Street Sheen

Something as simple as a clean street can make a big difference in how a neighborhood looks--and how, in turn, residents feel about the neighborhood. That’s the idea behind a program to add more than 900 miles of roads across Los Angeles to a regular weekly sweeping schedule. About 750 of those miles are in the San Fernando Valley, with new service to be phased in over the next year in neighborhoods mainly on the Valley rim.

Fewer than half of the city’s streets are swept regularly. The rest are swept every month or so, allowing trash and leaves and other debris to pile up in gutters. And service is uneven. Just 7% of the streets in City Councilman Richard Alarcon’s northeast Valley district are swept every week, but all of the streets in Nate Holden’s Central Los Angeles district get regular service.

Ironing out those kinds of inequities would go a long way toward reducing the perception that Valley residents don’t get a fair return on their tax dollars from City Hall. Plus, keeping streets clean is just the kind of “quality of life” service residents ought to expect from their local government--the sort of thing that goes unnoticed until it goes undone. After initial start-up costs that include equipment purchases and the erection of restricted parking signs, the expanded sweeping schedule is expected to cost $500,000 per year--or about a dime per foot.

It’s money well spent.