San Bruno divided on street sweeping solutions

They debated what parts of the program the city should study, which could include enforcing citations in west side areas generating high levels of trash, examining efficiency to potentially reduce sweeping to once a month on certain streets or simply doing nothing at all. 

“I truly believe if we are compliant right and there's no compelling reason to upset the balance, why bother?” Councilmember Michael Salazar said. 

Staff say the program was originally enforced only via tickets on the east side because conditions like narrow streets, shedding trees and greater trash buildup made it necessary for cars to be moved for the sweeper to prevent flooding in the more low-lying area. Based on recent trash-generation maps that show a majority buildup in the east side area, Salazar maintained the program and its uneven enforcement is working as intended. 

“The neighborhoods that are most impacted by this are getting more attention because they need it. It’s not because they're being penalized,” he said. “This is not inequity. The east side is not being penalized by this. In fact, it’s a benefit to them.” 

Questions of inequity have, in fact, been raised around the program, which has generated $800,000 in citations for the city since 2023. Residents and councilmembers have shared concerns over the years that targeting only one side of the city, particularly the side that has been designated as a disadvantaged community, is unfair. 

“It’s affecting a community that doesn't have as much resources, and nobody is happy about it,” Councilmember Marty Medina, who represents much of the east side, said. “So it comes back to how can we make the sweeping program better?” 

Medina advocated for staff studying the efficiency issue, potentially looking at sweeping only once a month along certain streets that don’t require twice-a-month services in a cost-saving measure that would ultimately save the city money. 

Previously, he advocated for studying the effectiveness of street sweeping in west side areas where residents don’t have to move their cars and the sweeper is forced down the middle of the street. 

The city should be able to look into reducing street cleaning hours and times in areas where it may not be necessary without spending the $600,000 for a full-scope analysis, Vice Mayor Sandy Alvarez said.

“Maybe we can reduce the number of the scheduled [sweepings]. Maybe instead of a two-hour timeframe, we lessen it to one hour, and make the life of the residents a lot easier,” she said. 

For Councilmember Tom Hamilton, the solution to the equity issue would be considering enforcement of parking citations in west side areas that see a high volume of trash, which include Monte Verde Park, Buckeye Park and Pacific Heights Park. 

“We are treating the same problem differently on the east to the west,” he said. “I think we would go a long way to building trust and treating everybody more equitably if we focused on those areas for doing more effective sweeping.” 

Although Salazar pointed out that the high trash volume areas are largely parks, which cannot be swept, Hamilton countered that the streets around those parks could be. 

The city will bring the item back to council in a “limited scope,” City Manager Alex McIntyre said, given the lack of consensus from councilmembers on the issue.