Online: We The Sweeple #704

We The Sweeple is a web app that provides a free street sweeping alert system and searchable calendar for Chicagoans who want to avoid getting ticketed. Users enter an address to see when sweepers are due on their block, and then can either download a calendar file or sign up for email reminders. The site, which runs on data sourced from the Chicago Data Portal, was created in 2011 by Scott Robbin (as SweepAround.Us) and is now maintained by volunteers Carl Hauck and Kat Evans.

Keeping a small civic tool alive for fifteen years is a different job than launching one. The City’s sweep schedule and zone data usually arrives last-minute, often with errors. Schedules change mid-season. Subscriptions roll over each spring. Geocoding, mailing service, and hosting bills aren’t exactly cheap. Not to mention that people depend on We The Sweeple to avoid costly tickets, which makes trust a real obligation even for a volunteer side project.

Carl Hauck shares observations from maintaining and nurturing We The Sweeple for the last five years, and argues that the agentic revolution—despite its promise—can’t replace “product” stewardship. Is it a false promise? As we write and review less and less code, how do we ensure that our apps are reliable and trustworthy? How do we make our projects sustainable?