DENVER (KDVR) — Street sweepers are beginning to roll into neighborhoods around Denver, but some residents said they are dusting up issues.
Folks in south Denver said sweepers are making problems on their blocks, leaving streets dirty or not showing up at all.
“We have a little bit of an issue with the City and County of Denver just simply not showing up to sweep the streets,” Regan Benson said.
Benson said she’s lived on South Acoma Street for five years. When sweepers don’t show up on her block, she goes to the city to make sure they do.
“I do think that was in response to my activism,” Benson said.
That was last year. This year, Benson said, the sweepers haven’t been on her block.
“The pattern that the street sweeper leaves on the street is a very, very obvious pattern …You can tell if a street sweeper has been down your street that day,” Benson said.
Street sweeping has ‘gone downhill’ in another neighborhood
A little over a half-mile away, her neighbor Amy Beck has sweeper problems of her own.
“Since 1997, I moved in and I’ve been in this house. I love this neighborhood,” Beck said.
Beck lives on Emerson Street, near Harvard Gulch Park.
“It’s gone downhill, significantly, in the past few years,” Beck said.
Beck said street sweepers were not an issue in her neighborhood.
“They would go nice and slow,” Beck said, “up and down the street, and they cleaned the streets so well.”
Beck recorded a video showing what she said is the quality, or lack thereof, of the new sweepers.
“It’s not actually picking that up,” Beck said, “so it’s loosening it and then it’s just leaving it on the street.”
The Problem Solvers reached out to Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure. In part, DOTI said that “this particular sweeper unit certainly was not meeting our standard for cleanliness … We’re going to talk to the team to identify the sweeper and get it into the shop.”
For Benson’s issue, DOTI said sweepers “may take an additional pass or two to get more of that settled debris in the curb line.” DOTI also has tips for the public to help them offer better sweeping services on your block.
DOTI asks residents to “be patient” as they’ll be working on streets over the next eight months.