Remember the sidewalk sweepers?

[bailey]

We're getting a light fluffy snow and it reminded me of the guys in the small jeeps with rotary brooms mounted to the front that drove along the sidewalks and swept the snow off. I don't know the whole story, but I remember they would skip certain houses so I guess they were contractors of sorts and might be skipping houses that didn't pay.

Was this just a westside thing?

They still do it in the GPs.. they're not jeeps with rotary brushes anymore though... they are little multipurpose utility vehicles with plows. no idea what they're called.

[Hermod]

I remember the sidewalk sweepers in downtown Detroit. They had a white-painted trash barrel on wheels, a push broom and a dust pan. They kept the sidewalks clean of paper, cigarette butts, and such in the downtown area. The barrels had a DPW stencil on them.

[EMG]

They still do it in the GPs.. they're not jeeps with rotary brushes anymore though... they are little multipurpose utility vehicles with plows. no idea what they're called.

Right, when I lived in Grosse Pointe Woods they came out regularly. And here in Scottsdale our streets are swept - yes, with rotary brushes - once a week.

Don't know about now, but back when I lived in Detroit in the 70s and 80s, I seem to remember it as a rare twice a year type thing, and in advance there would be a big production made of it, with signs being posted a day or two in advance saying "no parking, street to be machine cleaned." That was never an issue in Grosse Pointe Woods since most street parking was banned anyway, and ALL street parking was banned from 3 to 5 a.m. on all streets. And here in Scottsdale there are no changes to parking laws. The sweeps just go around parked cars if necessary.

As for "sidewalk sweeping" I don't ever remember that being done. I do remember that any sort of snow plowing on streets or sidewalks in Detroit was only done if enough people in the neighborhood association agreed to pay for it privately. Some years we had it, and other years we didn't. In Grosse Pointe Woods it was covered with taxes and consistently and promptly done immediately after any significant snowfall [[both streets and sidewalks). As for here in Scottsdale...heh, heh..."Snow? What's that?"