Letters to the Editor: Street sweeping problems

Dear Editor:

In today’s Downey Patriot I read a letter regarding someone receiving a street sweeping ticket. While I won’t comment on the merits of the reader’s ire, I do have comments on street sweeping in general, and signs regarding no-parking on street sweeping days that are indeed a problem.

Years ago, near the end of Covid, my wife went to a dentist appointment. The dentist’s office is on 2nd street and has near zero parking at the building, so my wife parked on New Street, near the office. Upon returning she had a ticket for parking on a street sweeping day, but guess what? From a re-visit to the location where she parked on that day, as well as a drive around the area today via Google Earth Pro, I found only one street sweeping sign, at the corner of La Reina and 3rd. The Google Earth image was dated 8/22, long after she got the ticket.

Back then we appealed the ticket, and I even supplied a photo of where she parked, with nothing more than 2-hour parking signs anywhere in the vicinity. We were summarily denied the appeal so I paid the ticket per the instructions. I did note that the city had oddly contracted with an outside vendor for this process. So, this does support the idea that street sweeping tickets are a “cash cow” for the city.

The other issue is the sweeping itself. On our street, once a week may not be enough because of a city tree that sheds huge amounts of leaves, all year long. The sweeper goes by on a Tuesday, getting most of the leaves and other small trash left behind by the trash trucks (a complaint for another day) but a day or two later the leaves return, as if the sweeper hadn’t even gone by. Sometimes I see the “ticket truck” right behind the sweeper, and other days not at all.

So, there’s two issues to be addressed, not enough no-parking signs, especially in the downtown area, and the sometimes ineffective sweeping itself.

If any of our City Council staff even read the Patriot I’d like to see their response.

John Powell
Downey

Dear Editor:

I had the same exact experience with my sister getting a parking ticket; I went to city hall to pay and they responded, “look in the back and follow instructions.”

I was shocked! City hall has cashiers so why not have them collect the money? Why pay a company in Newport Beach to collect funds for Downey? Why wouldn’t the city hire more cashiers and generate jobs?

Margie McCashland
Downey