Clout St: Some wards could get less street sweeping

Could this proposal affect the south side more?

Some Chicago wards would get more frequent street cleaning while others would go longer between sweeps under a proposal by Mayor Richard Daley’s administration to cut the number of sweepers, aldermen said today.

Instead of one sweeper in each ward, the city would have 33, with each one assigned to an equally sized chunk of the city under a “grid system,” aldermen said today after being briefed Monday by Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Thomas Byrne.

“I want to keep Chicago cleaner,” said Ald. Willie Cochran, who opposes the measure because it would give him less control over how streets are cleaned in his 20th Ward on the South Side. “I want more efficient delivery of services. Some wards need more work. Mine is one of them. . . . I want to keep control of that sweeper.”

Ald. Richard Mell, 33rd, also expressed reservations, saying he often assigns a street sweeper where it’s needed, giving the example of cleanup after a block party.
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Under the current system, geographically smaller wards get swept more often than the bigger wards. If the grid system were implemented, each grid would be of equal size, so each street in smaller-sized wards would get swept less often, aldermen said.