Street sweeping begins next week: new signage, and change of schedule

With the temps rising, it also means that DC's street sweepers will soon be back in action.



DC has been busy replacing street sweeping signs throughout the neighborhood with ones that not only indicate the day and the week that parking restrictions will be enforced, but also the months during the year. This is a huge improvement as far as we're concerned, because the previous signs were misleading by not indicating that for 4-5 months out of the year, street sweeping restrictions will not be enforced.

However, one thing we noted is that the days that street sweeping will occur on particular blocks seem to have changed. Make certain you take a quick look outside to see if your days have changed. The city typically provides a one week amnesty of parking tickets for street sweeping parking violations, after which time the $25 ticket for violators will be enforced.

More information about DC's street sweeping program can be found on DPW's website.

Street Sweeping Ends October 29

Car owners and clogged gutter fiends, rejoice: street sweeping, and its attendant alternate-side parking restrictions, will cease on Friday, October 29.

This means that, according to DPW's website, "“No parking/street cleaning” restrictions will be lifted and motorists may park along posted, alternate-side, daytime street sweeping routes without being required to move their cars on street-cleaning days."

Street sweeping is ending nearly a month earlier this year than it did last year, and some astute observants may point out that the cessation comes during a year when the District is facing a significant budget shortfall and may be looking for ways to reduce costs. Not so, says DPW.

By suspending the street sweeping program, DPW personnel can focus on leaf collection, which will begin November 8, as well as the upcoming snow removal season. The 2010-2011 leaf season will run November 8, 2010, through January 15, 2011. During this time, leaves will be vacuumed from each street at least twice.

So there you go. DPW will send an announcement around when street sweeping resumes next spring. Until then, enjoy a a season replete with unfettered parking restrictions.

Parking Enforcement, DPW Apparently Not Talking

So, after putting up my post last night about DPW's suspension of street sweeping due to the Nuclear Summit, I decided not to move my car this morning. Because, you know, street sweeping had been suspended.

Only it seems someone forget to notify Officer Williams of Parking Enforcement.


Note how Officer Williams was so on top of his/her game, that he/she indicates that the signs said parking enforcement was in effect on Thursday, even though the ticket is for Tuesday. Forget being on top of DPW announcements, he/she can't even get the day correct.

I know that the language at the bottom of the ticket includes a warning about assaulting parking enforcement personnel,so I will in no way imply that Officer Williams deserves a nice one of these.

So now I get to experience the joy that is the immense waste of time known as protesting a DC parking ticket. Thank you, Officer Williams.

Street Sweeping Suspended in Logan/Shaw/U Street Areas

As somewhat of an addendum to my previous post, DPW issued a release indicating that residential street sweeping would be suspended on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for neighborhoods affected by the upcoming Nuclear Summit, including Shaw, Logan Circle and the U Street corridor. According to DPW's release, the official boundaries are:

-Florida Avenue, NW (northern boundary)
-H Street, NW (southern boundary)
-5th Street, NW (eastern boundary)
-15th Street, NW (western boundary)

You can view DPW's full release here.

Spring must be around the corner - street sweeping to resume on March 22

My, but wasn't this just a lovely weekend. It's hard to imagine that it was only a month ago that we were in the midst of the snowiest week in DC's history. This weekend's sunny skies and near-60 degree temps seem to bring the entire city out of hibernation. Mr. and Mrs. 14thandyou took advantage of the nice weather by embarking on a casual stroll into Georgetown on Saturday, plans which seemingly were shared by half the people in the metro area. Normally, we might be a bit more averse to sharing the sidewalk with so many Virginians and Marylanders, but considering that it was the nicest weekend we've had since at least November, we didn't mind so much. Drinks and munchies at the Brickskeller (and a Caps win) capped off an enjoyable day.

Nice weather doesn't just mean more people out in the dog park and dining al fresco, it means something else to DC's residents: the start of another year of street sweeping. As in years past, residents and others will be granted a one week grace period from receiving fines for street sweeping parking violations, after which time--beginning the week of March 29--tickets will be issued. Considering the mountains of trash and other detritus left over by this season's storms, I'm actually quite excited at the prospects of the city's street sweeping vehicles coming by and sucking it all up. But street sweeping also means alternate-side parking and, most likely, a parking ticket or two for those among us who forget to move their cars.

Such is life in DC, I'm afraid. Those looking for more information about the city's street sweeping program--including the enormous amounts of gunk that gets picked up by the sweepers every year, head on over to DPW's website.

Graffiti Monster Attacking Logan

So, I don't know whether or not you've noticed, but Logan--in particular 14th Street--has been hit with a scourge of graffiti recently. Anyone who has spent time in the neighborhood knows that we get some tagging here and there--at the Zipcar lot, along some alleyways, etc. But recently, it's getting much more severe. Just strolling down 14th Street recently, I snapped the following:









Many people may not know this, but DPW can actually cite property owners for failing to remove graffiti, once the owner has been notified of it. Practically speaking however, this is one of those laws that is just hardly ever enforced. So, what can be done:

DPW maintains a website--somewhat humorously titled "Not In Our DC!"--devoted explicitly to the issues of litter and graffiti removal. DPW will send a team to a property to remove graffiti, provided the property owner requests it. Citizens can also contact DPW directly through their website to submit a request that graffiti be removed from a property. In addition, DPW offers free "graffiti removal kit" vouchers that property owners can request.

I haven't received any word on what may be responsible for the recent uptick in graffiti in the neighborhood, but whatever the source it's something those of us in the neighborhood can address.

Reminder: Street Sweeping Begins Anew March 23

Ahhh, springtime. The flowers begin to blossom, the temperatures begin to rise, and DC parking enforcement begins ticketing cars who dare fail to respect the street sweeping regulations.

Beginning this Monday, street sweeping regulations will once again be enforced, which means alternate-side parking will be in effect until the fall. And if you think you might get lucky as you have in years past when you avoided that $30 ticket when DC Parking Enforcement somehow missed the car you forgot to move the night before, those days are probably numbered. According to DPW's website:

Recently, DPW introduced “Sweepercam,” the newest application of license plate recognition technology to improve street sweeping effectiveness. The technology consists of cameras mounted on street sweepers to photograph vehicles illegally parked in the curb lane of residential and commercial streets during day and night sweeping hours. The sweeper operator switches on the camera, which photographs the vehicle’s license tag, the vehicle and the vehicle’s position on the street. The registered owner will receive a ticket in the mail that will include these photographs.

Wow, that's a move totally out of the Catbert, Evil Human Resources Director playbook. In fact, we put that up there with the chump move DC is known for in this regard, which is sending the street sweeper along a street ten minutes before street sweeping regulations begin, and then two hours later a parking enforcement vehicle comes through and tickets cars that are parked there.

DPW swears that the program effectively removes significant amounts of trash, debris and pollutants from our city's streets, and they may very well be right. But it doesn't make the parking regulations any less of a pain in the a$$.