Koch to illegally parked cars: 'Get it outta here!' By BARBARA GOLDBERG NEW YORK (UPI) -- Mayor Edward Koch's trademark whine boomed from a speaker atop a mechanized street sweeper Friday, advising drivers their illegally parked cars were hampering cleaning efforts and warning them to 'Get it outta here!'
A fleet of 95 sweepers armed with the mayoral tape recording will be dispatched by the Sanitation Department as part of a new citywide anti-litter campaign kicked off at City Hall Friday.
On the 10th anniversary of New York's pooper scooper law, the new 'Looking Great in '88' program will send troops of volunteers out to pick up litter and reward tidy dog owners with animal snacks.
'We'll try just about anything to help New Yorkers clean up their act,' Koch told a crowd after clean-up volunteers finished a rap song and dance act in which they imitated hungry garbage cans growling over sidewalk garbage.
Reminding the audience that city cleaners have 6,000 miles of street to cover, Koch strolled over to a sweeper parked nearby for the debut of the 'talking broom.'
'This is Ed Koch, your mayor,' boomed a speaker atop the white sweeper. 'The Sanitation Department has to clean this street. We can't because of your illegally parked car. Please -- Get it outta here!'
Koch told reporters he hoped to convince motorists, 'I'm on their tail, that I'm in the car immediately behind them. They'll expect me to get out of the truck and give them a summons.'
Drivers who don't move their vehicles will get a summons from a Sanitation Department foreman working near the sweepers, department spokesman Vito Turso said.
The anti-litter campaign is organized by We Care About New York Inc., a volunteer group started in 1982.
Assisting in the cleaning campaign will be the Council on the Environment, the Army Reserve, a troop of disabled Boy Scouts, the Cy Block cleanup contest and other groups.
