Fund This Story : Somerville Parking Tickets

[barry-rafkind.livejournal.com]

Dear fellow car drivers friends and neighbors,

The City is counting on you to park longer than 48 hours in one place, to not remember which day is street cleaning on your side, and to forget to give your out-of-town friends and relatives visitor passes instantly when they arrive at your place. I know what you're thinking, that the City wants its residents, workers, and visitors to abide by the laws, not break them.

Alas, the FY2010 municipal budget (pdf) has already been written with the expectation of approx $8.7 million from parking fines (up $1.5 million from last year) plus change in surcharges, towing fees, and moving violations. So, unless you want the city to face cut-backs in police, fire, and education, you'd better start parking within 20 feet of an intersection and leaving your car on the street during your week-long vacation. The City has even adjusted its parking policies to help facilitate this new revenue increase.

But seriously, if the City is going to rely on this regressive form of taxation, shouldn't we at least expect the burden to fall somewhat equitably around the city? And how does Somerville compare to surrounding communities in terms of its parking enforcement policies? If you'd like to help us find out the answers to these and other parking related questions, then please consider pledging what you can to our new $500 fund-raiser to hire an investigative journalist. To join our campaign or leave a comment, please head on over to the Somerville Voices blog and thanks!

Sincerely,
Barry Rafkind

Comments

As long as you don't hire

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

the one from the Somerville News who botched the Wheel story! :)

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

What are us non-car drivers to do??

[barry-rafkind.livejournal.com]

Save the extra money you aren't spending on a car and parking tickets.

I plan on living the garbage containers with no lid on them.

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

I want to contribute to Somerville's financial future.

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

Sounds like it's time to not have a car...like I did for 9 years. It's amazing how well the T works when you actually give it a chance.

[barry-rafkind.livejournal.com]

Yup, the T works great for my wife who commutes into Boston, but not so well for my commute to Waltham. But we did manage without a car for 3 years until we had a baby who needs to be transported to daycare. The T is good, but nowhere near perfect.

[tamalinn.livejournal.com]

I didn't have a car for years, and it was great--until I got a job that requires enough travel that I had to get one. It's really easy to be high-and-mighty when you don't need a car, though, eh?

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Not just easy, also fun!

Myself, I'm looking forward to the day gas gets scarce enough most people have to ditch their cars. Of course, this means bus service will probably stop too, so we'll all have to get bicycles, and years of mocking cyclists will come back to bite me on the ass.

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

*thumbs up*

[laryu.livejournal.com]

Gee, given this precis, I wonder what the investigative reporter you hire specifically for this assignment will say in his or her story?

If s/he does not write something consistent with this story....

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

S/he will not be paid. It's that simple :)

[moria923.livejournal.com]

Guess they're taking lessons from the credit card companies, who count on late fees as a form of revenue.

[ron_newman]

Tagging this (and similar SV-related posts) 'newspapers' even though that isn't really an exact match. Maybe we should rename the tag to 'journalism'.

[jodi.livejournal.com]

you can tag it "sensationalism" and "what every municipality does"

[barry-rafkind.livejournal.com]

The city's reliance on parking ticket revenue is sensational!

Every municipality probably does have parking regulations, but I'd bet you that most do not rely nearly as heavily on fines as this year's All-America City.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Two questions:

1) Are you aware that some of your links are broken?

2) Can you explain, clearly, in detail, and without hyperbole or linking to your own site how this is supposed to be a regressive tax?

You see, in a regressive tax, the poor pay a larger share of the burden. So a cigarette tax, which is an actual tax, could be seen as a regressive tax because the poor smoke more. Parking tickets would seem to shift the burden onto people who drive, who seem to me to range across all classes around here.

Perhaps the OP means that...

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Given that the fine is the same regardless of income, then it is regressive because people with lower income end up paying more (proportionally). Wouldn't this make it regressive?

[barry-rafkind.livejournal.com]

Thanks for pointing that out, I have corrected the one link that was broken.

Parking tickets are regressive because the ones who end up receiving and paying for more tickets are those who can not afford off-street parking.

It is probably also the case that cars are more prevalent with families that can not afford to have one parent stay home with the kids, so that both parents must work, and at least one car is necessary to drive to a job and bring kids to day care.

Another point is that blue collar workers often do not have the types of jobs that would allow them to take off time to attend a parking hearing to contest their tickets.

[dougo.livejournal.com]

Are you suggesting that parking violations should not result in fines? What's the alternative, license suspension? Jail sentences? Using fines as punishment seems like the best option, because it does in fact help fund "police, fire, and education".

[barry-rafkind.livejournal.com]

Reasonably priced fines are appropriate to deter parking violations. But I don't think the City should be relying on this regressive revenue source in its budget, do you?

[jimmyfergus.livejournal.com]

The 48 hour rule seems to me to be nothing but a revenue earning exercise. What purpose does it serve? The only legitimate purpose I can think of is to deal with abandoned cars. Other places I've lived typically have a 30 or 60 day limit for this purpose.

[closetalker11.livejournal.com]

I get your point, even if I don't 100% agree with it. However, how will an investigative journalist help you? What are you hoping s/he will find that you haven't already found, published, and made a judgment on?

[barry-rafkind.livejournal.com]

The questions we're interested in are laid out in the last paragraph as well as in the linked post. We'd be interested to hear what you do or do not agree with.

"Dear fellow car drivers"

[cn-i-crash-here.livejournal.com]

Dear fellow car drivers

Many non-car-drivers have a stake here. Business owners, residents whose guests drive, and others who simply perceive an injustice may sympathize with you. Get them all under the tent!

Re: "Dear fellow car drivers"

[barry-rafkind.livejournal.com]

Point well taken. I have updated the salutation to instead read "Dear friends and neighbors". Thanks!