Why are the streets always wet in movies and TV shows?

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The answer is for contrast. A black asphalt street at night will not provide an image that a camera can capture. The camera would only capture a dark image, since only your eyes are adjusted enough to tell the difference between the street and the dark surroundings. The water is used with ambient lighting to help the camera capture an image that can be used for post-production touch up. I'm not an expert with this at all, but I've done enough photography and video editing to know this much.

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A quick google search is a thing of beauty

You should have started a movie cliche thread. I'll throw out another one:

There is always an eagle screeching on the first shot of the desert.

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What effect is it supposed to create?

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It looks better and cleaner.

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There is always an eagle screeching on the first shot of the desert.

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Or a snake slithering away

You don't see it as much as you used to with the advent of digital cameras. Film simply can't see in the dark like today's digital cinema cameras can. The wet streets reflects, contrasts ,and of course makes any kind of sliding car stunt much easier.