Swept Away

There is a lot of on-street parking in the 4th district. That's very common in an urban neighborhood. I myself park my vehicle on the street. So do many of my neighbors. Working from home affords me the opportunity to see everything that happens on my street. My attic office gives me a bird's eye view. Every so often I get to see the street sweeper come by. About twice a year if we're lucky. What frustrates me is that I'm given no advance notice to move my car. I watch the sweeper make a wide swath out and around my and my neighbors' vehicles. Leaving long expanses of curb uncleaned. What's the point? Why bother to sweep the streets if you're not going to do a good job? I called Public Works about this a long time ago. I wanted to know if there was a way our neighborhood could be given advance notice so we could put out No Parking signs. I wasn't even asking the City to do this for us. We were perfectly willing to provide the signs, and the labor because it would directly benefit the neighborhood. The answer I received was less than satisfactory. Something about a "general idea of what part of the city they would be in" but no more specific data then that. It's the little things like improving communications and doing a better job sweeping the streets that can make an effective councilman. I won't need to lobby six other votes, or find money to hire consultants. Just a simple policy change. A phone call or email to a neighborhood as a heads up. We can predict leaf and brush or bulky item pickup, I'm reasonably sure we can predict street sweeper schedules. In fact, I'll wager if I could talk to the actual street sweeper drivers, I could get very accurate information. It's not exciting like a new arena, or a new entertainment district. It's just good government.