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

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Didn't they just this very month decide to go through with a plan to change permitting so that there will be more places where people are likely to get ticketed? So, maybe not an "increase in cars/drivers," but definitely an increase in the places where you CAN get ticketed, combined with estimates on violations based on - making a wild guess here - historical data about parking violations. So SINISTER!

[barry-rafkind.livejournal.com]

Yes, excellent point. Changes were made to expand permit-parking area and increase rates and time periods of meters in business districts. And these wide-ranging changes were made hastily without much public process through the Traffic Commission, a body with only one publicly elected member (Ald. Trane).