Menino turns attention to street grime
Mayor hires 55 for broom crews
Mayor Thomas M. Menino, saying he is tired of city streets choked with trash, is deploying a new full-time force of cleaners, sweepers, and inspectors to fan out across Boston.
Under the program, which begins today, some 55 people armed with brooms and barrels will travel routes through downtown, while an additional 25 street-sweeping vehicles work the streets of the city's neighborhoods.
To make sure the crews are doing their job, inspectors will rate streets each day, and the results will be fed into a computer that will generate a daily map of the city's tidiness. Dirty streets will be revisited. If workers can't clean because cars are illegally parked, city enforcers will ticket or tow violators.
''It's frustrating," Menino said. ''It's my responsibility to have clean streets, and I haven't been happy with the condition of the streets. We've planned an assault on the streets of the city."
Conditions have been ''horrendous," he said, primarily because public works crews laid down unprecedented quantities of sand during the harsh winter. The sand is not easily sucked up by street-sweeping vehicles, forcing them to make several trips on the same streets.
''I'm not making excuses," said Menino," but it's the most sand I've ever seen."
He said he personally tracks dirty streets and reports them to his public works staff.
But Councilor Maura A. Hennigan, who is running against Menino, charged that the mayor is sprucing up the city only to help his reelection chances.
''The streets are filthy all over the city," she said. ''It's embarrassing. You can't just have a campaign-driven clean-up policy. People deserve clean streets and quality basic city services every single day, whether it's an election year or not. During the Democratic National Convention you could have eaten off the streets. And in the months before an election you will see unparalleled cleanliness. But people don't just want this in an election year. They want an ongoing plan that will function each and every day."
City officials said the 55 street custodians, called hokey people, will work through the spring and summer to pick up litter and hand sweep areas that the giant trucks can't reach. Forty were recently hired on a seasonal basis and will work for the Department of Public Works. The new employees together will cost the city about $75,000, officials said.
''They work the old fashioned way," said DPW Commissioner Joseph Casazza. ''A person with a push broom, a shovel, and a barrel will work, mostly in business districts, to assist the sweeper."
The city is also augmenting its force of street-sweeping machines, most of which are operated by private contractors. Six or seven sweepers will be added to the city's existing force of 27, said Michael Galvin, the city's chief of basic services. The sweepers, which have customarily focused on busy commercial streets, will now be sent into residential neighborhoods. The city is also adding night shifts; 10 street sweepers will cruise the city, clearing away debris after dark.
Officials could not say how much the added sweepers will cost.
Menino, who has been criticized in recent weeks for dirty streets, said the program would hold city workers and city residents more accountable for the condition of the city.
Supervisors will review the street sweepers' performance, indicating in a daily report card which streets were spotless and which were not. City officials will also perform spot checks ''to make sure we don't have any slip-up" and to make sure that the inspectors are reporting accurately.
Each day the data from the report cards -- which streets are clean, which are somewhat clean and which are dirty -- will be entered into a computer. The computer will generate a map, with streets color-coded according to degree of cleanliness: Green for clean, red for dirty, and yellow for in-between.
Officials will use the maps to direct resources and hold workers accountable, Menino said.
Dirty streets will be targeted and recleaned. In addition, where street sweepers are forced to zigzag around illegally parked cars, the city Transportation Department will dispatch tow trucks to do ''targeted towing," Menino said.
Last week, the city announced plans to increase the fine for motorists who violate street-sweeping restrictions. In addition to a $25 parking ticket, violators will pay a $90 towing fee, instead of $75.
Though the street-sweeping rules have been around for years, they had seldom been enforced. Last year, the city's Transportation Department towed 17,718 cars, but only 199 of them were for street-sweeping violations.
Officials said they would replace missing street signs and post a complete street-sweeping schedule on the Internet. They are also urging residents to call City Hall to report streets that need cleaning.
''This will go a long way toward making the city what we want it to be," Menino said. The city will also begin planting flowers soon and launch its Boston Shines clean-up program in May.
Menino denied the push to clean is politically driven.
''This is a basic service I've performed for 11½ years as mayor," he said. ''When snow removal was great this year, it wasn't because it is an election year. It was because it's our job. That's what we do." 