Los Angeles, CA Public Conduct: Loitering Rules (2026)

11, that bars loitering, lingering, sitting or standing in a hotel's public rooms against the owner's wishes: together the two sections cover the transportation hubs and lodging facilities where the City has historically treated unauthorized lingering as a public-order problem. The depot-and-airport version is written broadly: it reaches waiting rooms, lobbies, 'any other portion' of the facility, and the common carrier's adjacent grounds, so it isn't limited to a ticket counter or platform. Two carve-outs keep it from sweeping up ordinary travelers and their families: someone waiting to meet an arriving relative or acquaintance, or accompanying someone who is departing, is exempt, and the ban doesn't apply to any part of the station, airport or depot leased out as a restaurant or run by a business other than the common carrier itself.

In practice this means airport terminal concourses and railway waiting areas are covered, while an airport restaurant or newsstand operated by a separate tenant is not swept in just because it sits inside the same building. Los Angeles Police Department officers or transit security enforce the section on the ground, and, like any Municipal Code violation, it is prosecutable under the general penalty clause.