Autumn and Winter Leaf Drop

Autumn's "leaf-drop" is a beautiful time of the year but also a busy one for city street sweepers. From October to January the Streets Division dedicates extra efforts to picking-up fallen leaves. City workers in tractors, dump trucks and the vacuum truck target the heavy leaf areas first as identified by our street sweeper operators. We do not send crews out to areas by request unless a flooding problem is occurring.

Since our street-sweeping machines are not equipped to pickup leaves which are piled, our operators are directed to go around large piles of leaves.   We ask all homeowners NOT TO rake their leaves into the street or NOT TO pile them up in the street. Residents are asked to rake their leaves and place them into the green recycling containers. 

Most of the year, Union City's two full-time street sweeping operators are busy enough making sure all public streets get swept once every two weeks. The Streets Division of the Public Works Department maintains 243 curb miles of city roadways. But as the community's urban forest matures, the fall season leaf drop expands sweeping demands requiring overtime sweeping schedule.

How you can help

• Move vehicles off the street on street sweeping day.
• Place leaves in large green recycling cart for collection
• Do not place trash or recycling containers in the gutter.
• Do not pile leaves or debris in the gutter. Sweepers will go around them.
• A clean sweep means your street looks good and there's less dirt and debris going down the storm drain and polluting the Bay.
• Call (510) 675-5337 to request a sweeping schedule.