Second in a series
Re “Clarke, Weissman Find Faster Way to Sweep Streets”
[img]1792|right|Jim Clarke||no_popup[/img]“I’ll tell you what is annoying about street-sweeping,” said City Councilman Jim Clarke. “Someplace has an 8-to-noon schedule for street-sweeping. The street sweeper comes by every week at 11:30 on that street, and they are writing tickets at 8 in the morning. That is annoying.”
Such scenarios recently prompted Mr. Clarke and his colleague Andy Weissmam to finally bring relief to harried drivers. They have championed a pilot project that halves the weekly sweeping schedule – on some streets — from four hours to two. Gradually, the experiment is expected to fan out across all Culver City streets.
The change did not come about by fiat but through a legislative process.
[img]1305|right|Andy Weissman||no_popup[/img]Mr. Clarke and Mr. Weissman formed a Parking and Traffic subcommittee. The two senior Councilmen huddle with all appropriate city departments so that the crisscrossing wires can operate more efficiently – Public Works, Traffic, Transportation, Community Development, police and fire.
Streamlining street sweeping “was one issue at the top of our agenda,” Mr. Clarke said.
“There are three phases to this pilot project. The first was to focus on streets around all of our school sites because of the problems of parents dropping off and picking up their children, and having street-sweeping hours coinciding with those times. Street-sweeping also was a problem for parents who came onto campuses and stayed to do volunteer work.”
Mr. Clarke said the second phase, “which they are working on, concerns parking hot spots where there are problems and try to address them.”
The good news, said Mr. Clarke, is that street-sweeping times adjacent to schools have been compressed “without any cost to the city.”
The third phase, “if we ever get around to it, is the rest of the city.”
Covering all Culver City streets is no cinch, the Councilman implied.
“If we can address the first two phases,” he said, “that will solve 95 percent of our problems.”
