Chicagoist: Street Sweeping's Super Surveillance

remindingu

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 17:55:35 -0600

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E

Sat, 20 Oct 2007 11:18:52 -0600

This is crazy. Have you ever forgotten to move your car and NOT gotten a ticket? It seems like we've got the system down pretty well already. A few months back I noticed the Dept. of Revenue cans with a giant camera mounted on each side rolling down the street. I always wondered what they do with that video and how long they keep it. The past week I noticed one of the vans and instead of two giant camera horns sticking out, it had discreet little dome cameras on each side. I wonder if too many people were asking questions?

mss2400

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 14:26:17 -0600

I agree that this is just another way for the city to raise revenue. That being said, I think the easy solution is to make sure you remember to move your car on street cleaning day!

Navin

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 13:30:37 -0600

Exactly Shannon, Why would anyone want a $50 ticket and not move their car if they saw the signs properly posted. Ole TonyB's got a personal grudge that's clouding his already murky mind.

Shannon

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 13:18:13 -0600

if the city put up signs with enough warning and visibility, there wouldn't be half as many tickets. it's gotta work both ways. but it won't, since street sweeping's just another revenue generator.

TonyB

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 13:06:54 -0600

People are complaining about their own laziness and refusal to move their cars - even when directed to by posted signs? The blameless society continues. Put 20 cameras on every street sweeper - if you aren't breaking the law, you'll never get a ticket. Dopes.

Navin

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 12:36:22 -0600

I've gotten tickets twice when the lazy (or deliberate) people putting up the signs only placed them at the far opposite end of my block. According to the judge it's my fault for not walking or circling the block every evening to make sure there aren't a couple signs 30 buildings south of me.

whymustiregister

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 12:30:25 -0600

At least this way there wouldn't be tickets unless the sweeper actually showed up.

starcrunch

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 12:23:36 -0600

If this system replaces the cops issuing tickets, it could be a good thing. I've been walking to the train in the morning at 8:30a or even 8:15a and seen the cops issuing tickets when the signs clearly say 9am-3pm. But then, I don't own a car, so my concern is only minimal on the whole subject.

Dan Boland

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 12:21:44 -0600

If the goal was to actually clean the street, then just ticketing cars that are blocking the cleaning would clearly be unacceptable. You need to tow them out of the way. I think the problem there is that it's even less feasible to tow all of the offending cars out of the way than it is to reliably clean the entire street every time out.

TomDArch

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 12:14:06 -0600

I'm a fan of a reasonably clean city, but it seems to me that street cleaning happens a bit more frequently than needed. I guess so-and-so's nephew needs a job, though. But this 'take a photo, send a ticket' is total crap. If the goal was to actually clean the street, then just ticketing cars that are blocking the cleaning would clearly be unacceptable. You need to tow them out of the way. While I'm ranting - the same thing goes for the rush hour parking bans on certain streets. There's always at least one parked car on every block, so you never really get a two lane flow of traffic, which is theoretically the whole point. At least that weasel, Ed Burke was stupid enough to be honest about the red light cameras - they aren't for saving lives (any more than the rush hour parking restrictions are for traffic flow), they're for generating revenue. Bah!

huckeyes

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 12:06:17 -0600

Can't they just look at the pictures to see if the signs were in fact up and visible around the cars that didn't move? Is that too simple of a solution for these folks? Or, just hire google to do your street cleaning with a streetview camera.

Dan Boland

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 12:05:21 -0600

How is street sweeping a scam? The main purpose of street sweeping is to prevent debris from blocking storm drains. That said, the red/green light looks like an effective idea. I wonder how much manpower is used strapping those paper signs to trees.

been hecht

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 11:55:23 -0600

so does this mean the cops that troll the streets ticketing 'street cleaning' parkers will have more time to look for actual criminals? man, i'm starting to sound like tom tunney, here. jaysus, daley loves anything to generate the revenue, doesn't he? did he come up with this idea while bicycling through paris?

annieF

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 11:49:54 -0600

this is simply another scam by the city. they're not concerned with keeping the streets clean. this is more like entrapment! the city depends on the revenue generated by the tickets so the more restrictions & means to catch 'illegal' parkers the better for their income stream. too bad there aren't enough parking spaces in a lot of neighborhoods to sustain the amount needed.