Revenue enhancement, Boston street style

By adamg on Thu, 04/02/2009 - 2:44pm

Bobby Constantino is at Area D-4 on Harrison Avenue this morning helping out a kid he knows when a businessman comes in, tells the receptionist he stepped into mass at the cathedral and came out to find his van towed away by the street-sweeping brigades. Constantino goes out to photograph just how messy the streets are, finds they aren't at all messy:

... I began thinking about this waste of resources, and then realized that for the city this little scam is actually making money. These guys are getting paid to sweep whether the street is dirty or not, so all of the tickets and fees that they write for these cars are pure income.

It bothered me that they can so effectively pay workers to perform futile and highly offensive tasks such as towing cars to clean already immaculate streets in the South End, when all I have been hearing lately is how education and violence prevention programs are going to be seeing funding cuts.

If cleaning streets is such a high priority in Boston, why don't we stop sweeping already immaculate streets in the South End and bring these services to Dorchester, Mattapan and Roxbury, where the streets are filthy and littered with trash and debris. ...

Even if you don't care about street justice, read his account to find out just what effect a computer mistake can have on some kid's life.

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Comments

one and one

By gribley
Thu, 04/02/2009 - 3:22pm

One great and important story -- the poor guy who had to wait in jail all day because of a police error! -- and one ridiculous whine.

What, the streets in Boston are too clean? Are you nuts? Maybe that 15-foot segment of road was pretty clean, but in my hood the street cleaning can't keep up with the filth. And the reason they are in "great haste" is that they are on a schedule, and can't waste half their day waiting for the bozos who couldn't read the very clear TOW ZONE signs. sheeesh.

ok, yeah, I am sorry for the poor guy who wasted a day and hundreds of dollars on getting his vehicle back. (Not as sorry, though, as I am for the kid who was wrongly imprisoned.) But come on, it's a city, it's got all sorts of parking rules -- look where you park. It's not that hard.

In more positive news, as Chic Cyclist reminds us, April 1 is a banner day for cyclists in town, who have been riding in sand and salt and grit for months now. After a few storms' worth of heavy salting, Boston roads are even more treacherous (and rust-encouraging) than usual. Three cheers for resumption of street cleaning! (And Adam, that's a blog you might keep an eye on.)

DUMB

By anon
Thu, 04/02/2009 - 4:52pm

Who cares about signs. It's foolish to tow for street cleaning and most of the money goes to the tow company. Up the ticket and the city makes out. Not to give them any ideas but I'd rather pay a $200 ticket than a $40 one, plus the $100 to get it out of the lot, plus the aggravation of finding and getting to my car. It can screw up your entire day. The crime doesn't fit the punishment either. Hydrant, handicap ramp, double park are all tickets and these are safety hazards. So ten feet of gutter doesn't get cleaned? I'd say the $40 ticket alone should cover the cost of a low man DPW worker taking the 5 minutes it would take to sweep next to the car. This is by far the most absurd thing the city does.

Tow companies....

By Pete Nice
Thu, 04/02/2009 - 6:08pm

Its the Boston BTD that tows so 100% of the money goes to the city of Boston and not some private tow company.

You are 100% wrong. In

By DUMB
Fri, 04/03/2009 - 10:09am

You are 100% wrong. In south boston D&D Towing trucks will tow your car. They took heat when this idiotic policy first went into effect because they were towing cars well after the street was swept but still between the posted, no-parking hours.

Doesn't even matter who tows

By Kaz
Fri, 04/03/2009 - 11:15am

The city is getting paid some part of the tow fee. If it's BTD that tows you, they're getting whatever clears the overhead of running a towing division. If it's some other company doing it for the city, they're just getting some percentage off the top of the fee AND the city doesn't have to do any work at all to make that money. Either way, the tow gets the city money for minimal or no labor whatsoever. Free money is free money.

under authority of the BTD

By Pete Nice
Fri, 04/03/2009 - 2:19pm

and 100% of public tows are police recorded tows beacuse they have to be signed at the site of the tow.

go look up the records. Plus, the private companies that tow for towns only make whats in the contract and/or the storage fees. Cities save money by using private companies either way.,

I disagree.

By independentminded
Fri, 04/03/2009 - 11:41am

What else is the city supposed to do?

I may not like the towing companies either, but I learned my lesson one time...the hard way. I'd totally forgotten that it was street-cleaning day and parked my car in a street-cleaning zone. My car got towed. I had to go all the way to the police station to find out where my car was, and then trek out to the towing company, which was located out past Fresh Pond, to get my car. I had to pay the $95.00 for the towing, and the money for the ticket, in cash, to get my car out. Right then and there, I resolved never, ever to do what I did again, and to always watch the signs.

That being said, my take on this is that anyone who doesn't watch the signs and parks in a street-cleaning area anyway, ends up getting their car towed and paying a huge sum of cash to retrieve their car doesn't deserve a great bit of sympathy if they persist on doing it.

If there is a marked sign

By ShadyMilkMan
Thu, 04/02/2009 - 3:55pm

If there is a marked sign there is no problem... My theory when dealing with Boston is if I can find a spot I count my blessings then double check all the signs to make sure I am in a legal spot and its not street sweeping day. It can be rather confusing sometimes actually, but most of the time it is listed.

Your logic may seem to make sense at first, that they should only clean the dirty streets and never clean the clean streets, but it sets itself up for failure. Imagine if you will, someone who is in good shape and someone who is not in so good shape. Most doctors would tell both people to maintain a healthy diet and to get regular exercise. The person in not so good shape obviously needs to do more exercise to catch up, but should the person in good shape cut back on exercise and eat ding dongs? Of course not.

If they stopped sweeping the streets then the streets would get dirty.

wouldnt.....

By Pete Nice
Thu, 04/02/2009 - 4:21pm

clean streets be the ones that they clean all the time?

And most of the time cars aren't towed near churches when services are happening (sundays)

And yea, the city does make money off these tows, and that money goes into the general fund and the streets get cleaned in the meantime.....

Well...

By Spatch
Thu, 04/02/2009 - 4:28pm

And most of the time cars aren't towed near churches when services are happening (sundays)

Well, some Catholic churches hold weekday Mass in the afternoon and evening, so it's not unlikely that people would attend on street cleaning day when the sweepers are coming.

Im sorry, but an illegal

By ShadyMilkMan
Thu, 04/02/2009 - 4:46pm

Im sorry, but an illegal spot is an illegal spot. Its one thing when you have churchamodium on Sunday and theres a zillion people and no place to park, but for a weekday mass if you can not find a legal spot you should look into a church closer to home/business.

My town doesnt tow , it tickets, so I dont know the full pain but I have gotten many tickets while doing civicly ( I know its not a word) responsible things. If being in church is an excuse then everyone is going to use it.

Like they say

By Sock_Puppet
Thu, 04/02/2009 - 4:51pm

Cleanliness is next to Godliness.

THANKYOU!

By johnmcboston
Thu, 04/02/2009 - 5:58pm

If the sign says don't park, then don't park. Again, what happened to personal responsibility??

People think that their is a

By ShadyMilkMan
Thu, 04/02/2009 - 9:38pm

People think that their is a magic switch that city government just doesnt want to flick to pay all the bills, offer all the services, and figure out why people park where they do and make exceptions for certain things.

Way to go, ShadyMilkMan.

By independentminded
Fri, 04/03/2009 - 11:47am

Bravo.

First he complains that its

By J
Thu, 04/02/2009 - 8:32pm

First he complains that its a money making scheme.

Then he complains the city is cutting budgets?

Um....then the city should hire even more people to punish lawbreakers if it means the rest of us get better service.

A car is a convenience. You're not entitled to park wherever you like. Read the damn sign, or better yet, ditch the car.

Maybe God had it in for the guy

By fenwayguy
Thu, 04/02/2009 - 10:04pm

Maybe there wasn't even a Tow Zone sign there when he went into the cathedral, and God was just looking for a way to say "Sorry, pal, I told you before, the answer is No. Don't ask Me again, or next time I'll drop a meteorite through your roof."

Did you ever think of that? Well didja?

Sucks about the mistaken warrant, though. I feel bad for the kid, but at least the cops weren't assholes about it, which could have made it ten times worse.