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Councilor Linehan proposes "No Tow" street-cleaning ordinance for South Boston
By JohnAKeith on Thu, 06/03/2010 - 12:15am
District 2 Boston City Councilor Bill Linehan is proposing a "No Tow" street-cleaning program for South Boston, according to a press release issued by his office quoted on the Fort Point Blog.
City Councilor Bill Linehan and the Boston Transportation Department will hold three community meetings in South Boston to discuss the Councilor’s proposed ‘No Tow’ Street Cleaning Program. Under the program, towing will be suspended and violators will receive a $100 ticket in the South Boston neighborhood.
The program would be instituted solely in South Boston, at least at first.
In a separate press release, the councilor recommends the program saying it will increase compliance while offering a more "green" alternative to towing.
Under the program, all revenue would be returned to the city versus the way it is now, with some (much?) of the revenue being shared with the private towing companies.
Times and dates of the three public meetings can be found on the Fort Point Blog.
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Comments
The whole POINT of towing is
The whole POINT of towing is to move the cars so the street cleaners can get to the street. Look, I agree that more of the money should go to the city, but you know how to change that? Add a $25 city processing fee.
I wish we had anti-elections, so I could submit an anti-vote against this joker.
Or how about the $100 city fine and the tow?
Make money for everyone?
The city is making money off each tow no matter how you look at it anyway. You can have a company give you money for the whole contract, you can have them pay you per each car towed, you can have the city have its own tow department etc, etc.
A compromise could have a tow company just tow the cars to south boston and charge less than they do in other parts of the city. That might not be too fair to the guy in Allston who gets his car towed for the same thing though.
This seems like a good
This seems like a good idea--though cars are usually my enemy and I am most of the time trying to avoid them killing me. A hundred bucks is still going to remind you to move your car. Is it really necessary to add the grief of hunting for that goddamed tow lot somewhere 'near' Broadway Station? I hate that the tow companies benefit from street cleaning.
Whit
Or...
How about a city towing division so that the city can recover the costs of running a city towing division AND employ more people...plus a little something extra in a fee. And if they want it "green" then they can run the tow trucks on bio-diesel.
Mayor's Money
I would love to know the names of the owners and their families of D.+ D. Towing to see how much they are kicking in to the Mayor's War Chest!
Tow this Billy!
Hey J: Just to show you how out-of-touch Bill Linehan is...He doesn't know that the Towing of Cars is actually causing a loss in revenue. That's correct...The City generated more money when it was just a Ticket because they didn't "fear" losing a few bucks. However, now that they get towed, most people make certain that their Vehicle isn't parked on the wrong side of the Street on Sweep Day. This is something that was explained to me from a long time Traffic Enforcer.
Where do we find these idiots
As said above, every other Monday tow say is the whole point, so that Southie streets will get cleaned. You can;t clean to the curb when some Masshole decides that the rules don't apply to him. It's not about revenue, but a badly needed public service.
What this joker should be doing is having a meeting to set up even odd snow plowing removal and towing for next winter. Not finding a way so pretentious assholes can leave their cars where they want without fear of towing.
If it's about a buck, there's other ways the city can change the current practice to get a few more.
And as it is now, paying the
And as it is now, paying the fine, towing charge and impound fee is much more then a $100 ticket. Hows reducing the cost of retrieving your car going to be a bigger deterrent?
I heard that most of the
I heard that most of the private tow companies in the city are owned by Menino cousins and relatives...
This is stupid and defeats
This is stupid and defeats the entire purpose of street cleaning. The $100 fine is less than the cost of recovering a car after a tow and considering how many assholes never pay their tickets, even more spaces are going to be taken up for days when the boots come out en masse.
How to be green
Have more ISD people out giving large tickets to people whose trash isn't properly caged.
Actually fine people for recyclables in the trash.
Require trash collectors to pick up and sweep entire mess when they throw a bag and it breaks.
Huge fine for littering, and enforce it. Penalty can include sweeping streets by hand.
Tow the vehicles to the nearest legal space, then boot.
Gradually move toward a system of deposits on all containers and encouraging people to bring their own for all takeout etc. instead of just coffee cups and grocery bags.
Too Much!
Hey Councilor Linehan, you make $100 sound like nothing. Not everybody makes over $70 grand like you. Most people have to work for a living!
if you can't afford the fine, obey the law
or ditch the car!
Ever been towed...it's a $150 +
and then you have to go get your car and deal with the thugs at the tow lot, who only take cash! Great way to represent the City. Do any of you live in South Boston? without a driveway?
If you don't have a driveway
You agree to certain restrictions when you use the public space on the street for your private vehicle. With all the costs of driving in the area, it always amuses me when people whine about paying for their sloppy driving and parking habits, too, as if they earned some special rights by owning a vehicle. You have a car in the city and do not have a driveway for it, and yet you think you get special privileges and everyone should make extra sure that your life is simple because you are special or something? Why should the public pay for your private convenience? Why should there be any incentives at all to have a vehicle in the city, let alone special allowances for people who can't follow simple rules that go along with their use of public space?
Some cities make you prove that you have a parking space before you can register a vehicle - is that what it will have to come down to?
special privileges?
Huh? Parking space to register your vehicle? So then every commuter will have free reign (although they pretty much already do) to park in southie and take the T into work. You also must be pretty naive to think everyone registers their car in the place they live. The City needs to limit the number resident parking stickers so it's in line with the number of spaces available. The towing in Southie during street cleaning is nothing like any other neighborhood. Just vultures who will tow you even if you're there before your car is hooked up. They don't care if the street gets cleaned or not!
How to limit parking stickers?
How would you propose that the city limit the number of resident parking stickers? My neighborhood has about 1200 on-street spaces and about 6,000 stickers issued. Let's say you cut it back to 2,000 stickers and held a once-per-year lottery. 2,000 lucky people would have basically a guaranteed space, while the remaining 4,000 would be paying $350 per month in a pay lot. That's an awfully steep inequity to be setting up. On the other hand, it would be great to be one of the lucky few.
You know what WOULD be nice though?
If the areas that are resident parking for several blocks around but not particularly congested/premium parking areas (I'm looking at you, streets off of Crescent St. in Dorchester) had spaces that were signed as being ONLY for visitors. Either that replacing all of the resident-only signs with "two hour limit without resident sticker" signs.
The "resident only all the time" or "resident only between 10 and 4" signs are particularly ridiculous since the city won't issue permits to providers of in-home evaluations or other types of healthcare/social services/education like every other surrounding locale does. More than once I've had to cancel an appointment because the visitor spots were all full of cars with Dorchester stickers while there were dozens of resident spots left.
A nice little boy in Dorchester didn't get his therapy last week because the only nonresident spot I could find was a half a mile away and it would have taken up his whole session for me to drag my armloads of therapy equipment to his house. It makes NO FUCKING SENSE that this occurs in a residential neighborhood where the parking isn't at premium, yet I've never had to cancel appointments downtown since I can park in a garage and have work reimburse me. They don't reimburse tickets or tows though, because their lawyers won't let them condone illegal activity. I'm all about encouraging people to use public transportation in a city, but it's ridiculous that downtown is set up better than Dorchester for people who really need to use a car because of tons of work equipment and back-to-back appointments (I'd imagine plumbers etc. are in the same boat too).
no one is perfect
I think it's great that you are able to get by in the city by only riding a bike and/or taking public transportation. However, for those who are elderly, have health issues, or parents with young children, it might be more practical for them to have a car. Acting as if they're spoiled special snowflake brats just because they perhaps once a year fail to move their car on the designated street cleaning day is a wee bit overly judgmental... just my opinion.
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but what about all these
but what about all these towing companies that are making "donations" to the Menino machine? Isn't anyone worried about them?
Who wins, who loses?
The objective is to get the street clean. Towing cars removes them so that the street sweeper can get through. Ticketing cars does not accomplish the objective.
So, if the Sweeper misses one
So, if the Sweeper misses one Cigarette Butt I have to pay $100.00? Draconian if you ask me!
hey smart guy
Why is it draconian? You're getting FREE parking. If you're not responsible enough to read the parking restriction signs, you pay the price...
Jack Hart doesn't care...
Maybe we can illegally use an Alley between two Houses like Jack Hart does? Last time I checked it was illegal to do that (fire code). Unless,of course, if your name is Jack Hart.