The Chainlink

Daley Proposes Street Sweeping Reductions

Good news I guess for the inner tube and patch manufacturers, but bad news for everyone else.

Here is a brief story and some audio from WBEZ:
http://www.wbez.org/Content.aspx?audioID=4102

I guess this is week old news, but I somehow missed it until today. Here is a piece in the Trib from a week ago:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-03-23/news/ct-met-chicago-s...

Clearly there is nothing good about this for those of us who ride. The main problem with crap in the streets is glass, so if this goes through perhaps we can resurrect a push for a bottle deposit bill?

I am saddened that one of the supporters of Daley's plan is my alderman James Balcer. I'll be giving him a call for sure.

Personally I'm all for reducing the power of the aldermen. The current system gives them far too much power in terms of bike lanes, zoning "exceptions" and the like. But in this case, I think 50 street sweepers is better than 33 even if it maintains one aspect of a bad status quo.

This list, already posted here in other threads, contains links to contact information for your alderman (if you live in the city) and a way to find out which ward you are in:
http://egov.cityofchicago.org/city/webportal/portalProgramAction.do...

Please consider contacting your alderman about this. Few things discourage a person from biking as much as a flat tire.

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Permalink Reply by Moc Artsy on March 31, 2010 at 9:00am
Balcer is my alderman, too. It is because he is my alderman that I do not have blue bins and have to drive my recycling to a collection site that is generally overflowing. He is the only alderman to oppose the DREAM act, a city council resolution supporting a pathway to citizenship for undocumented youth through education or the military. He is the only alderman who voted against the city council resolution opposing the Iraq War in 2003. He also painted over a commissioned Bridgeport mural by Gabriel Villa because he felt it criticized the Chicago Police. He also prevented efforts by locals to create a farmer's market in McKinley Park. So it shouldn't be all that surprising that he supported a plan to reduce street sweeping.
Permalink Reply by Chris B on March 31, 2010 at 9:09am
As soon as he said "sweep equal portions" I knew this decision was made without any Local Knowledge. Maybe a better plan than the current one could be drawn up that ignores wards, but one blanket "every sweeper does an equal area" surely isn't it. As they said, some areas are worse than others. I live a mile from Wrigely, and even this area is awful compared to one more mile away from Wrigley.

The other problem: it removes one more connection between the people and the government. As one alderman said, people call and complain about an area and he assigns extra duty to a sweeper there. Maybe he is more responsive than others, but he is only responsive since the people have power over him trough their votes and calls to the media to complain about him, etc. Now, the decision making will be in the hands of a bureaucrat who doesn't have to care about what the people think. Will that person be as responsive? Of course not. Sometimes he might, but he has no incentive to be.
Permalink Reply by Duppie on March 31, 2010 at 9:58am
Moc Artsy said:
He also prevented efforts by locals to create a farmer's market in McKinley Park.

He didn't get get the memo that states that a farmers market has replaced Starbucks in determining whether your neighborhood has 'arrived'?

On the other hand, this city is in a budget crisis. We have to cut costs, and almost everyone agrees with that statement as long as it doesn't impact them. When it impacts them all of a sudden a laundry list of reasons is made up as to why this particular service cannot possibly be cut....
Permalink Reply by igz on March 31, 2010 at 2:45pm
give me the fuckin keys, ill drive the sweeper for free
Permalink Reply by igz on March 31, 2010 at 2:50pm
that being said...is a volunteer corp for something like this possible?

iggi said:
give me the fuckin keys, ill drive the sweeper for free
Permalink Reply by Josh Catrambone on April 1, 2010 at 1:21pm
I've been thinking about building a small bike powered street sweeper. It might take two riders and be an ordeal to build but, could be totally worth it.
Permalink Reply by Tony Adams on April 1, 2010 at 1:30pm
Josh Catrambone said:
I've been thinking about building a small bike powered street sweeper. It might take two riders and be an ordeal to build but, could be totally worth it.

That would be pretty awesome. It would be great if it was narrow enough to do some occasional sidewalk service. There are some pretty brutal sections of road on the south side with sidewalks that are usually devoid of pedestrians, but the sidewalks are often _very_ littered with glass. I'm thinking of like, the Damen and Western bridges in particular.

I'll try to remember to bring this up at the Working Bikes monthly meeting tonight.
Permalink Reply by Josh Catrambone on April 1, 2010 at 1:38pm
The thought behind it was to have it be just wide enough to clean the bike lane around 52"-56" wide, which would work fine for most sidewalks. tot sure about bridge path widths. I know the narrow north bridge path is at least 52" wide. anywho, It would be awesome to start a bike sweeper project. I'm sure we could get avid commuters to help fund it. Especially if they can sponsor specific routes.

Tony Adams said:
Josh Catrambone said:
I've been thinking about building a small bike powered street sweeper. It might take two riders and be an ordeal to build but, could be totally worth it.

That would be pretty awesome. It would be great if it was narrow enough to do some occasional sidewalk service. There are some pretty brutal sections of road on the south side with sidewalks that are usually devoid of pedestrians, but the sidewalks are often _very_ littered with glass. I'm thinking of like, the Damen and Western bridges in particular.

I'll try to remember to bring this up at the Working Bikes monthly meeting tonight.
Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on April 1, 2010 at 5:03pm
Bike sweeper - cool idea.

All areas of the city certainly are NOT equal in terms of sweeping needs. Anyone who has ridden in Rogers Park, Austin, much of the south side, or other neighborhoods with more than their fair share of broken glass and debris could attest to that.

Josh Catrambone said:
The thought behind it was to have it be just wide enough to clean the bike lane around 52"-56" wide, which would work fine for most sidewalks. tot sure about bridge path widths. I know the narrow north bridge path is at least 52" wide. anywho, It would be awesome to start a bike sweeper project. I'm sure we could get avid commuters to help fund it. Especially if they can sponsor specific routes.

Tony Adams said:
Josh Catrambone said:
I've been thinking about building a small bike powered street sweeper. It might take two riders and be an ordeal to build but, could be totally worth it.

That would be pretty awesome. It would be great if it was narrow enough to do some occasional sidewalk service. There are some pretty brutal sections of road on the south side with sidewalks that are usually devoid of pedestrians, but the sidewalks are often _very_ littered with glass. I'm thinking of like, the Damen and Western bridges in particular.

I'll try to remember to bring this up at the Working Bikes monthly meeting tonight.
Permalink Reply by Chuck a Muck on April 1, 2010 at 7:02pm
Balsucker is my Aldercrook too! I live in the poorer section of his ward, do ya wanna know how many times my street gets swept? TWO, once in the spring then once again at the end of the season... We call, we complain, we don't get shit, but lots of broken bottles from the shithead gangbangers...
Permalink Reply by Michael Perz on April 1, 2010 at 8:02pm
You should engineer a level of flexible modularity into it so it could be re-purposed as an ice surfacer for city park skating rinks in Winter. You could call it the.....uhh...whatever word rhymes with Zamboni.



Josh Catrambone said:
I've been thinking about building a small bike powered street sweeper. It might take two riders and be an ordeal to build but, could be totally worth it.
Permalink Reply by Tank-Ridin' Ryan on April 1, 2010 at 11:54pm
Spumoni!

Michael Perz said:
You should engineer a level of flexible modularity into it so it could be re-purposed as an ice surfacer for city park skating rinks in Winter. You could call it the.....uhh...whatever word rhymes with Zamboni.



Josh Catrambone said:
I've been thinking about building a small bike powered street sweeper. It might take two riders and be an ordeal to build but, could be totally worth it.

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