(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?

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.