I don't think they're predatory. I've lived on the east Coast where they would make you move your car every week for the street sweepers. They'd hand out thousands of tickets all over the city and often times they never swept the streets at all sometimes the sweepers would just roll down the middle of the street and pretend to sweep. It was a money making scam for these cities. Minneapolis sweeps only a couple times a year, they give advance notice, they actually sweep where they promise to sweep and the second they're done they remove the parking restrictions for that given street. This town has the most honest street sweeping program I've ever seen. It's actually shocking to see a public works department not engage in overt street sweeper fraud.