(no subject)

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

Nothing says All American City quite like fifty dollar parking tickets for forgetting to put a two cent placard up on the dashboard.

Comments

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

I don't know if somerville is as lenient as cambridge, but when that has happened to me (or my guests) we have sent the ticket back with a letter stating that the person was our guest, we live at X address, and here is our permit number, and the ticket has been waived. might work in somverville?

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Yes, this. Though I wasn't quite as nice -- I just gave the relevant info to the person who got the ticket and they dealt with it on their own (and won). I mean, in one case, they actually had received the ticket while they were getting the visitor pass from my house.

(Not clear what enforcing parking violations has to do with being an All America City or not, though. On my street, they tend to be pretty lax, which leads to the ramp by the corner often being blocked by people who are in the laundromat or salon. Very annoying.)

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

It's not the enforcement of the law I take exception to. I'm the one who forgot to put the guest pass on the dashboard (which was actually in the car at the time) so I take full responsibility. It's the amount of the fine I think is ridiculous. $50 when all I did was park a car on the street in front of my house.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

It is kind of high. $30 seems a more reasonable ceiling for such an offense, and it's what I think I was fined for a similar misdeed in Fort Point (though in that case, it was the horrible signage that led me to believe I was parked legally). But that was a couple of years ago -- maybe they've gone up everywhere, I don't know.

Why are you using a guest pass if it's at your house?

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

It was a rental car.

I got home Sunday night just before midnight. Forgot to put the pass up. The ticket was written an hour later at 1am. I discovered the ticket at 4:45am.

somervillema.gov now allows you to contest parking tickets online so I'm going to do that as soon as the ticket gets "in" to the system. When I tried to contest it already this morning it found no record of the citation.

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

and by 'contest' i mean that i'm going to beg for leniency

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Monday at 1am? That's gets kind of evil. It's like when they blanket Orchard St at five minutes to midnight on Saturday night.

[yakshaver.livejournal.com]

Five minutes to midnight on a Saturday night is precisely when they should be out in force: That's when illegally parked bar-goers are most likely to be keeping you from parking anywhere near your house.

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Go bother the bar goers. I live on a nice quiet residential street with no bars.

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

Ticketing at 11:55 is just being a dick and has nothing to do with any concern for local residents. Even 11:30 isn't so bad. What's so special about just before midnight in regarding to keeping you from parking near your house? If they just idled in their car for those five minutes, they'd be clear for the next 24 hours, after all.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

That's actually a typical time for T&P - I've seen them out at all hours.

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

Contesting it may work, but a potential problem is that you aren't supposed to use a guest pass for your "own" car, only for visitors. (And I understand that this means that you can't park a borrowed/rented car anywhere but a driveway, which seems like a problematic hole in the regulations.)

[phoenixy.livejournal.com]

There is a special temporary permit you can get for a rental car. (Of course, I've gotten a ticket even with one of these displayed, but when I contested it they dismissed it without even checking whether I had applied for a temporary permit, so I think the OP should be able to get this ticket dismissed with no problem.)

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

Yeah I will ask for clarification on this if I go to the parking office. Every time I park a zip car at my house I use my guest passes. The idea that I need to go get a special temporary permit every time I rent a zip car is preposterous.

[phoenixy.livejournal.com]

I think the main point of the rental car pass is that you can use it for longer than the two-day-a-week max of the guest permit. I don't expect them to give you any hassle for using the guest permit for a short term rental like a zipcar.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

You don't, and the people at the parking office will tell you this.

The "controlled" thing on the guest pass is to keep you from using it in your company car that's registered somewhere other than Somerville, not to keep you from using it occasionally in a rental car. (And, as phoenixy says, you're not supposed to use it in a rental car for more than that two-day-a-week max.)

[ravenword.livejournal.com]

Yes. Just say that you parked the car in front of (address), you were visiting (address), and (address) has registered visitor passes in the system. It worked for my boyfriend when he got ticketed in front of my old Somerville apartment.

(That situation was extra special. He drove me home and came inside for a few minutes to help me carry some groceries. By the time he got back, his car was already being ticketed. When he protested and said that he was just dropping someone off and leaving right away, the officer seemed cool with it. Then he got a notice in the mail saying that payment was late on the ticket that he never actually received -- apparently they entered it into the system anyway, without telling him. The city didn't care about that BS, but they waived the ticket when he invoked my all-powerful visitor pass.)

[slinkr.livejournal.com]

What I've read is that one of the reasons the fines have gone up in recent years is that lower fines were not sufficient to act as a deterrent. I'm much more vigilant about street sweeping since they increased the fine from $25 to $50.

Parking tickets are a downer. I got one in Charlestown this morning, because I put my quarters in the wrong meter (behind my car, not in front) when I went to the gym. But living in a place where nobody pays attention to parking regulations because they're not enforced would be worse.

[ceo]

They will totally waive the ticket if you do indeed have a guest pass or resident permit, though you might have to go in in person. (This is as of a few years ago, when I'd forgotten to renew my resident permit.)

[lissie930.livejournal.com]

That didn't work for me (in Somerville). They claimed they "lost" the letter and not only did my fine increase, I got the "you can't register your car until you pay this" letter. I dealt with some high up guy who never got back to me.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Not much difference between an undisplayed placard and a legitimate violation if you're a parking cop IMHO.

For what it's worth, though, I think emcicle above is probably right.

I agree

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

I love that our city actually enforces the rules. It's like the Broken Windows theory: A place where people don't have to pay attention to the parking rules leads rapidly to double-parking, which leads to being Southie.

Re: I agree

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

Or were you being sarcastic? I can't tell. It's early.

Re: I agree

[ron_newman]

is Southie such a bad place to be, though?

Re: I agree

[violet-helix.livejournal.com]

If you're trying to leave the spot where you parked at the curb, yes.

Re: I agree

[pushupstairs.livejournal.com]

if you are trying to do anything that involves a car, such as driving or parking, yes.

Re: I agree

[talonvaki.livejournal.com]

Not as bad as Somerville...but it's not great.

Re: I agree

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

In re: double parking there, it has been known to significantly impede ambulances, according to an EMT friend of mine.

Re: I agree

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

Wasn't it in deference to the locals' tradition of double parking that the Broadway Silver Line route was canceled?

(Captcha: "EDITOR madman"!)

Re: I agree

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

At http://www.archboston.org/community/showthread.php?t=2415 , people said the Silver Line SL3 was discontinued due to very low ridership. And residents didn't want it to be extended further into the neighborhood due to noise concerns.

Re: I agree

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

We must not be talking about the same thing. The Broadway Silver Line route appeared on promotional maps but was canceled before it ever ran. As the first commenter in your linked discussion said, the SL3 never served East Broadway, or "anywhere people need to go".

Re: I agree

[cos]

I think the OP isn't so much complaining about rules being enforced, as suggesting that the rule itself in this case is wacked (that is, that $50 is too high a a fine).

[tt02144.livejournal.com]

Good luck with the parking office. I have found that they used to be very resonable and would waive tickets quite easily. Recently, however, they seem to have a new policy of guilt until proven innocent and waive virtually no tickets, regardless of the situation.

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

Nothing says "slash my tires" like taking a hard working taxpayer's valuable and scarce parking spot.

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

i wish i knew what you were talking about

[teko.livejournal.com]

Yes, here in an all-American city we have laws that have consequences when not followed. Yes, those consequences suck. They suck to prevent people from breaking those laws.

That said, their policy is generally "ticket everyone but be very lenient if folks take the time to write in". You should be able to get it waived without a problem.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

here in an all-American city we have laws that get written by an unelected, responsible to no constituents, oligarchical group of idiots.

[kalimba21.livejournal.com]

A few weeks ago I got a $30 ticket at a meter in Magoun square. I had put money in the meter. The ticket said "restricted zone" or something like that. There was a "restricted zone (or whatever the charge was)" sign _behind_ my car. I contested it in writing and was denied, so I paid the $30 extortion charge. What else could I do? Such is the new price of living in our wonderful city. It reminds me of walking through a corrupt town in Mexico in the 80's when a police officer stopped me and demanded payment to cross the town square.

[teele-sq.livejournal.com]

I appealed the ticket online and just received their decision in the mail:

"The Office of the Parking Clerk is informing you that the ticket(s) below cannot be dismissed for the reasons stated in your correspondence. Hearing officers cannot dismiss validly issued ticket(s), which conform, to the parking rules and regulations."

"Thus, your request for non-payment is denied. Please pay attention to this promptly to avoid further penalties. Please make payment of the amount below, within 10 days."

So the primary lesson learned is, not to forget the visitor pass next time! The secondary lesson I suppose, is that if I ever had to appeal another parking ticket, to lie. They won't show leniency to someone who is honest.