We have a street sweeper that comes by maybe once a year, I have never known why. It's a bit like the sidewalk snowplow that the town has. They usually give up on that before Christmas. Technically, homeowners are supposed to keep the sidewalks clear of snow in front of their property but I have nearly always had a vacant house on one side of me or the other so I think they don't see a point in ticketing me for not clearing my sidewalk when someone walking couldn't walk the whole block anyhow. When my snowblower is working, I don't mind doing the sidewalk, even in front of the vacant house, but I am not about to shovel in front of a house that isn't mine, particularly since most of the snow that is placed there is placed by the town plow.
In the north, I think the sweepers are removing the gravel and such put there by the government during the winter.
Where the road meets the Kerb, where all the dirt and litter mud gets blown onto has to be cleared out
The Elgin machine goes down our street at least once a month but that in itself is a large source of agitation. I just goes down our street as a way to get to a main highway and nothing more. The guy doesn’t drop a brush but just goes by la-de-da as though he can’t see all the rubbish that people throw around. I wrote in a small neighborhood watch kind of a forum(?) and I guess our councilman and the mayor was asked why we can’t get the streets cleaned and they said that it wasn’t in the budget. I wrote back and said that the street cleaning machine was already going up and down our street anyway so why can’t the guy simply push the button and clean it as it goes? Nope. Not in the budget. Stupidity? Lack of logic? Lack of the need for excellence? Dunno. Probably a part of all three but there definitely aren’t any brain cells being overworked as well as the guy driving the Elgin machine.
We live in the city but on an side street off of the main street and the streets are rarely cleaned. I have seen one of those trucks a few times before in the 19 years that we have lived here. As I think about it those times that I have seen/heard the street cleaner were after a windstorm has passed through the city otherwise there is the sewer system that swishes away most of the light debris set against the curb/verge. It used to be done on a regular basis but as @Bobby Cole noted 'not in the budget.' Also I believe the city sites homeowners for too much trash in front/back of there homes.
Soon after I met the young woman who would become my wife, she having been born in Germany after WW-II, she remarked to me how much dirtier the streets and sidewalks here were. She recalled spending several summers with a church group of youngsters in Netherlands: there, each property owner, residential as well as business, sweeps the sidewalk in front every morning! Frank
Sorry @Von Jones , can you explain that last sentence to me, I'm not really sure what you mean... (I'm a bit dim tonight obviously )
@Holly Saunders Over hear, we often find differing spellings of common words: technical words about cars, "breaks", the aiming thingies on firearms, "sites", the cop writing a "sitation",..... Site, Cite, and Sight seem to be particularly complicated! Frank
Thanks Frank I understand that... but I don't understand the sentence , is Von saying that householders get fined for leaving too much household waste left out in the street ?...or what , help me understand, before I get embarrassed for looking daft..lol
In the US a lot cities have codes that are required to be adhered to or you may be warned, fined or arrested. What I am referring to would be housing inspection codes. Example, if the homeowners discards furniture they no longer want for whatever the reason is and it sits outside at a curb/verge for a long period of time then the homeowner could be served a warning to have it removed because it is a violation of said code #. In this example what should have been done was to call the proper department of the city to have it removed or have it removed personally. This could also have been reported to the city by a concerned neighbor. I have personally called the city to report 'dumping' behind a garage of a vacant house where we live. The city came by cleared away every thing, and boarded up the garage and said the homeowner will be charged.
Ah ! I've got you now Von.... Here where I live it's illegal to dump trash outside.. anything that doesn't fit in the regular wheelie bin.. can't get put outside.. we either have to take it to the recycling centre ourselves or pay someone from the council to come and take it away.. Occasionally out here in the country we get 'fly-tippers'' , rather than pay to take stuff to the rcycling centre, .. will tip into a field or in the woods.. there's a huge fine for flytipping offenders...
@Holly Saunders Flytipping! Totally new to me, it's usually known here as "Dumping", that term being almost universally-used, Frank