Watch where you park in St. Paul. The city on Monday began its annual fall street sweeping operations, and over the next few weeks its fleet of sweepers will be removing dirt, sand, gravel, leaves and debris from 127 miles of arterial streets, 744 miles of residential streets and 330 miles of alleys.
Temporary "No Parking" signs will be posted at least 24 hours in advance to warn residents as to when sweepers will be cleaning their streets. The cleanup will run through the week of Nov. 18, the Public Works department said.
An interactive map also show the streets and days on which they will be cleaned. The information also is available at 651-266-9700.
In Minneapolis, street sweeping of 1,100 miles of roads began last week and will continue through the week of Nov. 11. Like in St. Paul, crews will post "No Parking" signs 24 hours before a street is to be swept.
In addition, the city will make about 3,000 automated phone calls to affected residents the night before their street is to be swept. It also has an online street lookup map.
Minneapolis also has created short videos in English, Hmong, Somali and Spanish that explain the process. They are online at www.YouTube.com/cityofminneapolis and play on cable channels 14 and 79.
Officials in both cities remind residents that it is illegal to dump leaves and debris into the street.
