Richmond street cleaning: necessity or nuisance?

It is 8:30 a.m.-time for Ken Lawshe to leave for work. When he walks out to the street, his car isn’t there. The good news is it wasn’t stolen. The bad news is it was towed for street cleaning.

In order to go to work, VCU alumnus Lawshe has to locate his car and retrieve by paying a hefty sum.

Street cleaning is more necessary in the fall when leaves gather on the streets. The Department of Public Works removes both natural debris and trash from the avenues of traffic.

For students and Richmond residents who rely on street parking, street cleaning often poses a problem.

“I recognize the need to keep the streets clean of litter and leaves, especially in the fall, but weekly cleaning is overkill, wasteful and inconvenient for people who can’t park anywhere but the streets,” Lawshe said. “There should be more information on how residents can retrieve their cars if and when they are towed.”

When cars are towed by Seibert’s Towing and taken to the Richmond Police Impound, citizens must pay $65 to retrieve their car from impound on the first day. Each additional day the car is held in impound costs the owner another $25. A representative from Seibert’s Towing said he could not give information as to how many cars are towed per month.

Streets with permanent signs are cleaned weekly, while streets with temporary signs are cleaned three to five times a year and two extra times during the fall, said Lewis Yancey, street cleaning facilities manager for the Richmond Department of Public Works. Alleys are cleaned upon request by a separate division of the public works.

Temporary signs are placed 48 hours before the street will be cleaned.

“The police will not ticket or tow unless the signs are posted correctly,” Yancey said.

Street-cleaning trucks carry “about 2,200 gallons of water per truck. We clean about 30 miles of streets with about three truck loads,” Yancey said. “The water comes from certain fire hydrants.”

The water used to clean the streets comes from the city water main, which is the same water used by residents to drink, clean and water their property. Street cleaning does not cease during droughts, Yancey said.

“We try to conserve water as much as possible,” Yancey said.

All debris is removed from one street before the trucks move on.

“We are very effective in keeping the streets clean with the resources we have,” Yancey said. “Trash cans and recycling would not help much.”

Some Richmond residents hold a different opinion of street cleaning than public-works employees. Aaron Weiner, a criminal justice major, thinks street cleaning is wasteful.

“I think that street cleaning is undoubtedly a necessity, but I believe that if it was done half as much as is now, it would save water and be less of an inconvenience,” Weiner said.