No corporation, company, firm, partnership, public agency or district or political subdivision of the state shall exercise any franchise, permit or privilege mentioned herein except insofar as it may be entitled to do so by direct authority of the Constitution or general laws of the state of California or the Constitution or laws of the United States, in, upon, over, under or along any public place in the city, unless it shall have obtained a franchise or grant therefor in accordance with the provisions hereof and of any applicable provisions of the municipal code. Nothing herein contained shall be construed to: