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June 16, 2006

Seattle replies: Street Sweep

In a previous entry I complained about my taxes being wasted. I politely asked what was up with this and got response from the Street Sweep Team. See the extended entry for the full emails (posted with permission).

At least they didn't put up the full heigt signs at all locations and stopped the roll out as soon as they found out. Interesting that the main reason for cutting down the signs was aesthetics. I'm not sure I'll ever consider any traffic sign a thing of art or beauty.

Hi,

while I recognize that the Street Sweep Project is a good thing, I'm
really unhappy about what you did with the signs.
Not only was one put up directly in front of our bedroom at 8am very
noisily, a few weeks later every one of them (I'm sure there is at
least 40 of them in our 5 block zone in West Seattle), was revistited
and cut down.

How much money did that cost to send a work crew to cut those signs
down to a lower height?

Was that really necessary?
Especially since you say no tickets will be handed out, which doesn't
really encourage people to move their cars at 8am anyway.

And then there was a third round of changes to the signs, putting the
stickers with the dates on.

How much taxpayer money would have been saved, if all of this had
happened in one go?
I'd really like to know the figure. Especially if tha same thing did
not only happen in West Seattle, but in the other two areas, too!

-- 
Thanks,
Marco


Date: Fri, 09 Jun 2006 11:24:36 -0700 From: "SPUStreetSweep SPUStreetSweep" To: Subject: Re: Sign height Dear Marco, Thank you for supporting the pilot project's mission of improving the health of Seattle's waterways. The project would not be successful without the support of you and your neighbors. The Street Sweep team understands your concern and we, too, were disappointed that installation of proper height signs with decals did not occur in one session. However, a miscommunication between the Street Sweep Team and the sign shop resulted in a multi-day job to correct the situation. When the original signs were installed, many of your neighbors agreed with the city's preference to install shorter, less intrusive signs with distances that fulfill both communication and aesthetic goals for the neighbors. When we realized that the 10 foot tall signs at double the capacity were installed, we asked that the quantities be decreased and the proper 4 foot sign poles replace the towering signs. Again, trying to remain sensitive to the neighborhood aesthetics. For your own peace of mind, you should know that as soon as we realized these mistakes, the crews were asked to halt installation until the proper sign height poles were available. There were only a few streets in Columbia City that were also effected, and the third neighborhood of Duwamish has not yet started. We hope that you understand that mistakes happen, and in this case, the resources were managed as well as they could be in the midst of trying to prepare for our first sweep on June 20 and keeping neighbors happy with signage requirements. Please let me know if you have additional concerns. Best Regards, Seattle Street Sweep Team

Posted by marco at June 16, 2006 11:25 AM in Category Life

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