City Hits Local Shops With $350 Sign Fines

An inspector has slapped $350 fines on 10 of 16 mom-and-pop stores in a strip mall at Topanga Canyon Boulevard and Lassen Street for violation of the city sign ordinance. Some of those signs have been in existence for decades.

"It's a shakedown -- that's what I call it," Rusty Paramonov, owner of Exotic Fish and Reptiles, told Gregory J. Wilcox of the Daily News.

The cash-strapped city has raised more than $1.3 million in fines since February.

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