Hi all, This is a summary of a local issue in Cole Valley involving parking and street cleaning. Organizers in favor of more frequent cleaning would like the Green Party's support of this action. The opposition (as you can see from the summary below) is based on the loss of month long free parking in the neighborhood. In an odd twist, the opposition is claiming that more frequent street sweeping (making cleaning weekly, rather than the current once per month schedule) is BAD for the environment as it forces long term parkers to move their cars more frequently. As we know, abundance of parking (esp free parking) induces car ownership and driving. On a positive note in support of weekly cleaning, Cole Valley is a destination neighborhood and major transit corridor (N Judah, which carries over 120,000 people per day). The streets in the neighborhood are often filled with garbage constantly, as the streets are only cleaned once per month. Weekly cleaning will vastly improve the appearance of the neighborhood, and reduce the incidence of sewer back ups on rainy days (due to accumulated trash clogging the drains). Our support will help encourage DPW to clean this area weekly, as is done in almost every other neighborhood in the city. I am hoping that the Transportation WG can weigh in on this, but the hearing is next week, so I am also putting this out to the full active list: About 140 people on Carl Street, from Clayton to Arguello, signed a petition to request that DPW change the mechanical street cleaning from monthly to weekly. Weekly street cleaning will benefit us in many ways: ¨ Carl Street, which is a major transportation corridor, will be cleaner; ¨ A weekly street cleaning day is easier for most people to remember rather than "the first Thursday of the month"; ¨ When people don't remember to move their car, that section of the street is then not cleaned for two months; ¨ The will be less stockpiling of cars on the street since the cars need to move at least once a week; ¨ Less stockpiling means more parking spaces for people who need them. On Wednesday, November 8 hearing three neighbors on Carl Street were there in support of the change along with Regina Dick-Endrizzi, speaking for Supervisor Mirkirimi. Five spoke in opposition to the change - all gave as the reason that parking would be more difficult. Three of the five did not live on Carl Street but on nearby streets. In a bizarre twist, the hearing officer chose to ignore the petition of over 120 Carl Street residents and postponed the hearing for 30 days to give the opponents time to collect signatures against the street cleaning! The new hearing date is set for December 13 at 9am in room 400 of City Hall.