Sweep streets only where necessary

It was 2:20 p.m. when I realized that it was Friday, the day it is illegal to park in front of my house between 2 and 4 p.m. because of street cleaning.

I raced to my car and saw the parking enforcement officer down the street, so I breathed a sigh of relief that I had missed out on a ticket for a change. Parking the car around the corner, I skipped lightly back into the house, only to come out later to see a ticket on my windshield. The officer had followed me to where I was legally parked to give me the citation.

Obviously, the officer had a vivid sense of humor, and could not pass up on the opportunity to reward a 70-year-old man for his mad dash across the sidewalk, but this ticket brings up a larger question. Why does Burbank have, and we the citizens pay for, street cleaning on streets that are kept clean anyway by the householders, either directly or through their gardeners?

I live on a corner. One street has street cleaning every week; the other has none. On any given day it is impossible to determine any difference in cleanliness between the two streets. Certainly there are some parts of the city where this is not true, but why doesn’t the city save money by not providing street cleaning where it is not required?

If that isn’t possible for some arcane reason, then allow cars to be parked in front of the houses during street cleaning hours. Having the cleaning trucks dodge around them will not change the street cleanliness and will give the drivers something to do to relieve the boredom of driving in straight lines.

Laurie Pane

Burbank