Latest Post | Last 10 Posts | Archives
Previous Post: Get in the game
Next Post: Vote for your favorite
Posted in:
* First, they came for red light violators, then they came for gangbangers, then they came for speeders in construction zones, now it’s parkers…
Drivers who park in the path of Chicago’s 118 street sweepers may soon find themselves in the same boat as those who run red lights: caught in the act by surveillance cameras.
Three years after Mayor Daley first raised the idea, City Hall has issued a “request for qualifications” from companies interested in providing “high-resolution digital cameras” for street sweepers.
Aldermen reacted coolly to the city’s latest plunge into the brave new world of surveillance cameras. They argued that it’s unfair to hammer motorists for street-sweeping violations when the signs that warn them are predominantly made of paper. […]
“The signs just disappear, and motorists don’t see them,” said Ald. Ricardo Munoz (22nd).
“The sign hanger goes out, and kids take ‘em all down. Then the guy who parks gets a ticket the next day. It’s not fair,” said Ald. Ed Smith (28th).
Question: Is this reasonable? Explain.
posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Oct 19, 07 @ 9:37 am
Sorry, comments are closed at this time.
Previous Post: Get in the game
Next Post: Vote for your favorite
WordPress Mobile Edition available at alexking.org.
powered by WordPress.
Yes, but maybe they should post schedules and do more to identify streets being cleaned then just hanging the paper signs. Chicago is pretty dirty. The Street debris needs to be cleaned up and tends to gather in curb areas. If cars are parked in the way, then the curbs do not get cleaned. I would wager that many folks just ignore the signs and cleaning areas out of a need for cheaper street parking then innocence. Everyone who opposes better enforcement of the usually is really seeking to allow the activity that is already prohibited.
Comment by Ghost Friday, Oct 19, 07 @ 9:44 am
Revenue source.
Comment by Pot calling kettle Friday, Oct 19, 07 @ 9:46 am
Yes. Drivers need to get over their sense of entitlement to our streets and learn to follow the rules of the road, including getting out of the way for the street sweepers.
In response to the paper signs, the city is working on that one:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20070611/ai_n19288765
Comment by Carfree Chicago Friday, Oct 19, 07 @ 9:48 am
No, this is not reasonable. It’s complete B.S. and is only about Big Brother Daley looking to produce another continuous source of revenue for the city.
Munoz and Smith are dead on. Until Daley institutes an efficient way to handle closing parking on Streets and San days, he can eat it. I just love Daley’s logic here. Nevermind our effed up ways, it’s all on you, Chicago!
Comment by Undercover Friday, Oct 19, 07 @ 9:51 am
Yeah… this is all about another revenue resource for Daley.
Chicago is no dirtier than any other big city, in fact, its probably cleaner than most large cities.
From bottled water taxes to now street sweeper fines…
… this is getting a bit out of hand.
Comment by HelpMeUnderstand Friday, Oct 19, 07 @ 9:59 am
Is it reasonable?
No.
But since when is living in a city the size of Chicago reasonable? Living in huge cities has challenges. This is one of many. The idea that someone somewhere can work with every resident with a car parked in the streets and give them able notice to move it is naive and unrealistic. This is Chicago, not Burger King. Folks complaining about these kind of issues should move to an itty bitty city where they can pretend to be the only folks in town.
Comment by VanillaMan Friday, Oct 19, 07 @ 10:01 am
Society is getting way to camera crazy. I don’t live in the city, but is blocking the path of street sweepers that big of an issue? Maybe, in a time of cutbacks, we should focus elsewhere, like public transportation, instead of paying for cameras.
Comment by pickles!! Friday, Oct 19, 07 @ 10:14 am
If you pay me, I will not only hang the signs, I will make sure to put them back up again when a sweeper truck comes. And I will work your precinct on city time, too.
– Hiram Degnan Oliver
Comment by P-hanger Friday, Oct 19, 07 @ 10:19 am
Berwyn has street sweeping too. It is a problem if cars are parked because the garbage tends to accumulate along the curbs. Berwyn has solved this problem by decreeing that certain sides of the streets on certain days will be cleaned and cars will be ticketed. Because this is scheduled, the signs are permanent. So on my Ma’s street, one side is cleaned on Thur and the other on Fri. At the end of the block, on the side street, it is Mon and Tue. Because most people only park by their own house, they only need to know the schedule for their streets and maybe the nearest cross streets and that’s it. It works as a system and I believe other cities in the area have similar schemes. Oak Park simply disallows on street parking after midnight and arranges for the street cleaning then. That would be highly impractical in Chicago, but the Berwyn model might work.
Comment by cermak_rd Friday, Oct 19, 07 @ 10:35 am
Yes its reasonable. If the sweepers can’t do their jobs then people will complain about dirty streets. I was ticketed for this violation one time. Every other time that I saw those signs I moved my car the night before. The tickets help modify the behavior. If you want clean streets, you need to move your car. Do you want actual cops to follow the sweepers around for this low priority task? No, so the cameras are a good option.
Comment by Napoleon Has Left The Building Friday, Oct 19, 07 @ 10:39 am
I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect that people should have seen the signs that lets them know of street sweepers. You can’t always account for the idiots who want to rip these signs down anyway. Though perhaps with these cameras they should go after them faster than the go after those hapless motorists who park in the way of street sweepers.
Comment by Levois Friday, Oct 19, 07 @ 10:40 am
A few days ago, Sneed wrote that the Mayor is considering privatizing parking meters. My reaction was that the City already engages in overly-aggressive parking enforcement, and that a private firm would go even further than the city as a way of increasing revenue.
Well, it’s hard to imagine going further than this, but . . . If we can’t control our government from engaging in this, how will we be able to control a private company that already has a ten year contract with no worries about facing the electorate?
As for the comments about the necessity of street cleaning: ask anyone who has lived in the city just how often a street cleaner actually goes down the street marked on cleaning day. I’ll admit that my street gets cleaned more often than, say, 20 years ago. But it does not get cleaned every time they put up the no-parking signs. Nevertheless, there is a parking enforcement agent on the street on those days.
Comment by the Other Anonymous Friday, Oct 19, 07 @ 10:40 am
I think we should start requiring everyone to wear tags with an alpha-numeric code on the front and back of their bodies at all times. That way, we can have can have automated tickets for pedestrians violations like jaywalking, or smoking on North Ave beach.
Comment by grand old partisan Friday, Oct 19, 07 @ 10:53 am
Instead of installing camera’s, put up real signs with a real schedule and a note that anyone parking on the street the night it is scheduled for sweeping may experience damage to their vehicle.
Then give the guy(gal) running the street sweeper a baseball bat. They’ll figure it out sooner or later.
Comment by Jaded Friday, Oct 19, 07 @ 11:08 am
“Get your hand out my POCKET!”
Sometimes that’s what I want to say when you hear about all these things in our General Assembly and local governments.
Comment by Elder W. Diggs Friday, Oct 19, 07 @ 11:15 am
Cameras will infringe upon the everyday citizens rights eventually.
Comment by HelpMeUnderstand Friday, Oct 19, 07 @ 11:17 am
Here’s another idea: trim residential street sweeping out of the City budget, saving us about $5 million a year in taxes and $5 million a year in fines.
Honestly, as tightly as cars are parked on the streets, what is there to sweep? It’s like moving your refrigerator and stove every week to sweep and mop under them.
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Friday, Oct 19, 07 @ 11:30 am
There are only 50 street sweepers, one per ward, so if one breaks down the ward doesn’t get cleaned. Many wards don’t have a sign hanger, that falls to the S&S ward boss, if he’s busy (say somebody decides to remodel their home and dump the dry wall and concrete in the alley) he doesn’t have time to hang the signs. By rule, he only has to hang two signs on the block and he doesn’t have to post them 24 hours before sweeping. The result is that streets won’t be any cleaner but there will be more tickets.
The solution: Buy more sweepers, at least 5 per ward, which means hiring more drivers and sign hangers. Install permanent signs indicating which half of the day of the week streets will be cleaned. The result will be even more revenue for the city, enough to offset the personnel costs, plus cleaner streets. And, because the frequency is regular, the average citizen/constituent/sucker will know when not to park on that side of the street.
Comment by If it wasn't just another attempt to dole out tickets. . . Friday, Oct 19, 07 @ 11:31 am
Distractions, distractions, distractions
It’s the money.
Perhaps they will institute a fat tax so that when you go to the doctor, you can be weighed and taxed on the excess poundage. After all, being overweight is bad for you and it costs society money to treat all of us who are not marathoners. All they want to do is to wrap up a need, in this case cleaner streets, and the supportive morons start with their justifications.
Streets in Chicago have been swept for decades by issuing parking tickets to offenders. Now they want to maximize the number of tickets and to do it without people. Does this mean that we will reduce out ticket writing forces when this system goes in to effect?
The confluence of city,county, and state taxes being increased begs the question of why does any business want to be in Chicago. Any type of business can be done in the collar counties without the local nonsense.
Personally I have been going into the city less and less over time. What is going on will not increase my desire to visit.
Comment by plutocrat03 Friday, Oct 19, 07 @ 12:18 pm
Right on plutocrat03! It’s all about the money and a new revenue source for them. I’m not crazy about all the cameras on the streets I believe like HelpMeUnderstand that one day cameras will infringe upon our rights as those few who support all these crazy ideas push for more and more control of everything everyone does everywhere. Remember back in the day when they first made it illegal to drive w/o a seat belt? At that time they swore up and down that you’d never be pulled over JUST for not wearing a seat belt - now they put up roadblocks and annoy the daylights out of me when they stop to see if everyone is wearing a seatbelt. Do I think seatbelts are the right thing to do? YES Am I hurting someone besides myself if I choose not to wear one? NO Do our police officers have better things to do? YES So don’t let the idea of these cameras for street sweeping seem so innocent - it’s just a way to get cameras on every street in Chicago, not just the few spots where they are wildly accepted to be now for violence and crime control. Big Brother watching you and you paying for it.
Comment by Judy, Judy, Judy Friday, Oct 19, 07 @ 12:58 pm
Considering the point to which technology has evolved, and with the recent blatantly unwarranted illegal wiretapping and surveillance of United States citizens, one must reasonably assume that they are always being watched when in public, camera or not. Look at Google Maps if you don’t think so.
Comment by Squideshi Friday, Oct 19, 07 @ 1:22 pm
Parking surveillance cameras seem like overkill. to me. A parking violation is not the crime of the century, especially since legal parking is very scarce in some areas where zone parking predominates. If they want me to pay their extortionate parking fines they should at least be willing to pay someone to write out a ticket rhater than relying on surveillance cameras.
Comment by Captain America Friday, Oct 19, 07 @ 1:37 pm
As I said distractions…. Security related wiretaps have nothing to do with this issue which is turning local enforcement issues into revenue.
Lets not get started about the bogus claims of illegal wiretaps. The issue is a red herring pushed by the far left leaning partisans and press. Frankly that issue is hogwash.
Let’s focus on the blatant theft of resources from the general public.
Comment by plutocrat03 Friday, Oct 19, 07 @ 2:18 pm
I saw a street sweeper on my way to work today on Van Buren. He must have been doing 40 m.p.h., weaving in and out of traffic, raising lots of dust, but actually accomplishing very little. I didn’t realize street sweepers could go that fast. He even ran a red light at Wells! I say if the city’s street sweepers can drive like that, they can certainly go around parked cars.
Comment by The Mad Hatter Friday, Oct 19, 07 @ 3:19 pm
plutocrat03 wrote, “Lets not get started about the bogus claims of illegal wiretaps. The issue is a red herring pushed by the far left leaning partisans and press. Frankly that issue is hogwash.”
We have already “gotten started” about illegal wiretaps. I don’t believe it’s a bogus issue; and apparently, neither do most US citizens.
Comment by Squideshi Sunday, Oct 21, 07 @ 12:34 pm
Here goes Pac Man Daley again in his insatiable thirst for our hard earned dollars. Put up permanent metal signs that tell what day of the week, month that the street will be swept. Forget the cameras Putin–at 9:05 on sweep day it would take a traffic aide (who is already on the payroll) a matter of minutes to walk the block and ticket unmoved cars. Why, when the street is swept in the early part of the day, does the street have to remain no parking until 4:00pm. Maybe Daley has to take another trip to Paris to find out how they do it.
Comment by wallace Sunday, Oct 21, 07 @ 1:11 pm