City looks to more than double fines for parking in the way of street sweepers - but would also stop towing cars that block them

And they really get a read on whether people in move their cars.
In Beacon Hill I think there are a lot of car owners who are oblivious to tickets. To get 24 hour off street parking in the area is generally over $350 so twice a month x $90 is still a bit cheaper and you don't need to get on a waiting list.

Some claim that street cleaning is a scam, but it is pretty awful the amount of trash that accumulates under cars that never move on the North Slope of Beacon Hill.

This is a dumb idea. Any sane person would rather pay $90 and not have to go retrieve their car than pay $160(120+40) and have to go to the tow lot. How does leaving the cars in the way of the street sweepers create cleaner streets? That makes no sense. Either Marty is an idiot or he thinks we are.

I'm guessing what this is really about is the city getting more money and having to do less work. Of course if drivers are held less accountable for their actions then Marty "I'm a car guy" Walsh is a fan of it.

Tow the cars so you can clean the goddamned streets, Marty.

Yes, let's make it less expensive and more convenient for people to not move their cars. That'll teach them.

Or maybe, and I know i'm talking crazy talk now, you could make the street sweeping restrictions apply year round. That way when it snows, you can use the time in which the streets will be clear of cars to do a proper plow of them to the curb. But hey, I suppose that's just too logical now.

Park them outside and walk/take public transit in. There are far too many cars in Boston. Doing this would make plenty of room for street cleaners...and pedestrian walkways, bicycle lanes and lots of fresh air.

Wasn't the plan that all the money goes to the city and not the tow companies and that the extra money would pay for workers to sweep around the parked cars?

What about a system where each violation costs more?

$90 is nothing to someone with a high paying job.

But if second fine is $150, 3rd fine is $300, 4th fine is $1000 etc well, even the rich start to pay attention.

Either idea is stupid, because the "street sweepers" don't actually clean anything. They simply don't. A "street sweeper" goes down a street with trash, cigarette butts, etc. in the street, and the street behind it is unchanged. Given that the "street cleaning" doesn't get the streets cleaned whether there are cars present or not, maybe the whole program needs a drastic rethink, rather than fiddling with details that are irrelevant if you're not actually going to clean the streets anyway.

"When he first introduced the idea, Walsh said..."

The idea for a $100 ticket was first introduced in 2010 by Linehan, not Walsh. Linehan wanted it because there's more towing in South Boston than other areas. The council and Menino rejected it.

The point of towing is not to punish people who forgot to move their cars. Nor is it to act as a deterrent. It's to physically move the cars out of the way so the street sweeper can get through.

Is this really that hard to grasp?

The downtown neighborhoods worked long and hard to get the city to start towing for street sweeping, with an immediate improvement: cleaner streets, fewer rats, less dust and crap blowing around.

Of what benefit is it to anyone to eliminate towing?