Press Release
03/04/10 – Today, Mayor Newsom and the Department of Public Works (DPW) announced that street and sidewalk litter ratings improved between June and December 2009 according to the Controller’s Office’s Street and Sidewalk Maintenance Six-Month Report.
“The Controller’s new report shows that our streets and sidewalks are cleaner and we’re moving in the right direction, but we can still do better,” said Mayor Gavin Newsom. “If we are innovative with new strategies and initiatives, we can do more with less and keep our streets clean and litter-free and further reduce graffiti.”
The Department of Public Works (DPW) has focused cleaning and enforcement efforts on busy commercial corridors through its Community Corridor Partnership Program which began in 2008. The program provides additional services on busy merchant corridors by cleaning sidewalks, painting over graffiti, providing education and outreach; and repairing streets and sidewalks. DPW coordinates work between the city and merchants to provide increased and expedited maintenance. There are currently 200 blocks included in the program. As part of the Community Corridor Partnership Program, DPW recently expanded to the Van Ness Avenue Corridor, from Cesar Chavez to Lombard, using 15 JOBSNOW participants.
Since 2008, DPW has also conducted 209 Eco Blitzes, or targeted and increased cleaning services on busy streets and performed 29 Night Walks, which targets clean city education and enforcement on streets with a large number of businesses open at night.
Today’s news comes despite DPW’s reduction of mechanical sweeping in residential neighborhoods in 2008 in order to better target street cleaning resources and provide them in a more effective manner. The Controller’s Office Report confirmed that there was no adverse impact as a result of this reduction – cleanliness of residential streets is virtually unchanged.
The report also shows that graffiti on private property remains problematic. However, DPW has begun several graffiti prevention initiatives, including a program called StreetsmARTS which partners urban artists with private property owners to create vibrant art and make property less likely to be vandalized and the Where Art Lives Program, which educates students about the differences between community art and vandalism. DPW has signed up more than 1,300 San Franciscans who have made the Graffiti Pledge – a pledge drive begun last spring at the Zero Graffiti summit to encourage residents to prevent, remove and report graffiti.
DPW also announced a campaign today to eliminate blight from neighborhoods and business districts with a first of its kind “Clean and Green Trucks” pilot program that removes graffiti vandalism from commercial vehicles. Under the City’s plan, owners of graffiti covered trucks registered in San Francisco can apply to have their vehicle painted green by DPW, if they agree to keep graffiti off their vehicle in the future.