Chicago Journal
May 31, 2007
By Timothy Inklebarger

Bucktown and Wicker Park residents burned by parking tickets on street sweeping day say hello to the future.

A new pilot program starting in the 1st Ward literally gives the green light to residents and commuters to park after the street has been cleaned.

Matt Smith, a spokesman for the Department of Streets and Sanitation, said several hundred flashing lights are being installed on permanent street sweeping signs in the ward that blink red until the street is cleaned. The sweeping truck transmits a signal to the solar-powered light as it passes, turning it from red to green. The lights will turn off completely after 3 p.m.

First Ward Alderman Manny Flores said the Clean Street Indicator Pilot Program would prevent tickets issued to those who park on streets that already have been cleaned. Those who park during the designated street sweeping time often find their car ticketed by the Department of Revenue, even though the work is done.

"We've found people getting ticketed even after the street has been swept," Flores said. "Once the streets are swept there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to park there."

He said the program will make street sweeping more efficient by better alerting drivers when not to park. Some neighbors, shoppers and workers who commute to the 1st Ward and park near the six-corner intersection of Milwaukee, Damen and North, regularly ignore the permanent sweeping schedules Flores posted last year.

But the blinking lights will be hard to miss. Flores said this new strategy will remove more cars from the street and allow workers to better clean it.

Smith said the area of the ward around Milwaukee, Ashland, Hoyne and the Kennedy Expressway, will get the new lights over the next few weeks. The program will begin in June, according to Flores. Smith said the pilot program is only running in this small area of the First Ward, at a cost of roughly $150,000.

"It will improve the quality of life in the ward," he said.

Flores said his ward was chosen to test the pilot program because it is the only one that has permanent sweeping schedule signs posted throughout. The permanent signs first went up last year, replacing the orange signs that city workers connect to trees and light posts a day before the scheduled cleaning. Many have complained that one day's notice is not enough time to prepare neighbors who travel often and unexpectedly.

Flores said the ward also is the perfect place to test the program because of the increasing number of park-and-ride commuters who take the Blue Line downtown.

He said a new email notification service on his Web site also aims to inform residents about street sweeping by alerting them a few days in advance.

On a related issue, Flores said starting July 1, the ward's 62 residential permit parking zones will be consolidated to six. He said earlier this year that the growing number of parking permits has become too time consuming and costly for his office to handle. Consolidating to six zones would help decrease wait times for temporary stickers, he said.

Flores said permanent stickers for the new parking zones will be available at the 1st Ward office, 2058 N. Western, on June 8 and July 9 from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

For more information about residential parking and the new street sweeping program, visit Flores' Web site at: www.flores1stward.com.