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April 24, 2008
No You Didn't! City Proposes To Add Street Sweeping Zones to Ticket More People
Here's one simple step on how to lose a city's morale and trust of city government, via Kerry Cavanaugh at the Daily News:
The council discussed adding scheduled street sweeping to 8,600 miles of city streets. By installing signs that indicate "no parking" during scheduled street-sweeping times, the city could establish regular, more effective sweeping - and, potentially, earn $20 million by ticketing cars parked during sweeping times."We have a lot of opportunity in the street-cleaning arena to provide a lot of service and provide some additional revenue as well," said Bureau of Street Services General Manager Bill Robertson.
The reason for this idea is the $406 million shortfall in the city's budget. The city of Los Angeles figure out the budget by cutting services and finding revenue sources. This should not be one of them.
If this particular idea of increased street sweeping service was actually needed, then it would have been done a long time ago. But announcing this now only begets more cynics on parking enforcement. When someone says, "Tickets are only a way to create money for city hall," you can't fight that statement anymore, because now it's true.
Other revenue generating ideas include raising parking meter fees, a 911 surcharge, increased parking and traffic violation ticket fees, voluntary emergency medical fees, sales tax increase, transient occupancy tax increase (basically, a hotel tax) and an increase in document transfers for real estate.
Photo by lennonisgod via Flickr
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As a person who regularly has to beware the street sweeping restrictions in both West Hollywood and Pasadena, I can say that I have never, ever, ever once seen a street sweeper or evidence of the street being swept on these streets. Ever. I have, however, received plenty of tickets.
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Pssst....street sweeping zones make GREAT bike routes...but don't tell anybody.
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This would be great - if they would actually use the street sweepers for once.
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YES!!!! The city finally admits that it's a money making scam!! My mom and I have been fighting about this for years. God I love being right.
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So, this is perplexing. While street sweeping reduces the pollution in run-off (remember, that the street system is part of the County Flood Control system), considering it as a source of revenue is strange. Since about 1998, no new routes have been added due to the lack of funds to pay drivers to actually sweep the route. Technically, all unposted streets are swept every 4 to 6 weeks, but with cars parked there, it's difficult to see the results. Perhaps there are special funds to add this route?
Adding new posted routes will be an asset to the community: neighborhoods are cleaner, abandon cars are removed from the street, and there is a general more attention to each neighborhood.
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If you live in a neighborhood where parking is already quite scarce, weekly street sweeping is absurd. I have had to park 5 blocks from my house in the past because of this. Then try adding special film production loading zones into the mix = parking INSANITY!
Another thing that I've always wondered about - is there someone following with truck with a dustpan? Because if not, aren't they just pushing dirt and trash around? And do those trucks run on diesel? Because if so the pollution caused by them must be substantial.
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I seriously thought that enforcing or creating opportunities for fines in order to create revenue was against the law.
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markland - i totally agree.
i think street sweeping is so ridiculous though.
maybe they could just sweep after an accident, when there's a lot of glass on the road, or maybe they could use all the money they currently make from street sweeping tickets to fill all the potholes on Sunset. just a thought.
i wouldn’t feel so bad about paying those $50 tickets i keep getting for this if they would fix the roads so i wouldn’t have to spend more money on fixing flat tires caused by the potholes.
that should be a rule: you make money cleaning the streets, you spend it fixing the streets.
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ARGH!!! Few things piss me off as much as the street sweeping scam. I live in a dense apartment building neighborhood and we have it Thurs & Fri. They do actually bring street sweepers by but I can tell you they don't clean anything. On a good day they push the dirt around and they always leave large pieces of trash untouched. I'm sure those things get great mileage too, right?
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Whats worse is occasionally, no sweepers will come by... but parking enforcement will still ticket.
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I haven't seen the actual truck in years. At this point as they might as well be an urban legend (at least in my neighborhood).
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i saw a street sweeper ONE time, like six months ago. up until then i thought they were the stuff of cryptozoology, the mothman of melrose, if you will.
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This is insane. I live on a street in Silver Lake that already has this supposed "service" 2 days per week and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. It is infuriating to step over all the garbage they either neglected to sweep or just pushed around to grab the ticket off of the windshield.
They have also been on a totally unnecessary red curb painting spree.
Interesting article... Can't believe the other ways they are suggesting to make up for their budget deficit (like the extra $125 "user fee" on parking violations). Ouch. Don't read the Daily News and would never have seen this. Thanks.
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Yeah, I live by Sunset Junction and it is a nightmare from hell. Then today I come home and my car won't start + "street cleaning" tomorrow = $45. Barf.
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I live in a part of Koreatown where parking is atrocious as it is.
Then we have street cleaning twice a week at 8am (instead of, yanno, 10am when everyone is at work).
Then we have all kinds of unnecessary red zones and loading only zones and every other inconvenience you can imagine.
Some months I have $500 in parking tickets.
I'm living well beneath my means but for some of the people in my neighborhood, these vultures ticketing and towing their car could be catastrophic to their lives. When I lived in neighborhoods with ample parking (Hollywood, Pacific Palisades, West LA) I never saw any parking enforcement.
Is LA knowingly enforcing a poor tax because of their shitty city planning? We pay for their mistakes? I'm going to do something about this, im just not sure what...
PS I also have never seen a street sweeper in my neighborhood, only on major streets.
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I don't know - I've never lived on a street without street sweeping, so I don't know (comparatively) how much of an inconvenience it is. I also work during the sweeping hours, so my car is only there if I'm home for some reason (make no mistake, getting a ticket because you had to stay home with the flu is no picnic.)
However, I do know that because of the budget deficit a lot of LAUSD teachers have to be laid off. I work in education and I know this is good for nobody. So if they need to make a little extra money to keep some of them, then I'm fine with that.
People complain if they don't get enough social services from their local government and then they complain when they have to pay the taxes for those social services. The parking problem wouldn't be so bad if so many people didn't live in Los Angeles. Free parking is not a God-given right. If you don't like what it takes to live in LA, for Gods sakes move somewhwere else!! The parking situation (not to mention the traffic!) will improve for the rest of us.