🚀 go-pugleaf

January 24, 1997

TO:             Residents of the University District

FROM:           Steve Sterrett, community relations director of Campus Partners
                294-7300;  e-mail: Sterrett.1@osu.edu

RE:             Changes in street sweeping in the University District for 1997

In 1996 the city of Columbus, in cooperation with the university and the
neighborhoods, instituted a pilot street sweeping program for the
predominantly student neighborhood east of High Street and for the arterial
streets of the whole University District.  In a meeting Jan. 22 to consider
the street sweeping for this year, the city�s Public Service Department
proposed a major consolidation and upgrade to the sweeping program.  (Ben
Brace of Ohio State and the University Area Commission, Pasquale Grado of
the University Community Business Association, and Don McLellan of
Off-Campus Student Services were among those in attendance.)

Please review the proposal and issues raised in this memo and contact me
with your concerns and suggestions by Thursday, Jan. 30.

The street sweeping last year consisted of two programs:

� The predominantly student neighborhood bounded by East 11th, North Fourth,
East Norwich Avenue and High Street was swept in March during spring break,
early June after spring quarter, and early September after summer quarter.
All vehicles were removed from the streets for two days.  The dates were
chosen because the fewest students would be in the neighborhood.
 
� The arterial streets throughout the University District were swept monthly
April through October.  One side of each arterial street is swept on the
second Thursday of the month and the other side on the second Friday of the
month.  Summit, North Fourth, Hudson, King Avenue and Neil Avenue are
examples of arterial streets.

The city placed more than 700 permanent signs on the affected streets, and
we tried hard to communicate the need to move parked vehicles, including
Lantern ads, flyers on cars, letters to parking permit holders, etc.  There
were still many cars towed.  We found it difficult to communicate about two
sweeping programs in which the public was easily confused about which
streets were included in which program.

The Public Service Department proposed that for 1997 the street sweeping be
combined into one program in which all the streets in the predominantly
student neighborhood and all the arterial streets in the University District
be swept monthly from April through October.  One side of each street would
be swept on the second Thursday and the other side on the second Friday.
Parking would be prohibited from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the side of the street
to be swept that day. The permanent street signs in the predominantly
student neighborhood would be changed to reflect the monthly sweeping.

This proposal would permit us to concentrate all public communication about
street sweeping into one, consistent monthly message.  Streets with parking
on each side would have parking removed only on one side each day, rather
than trying to remove all vehicles from the neighborhood for two days.

Here are two other issues to consider about the street sweeping proposal:

� Indianola Avenue from Lane to Hudson carries a good deal of traffic and
has parking only on the east side.  Should this stretch of Indianola be
included in the monthly sweeping even though parking will be removed from
the east side of street from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on one day (and traffic flow
won�t permit parking on the west side that day)?  Perhaps the permit parking
enforcement on adjacent streets could be relaxed for that one day.
 
� Neil Avenue from Fifth Avenue to West 11th Avenue will be swept on the
schedule for Neil Avenue in Victorian Village (which schedules such sweeping
twice monthly).  The signs on Neil Avenue in the University District already
adhere to that schedule.

We are quite pleased that the Public Service Department is willing to
enhance its street sweeping in the University District.  I remain convinced
that regular street sweeping, as well as refuse collection, send a strong
message that people care about the appearance of our neighborhoods.  In
turn, a clean neighborhood becomes a safer neighborhood.

Your advice on this street sweeping proposal for 1997 is welcomed.