Copying Somerville sweeping policies to Cambridge?

[fappyheet.livejournal.com]

I live just outside Davis on the Cambridge side of the line and have a lesser of two evils question. Somerville apparently adopted a policy to give $50 sweeping tickets, but not tow violating cars. How would people suggest promoting a similar change to the City of Cambridge?

Due to early focus on work Wed. morning, I missed moving my car for street sweeping and it's gone to a Cambridge tow yard. That means a trip to the yard, more than $100 to retrieve the car, AND pay a ticket that's $30 or so. (Old news to many previous "parking" posters.) A single $50 ticket would be SO much better than this. Are people familiar with what Somerville considered in making this change to the books, or what pushed them to make this decision?

Comments

[magid.livejournal.com]

Cambridge sweeps any given street once per month, while I believe Somerville sweeps more frequently. Given that, it's less likely that Cambridge will stop towing cars that are in the way of the sweepers.

(I commiserate: I messed up where I parked a couple of months ago, and had to pay both ticket and tow due to street cleaning.)

[slinkr.livejournal.com]

Somerville sweeps weekly - each side of the street gets swept twice a month on alternating weeks.

Until last year, tickets were $25. They raised them to $50 this year and I recall hearing that the number of tickets they issue has gone down.

[nomacmac.livejournal.com]

Somerville did switch to towing a few years ago, but switched back to ticketing only after trying it. I think they realized that the city could make more money by having a higher ticket price and not sharing the $$ with the tow company.

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

There was a discussion of the "revenue stream" argument last year (I haven't found the post) wherein statistics were cited that suggest a Laffer Curve sort of effect, but in microcosm - that is, with the $50 ticket price, the City actually makes less than with the $25 ticket, because it's a much more effective deterrent, and more than twice as many people move their cars.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

but the tow companies are making a *killing* in cambridge.

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

Without a doubt.

I'd be interested in seeing statistics with tow company incomes broken down such that one could see how big of a dent the loss of sweeping-related towing would make in their bottom line.

[ron_newman]

However, just ticketing doesn't accomplish the goal of actually having the street be clear so that the sweeper can sweep it.

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

While that's true, it does follow that it's more than twice as clear than it would be with a $25 fine. Fewer tickets implies fewer violations, after all. Because sweeping happens exactly twice as often, and streets are more than twice as clear, we're ahead of the game.

[tt02144.livejournal.com]

Former mayor Dot Gay began the policy of towing cars due to street cleaning. I think it was more for revenue than anything else. It was an unmitigated disaster and many believe it helped lead to her downfall. She lost in the primary in the next election cycle. The uproar about the cost people had to pay for towing was tremendous, and let's face it, everyone forgets occasionally.

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

I've also noticed Somerville cars getting booted (Denver boots) rather than towed lately so perhaps it's a comprehensive non-towing policy?

[ethanfield.livejournal.com]

The boots are interestingly the result of better technology. The ticketing officers have little handheld computer units that print out the tickets. When a ticketing officer punches in the license plate of the car to write the ticket, the unit automatically searches a database of cars with lots of of unpaid tickets, cars that have been recently stolen, etc. If the car in question is in the database, the officer gets an alert, calls it in immediately, and someone comes to put on the boot.

(If I got anything wrong here, my apologies - please correct me!)

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

yep.

then the boot guys are given a list every day of the car and location and all the tickets and out they go. most cities have a limit, i think cambridge is 5.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

If they only update the list in the meter maids' computers once per day, I'd suggest people who have a few tickets drive around in circles for an entire day after they pay them off.

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

yeah, it'd be better, but why not just read the signs and not park there. cambridge sweeps twice per month, because one side is the first monday and the other is the second friday, or vice versa, or whatever the hell it says on the signs that are everywhere. they also drive a truck around blaring it out of a bullhorn thing morning of.

and getting my car back from the cambridge yard was way easier and cheaper than that time i had it towed from tj maxx in allston on my birthday.

[fappyheet.livejournal.com]

True, everyone's situation with parking is their own, but the Somerville policy seems SO obviously better than Cambridge's way of dealing with things. A read through the "parking" tagged articles included multiple situations where people have to deal with damage from the tow process or an extremely drawn-out resolution to the ticket and retrieval. If Somerville found a single $50 ticket a much improved deterrent, as someone said above, I'm willing to promote this change however a person can with the city of Cambridge. This isn't a screed against the terrorist menace of street sweeping or just cursing the darkness.

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

well, i also thought the point of towing was so that then they could clean the street there. i know i personally would be more inclined to say "oh well, fuck it" if i knew my car would at least be there when i got back.

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there's the point that the reason they sweep in the first place is to do things like keep drains clear, which winds up being much better than flooded basements.

Regardless of the merits....

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

I think the best way to suggest a change in policy would be to write a letter to the mayor and whoever is in charge of the parking/towing/streets department.

From there you might be able to find out about any city council meetings that have that topic on the agenda, or relevant citizen's groups that provide feedback on city services.

Re: Regardless of the merits....

[fappyheet.livejournal.com]

You win the thread! Helpful details, succinctly put. A plus to the Somerville (former) mayor context.

Not likely

[cos]

I've heard this question asked at neighborhood meetings, and I've heard city councilors talk about it. The basic point is Cambridge sweeps each street once a month and those streets need to be clear for it. Among other things, it's a key part of efforts to reduce urban rodent populations, as well as keeping storm drains clear. If portions of streets get missed during sweeping, there are real consequences (such as more rats in the neighborhood).

[yakshaver.livejournal.com]

I'd rather Somerville copy Cambridge. Cambridge may tow instead of just ticketing, but it also sends guys with bullhorns down the street ahead of time saying "Street cleaning. All cars on the {odd | even} side of the street will be tagged and towed" on an endless loop. As opposed to here, where they just silently ticket you. That wakeup call meant I never paid a ticket or had my car towed when I lived in Cambridge.

[fappyheet.livejournal.com]

That's a good point about the bullhorn. What about keeping that loud truck going around AND changing to a $50 ticket with no towing? I mean, unless it REALLY works, and they get no more ticket income, does the city lose anything by it?

(I now predict a thread from Somerville residents who live right next to the border and get awoken by our bullhorn guy...without actually having to go out and move their cars.)

[bluedaisy.livejournal.com]

The bullhorn is great. It's not my favorite alarm clock, but I am really glad it's there and it means the streets really get clean.

[pjmorgan.livejournal.com]

I for one don't like the bullhorn, I think its noise pollution, its really rude considering I don't drive and therefore am not contributing to the pollution of our children's environment like the rest of you. I also don't like paying higher real estate taxes to pay for that bullhorn reminder. Seriously, anything that makes owning a car less easy and increases revenue/makes streets cleaner, I'm in favor of. Considerations of citizen's inconveniences which occur when they don't follow the clearly posted schedule don't concern me too much.

By the way several cities, I think including somerville website and boston.com, have email alerts where you can provide you street name and they'll send you reminders.

[red-liner.livejournal.com]

I know, the announcements are kind of grating, but maybe someday you'll have a visitor with a car and they'll be glad to have had the warning.

Also, Cambridge property taxes are the lowest in the state, and probably among the lowest on the entire East Coast - so I don't think the bullhorn guy is sucking too much out of our pockets.

[pjmorgan.livejournal.com]

The fact is, we're paying a salary + benefits for someone and equipment for them to drive around in, just to remind people something they could get via an email alert. Might not be a huge % of the budget but its something, and something being a small % is never a reason to not cut waste. 100k here and 100k there and pretty soon you're talking about real money. Unless you think the textbooks in the schools are too recent?

[red-liner.livejournal.com]

I'm all in favor of cutting waste, but most people don't think the announcements are a waste. On the contrary, they like them, because they get the cars out of the way of the sweepers, and provide an immediate, unmissable warning about towing.

Sure, e-mails are great and it would be nice to have them as well, but there are lots of people who either don't have e-mail or don't check it regularly...or who oversleep, get distracted, etc. Not to mention people like yourself who wouldn't normally care about street sweeping, but who might have family or friends visiting and parking on the street.

Also, the city has to send a truck around in advance of the sweepers anyway, to remove any big debris and make sure the way is clear, so the incremental cost of having it play the announcement is probably very small.

[maelithil.livejournal.com]

Like hell.

[leko.livejournal.com]

Huh. I wish I had heard the bullhorn when I was living in the dorms and had my car parked out on memorial. Cambridge tows the cars to the most inconvenient place possible.

Also, I watched them clearing memorial one morning. It took them like 10 minutes to clear every car from a huge stretch of it. There must have been 30 towtrucks.