early Pay LA, CAPP, amnesty) launched after the citation surge. Future enforcement resumptions should launch financial assistance programs simultaneously — not as damage control.
pip install pyproj folium numpy pandas scipy plotly
All files are reproducible and available for download and use.
- Read this README.md
- Clone this repository
- Acquire the dataset from Kaggle
- Run
Final-Report.ipynb
"Dead on Arrival" — a data-driven investigation into how a city's communication failure turned a public health measure into a revenue event.