SNOW BAN LIFTED at 11:00 a.m.

[shu-al.livejournal.com]

The City of Somerville has lifted its snow emergency, as of 11:00 a.m.
Friday.  Residents parked in city lots during the snow emergency have a
two-hour window starting at that time in which to move their vehicles.
Cars still parked in municipal or school lots at 1:00 p.m. are subject to
ticketing and towing.  Residents, landlords and business owners are
required by city regulations to shovel their sidewalks but may not shovel
snow into the street. For more information please dial 311 (617-666-3311
outside Somerville), or visit Www.ci.somerville.ma.us.

Comments

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

two-hour window starting at that time in which to move their vehicles.

SO F-You if you have to, you know, work today or anything.

[shu-al.livejournal.com]

I didn't see this email until about 5 minutes before I posted. My phone logged the bot call at 11:27AM...hmm. I feel bad for those who are going to get screwed by this.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

It's not new, though.
They had this issue LAST year, with the emergency being declared when people were already at work, and they got ticketed .. and the ban being lifted when people were at work, and getting ticketed or towed.

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

Does it take a genius to realize the ban would be lifted today and that it might be smart to move your car before going to work?

[lizzielizzie.livejournal.com]

I think that the question then becomes - where to put your car in the interim, before the ban is lifted?

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Ok, genius: if there is a snow emergency, and you moved your car off of the streets it's not supposed to be on, and put it into a lot where it MAY be, where are you supposed to put it, before you go to work, and before the emergency has been lifted?

Answer that, genius: while the emergency is still in effect, you can't put it back to where you moved it FROM.

[derekp.livejournal.com]

+1.

I saw people getting towed this morning at 9:15. I felt bad for them, but it seems like they were screwed either way.

There's a pretty easy solution. Allow cars to remain in municipal lots until 7PM if the snow emergency is lifted after, say, 5AM? Is that not reasonable?

[closetalker11.livejournal.com]

It's very reasonable. As such, it won't happen.

[wallacestreet.livejournal.com]

I agree that it doesn't seem fair. Let's write our alderfolk instead of (or in addition to) whining about it here, and perhaps it will, or at least something will. I'll pen a missive to Rebekah, who's in?

[ron_newman]

No longer a car owner, but include me in anyway.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

I just wrote her an e-mail, even though I don't own a car.

[koloratur.livejournal.com]

Done.

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

OMG. The City of Somerville will never cease to disgust me. Announce the ban lift AFTER most people are already at work and then start ticketing/towing while they are at work, putting working residents between a rock and a hard place.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

Why should the city change?
This is exactly what they did last year.
The city didn't listen then, not enough people bitched at their alderperson, so why should the city do anything different this year?

[ceo]

They at least did the right thing in making the robocall announcing the snow emergency at 7AM, to notify people before they left for work. (At least I think it was the right thing, but I was already up).

Think Before You Flame

[tomchampion.livejournal.com]

This isn't ever going to be an official communications channel, but I wanted to let the LiveJournal community know that city officials are well aware of peoples' work situation. If we announce "hey, amnesty for all," how many people do you think are going to move their cars? And we do want folks to move their cars as soon as they can. On the other hand, we've held off on enforcement to give folks time to get home from work and shift their cars out of muni and school lots. (We could do this because schools are still closed.)

But please remember that we don't control when it's going to start or stop snowing. Please also remember that we have an absolute obligation to keep streets open and safe for emergency vehicles and essential traffic. In fact, thanks in part to the cooperation of thousands of our residents, Somerville's streets were in good shape far earlier in snow event than the roadways in most neighboring communities. (No brag, just fact. See other thread: http://community.livejournal.com/davis_square/1079347.html.)

If you live here and want to keep a car here, it's wise to remember that you live in the most densely populated city in New England and there's a lot of competition for the curb even when there isn't any snow. We have more ways to get the word out than most communities, but you need to be an active citizen and do your part.

One more thing: It's a well-established reality of web life that many people (especially when cloaked in anonymity) are far nastier in their email and blog comments than than they would ever be in actual face-to-face discussion. However, many of the folks working to cope with this snow emergency have been working nights and weekends to deal with the two major fires of the past 7 days. I guarantee we're more tired and cranky than you are, but we're definitely NOT setting revenue traps and we ARE trying to anticipate the needs of our constituents. Expressions of disgust and blanket assertions that we're trying to F with you are neither warranted nor appreciated.

I tell you what, though: if you, or anyone you know, gets a ticket for parking in a municipal or school lot before 7:30 p.m. tonight, please send a (gently-worded) email to 311updates@somervillema.gov. (I'm on that distrib list.) I can't fix tickets, but I'll take on your case with the hearing officer.

Re: Think Before You Flame

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

It's not like this wasn't known about before:
http://community.livejournal.com/davis_square/463514.html

Expressions of disgust and blanket assertions that we're trying to F with you are neither warranted nor appreciated.

That's nice.
But that doesn't mean you're going to necessarily stop getting them.

Re: Think Before You Flame

[ron_newman]

Tom, you could avoid this entire issue by changing the "end of snow emergency" announcements to say that people have until 8 pm to move their cars out of the parking lots. Why not do this, both now and for any future snow emergencies?

Re: Think Before You Flame

[tomchampion.livejournal.com]

Because as many people as possible SHOULD move their cars as early as possible -- and if we say 8 p.m., then everyone will wait until 8 p.m. That won't work either

The rules are there for a reason. I presume you want us to be flexible, but if you insist on having us spell everything out in advance and then sticking to it without variance, then we're right back to strict enforcement -- no mercy, no exceptions.

I'm sure that you, Ron, would be a good citizen and make a special effort to move your car as soon as you possibly could. But you don't own a car.

Re: Think Before You Flame

[ron_newman]

No, my preference would be "announce an 8 p.m. deadline, then strict enforcement immediately after 8 p.m." If the policy is more sensible to begin with, then you don't need as much flexibility in enforcing it.

Re: Think Before You Flame

[ron_newman]

(And by the way, now that I've got you on the line... please make sure that the blue blinking light in Davis Square actually works the next time there's a snow emergency. I did not see it lit any of the times I walked through the square during this one.)

Re: Think Before You Flame

[tomchampion.livejournal.com]

In a few locations, we've been slowed up by difficulty in getting a power feed from NSTAR -- but for a guy who spends so much time reading our website, you're pretty obsessed with the blue light notification option. 2007 is the first year ever that Somerville has had any blue lights at all. Just be a little patient.

Re: Think Before You Flame

[ron_newman]

I only care about it because the city publicly announced it on website, email, and robo-call, and then when I went to look at the nearest one, it didn't work. I wasn't sure the city was aware of that.

Re: Think Before You Flame

[derekp.livejournal.com]

I don't think enforcing the rule differently than you announce it is doing anyone much good. I had numerous co-workers who got on the T and went back home to move their cars so they didn't get ticketed or towed. It's not an issue for me, but why not just announce the rule as it is enforced? Otherwise you just cause people a lot of worry.

Re: Think Before You Flame

[tomchampion.livejournal.com]

Okay, derekp, you've convinced me of the error of our ways. I'll call T&P and ask them to start ticketing right away. And henceforth, when we say two hours, we'll pay no attention to the time of day. Consistency: that's the ticket.