Parking Tickets for today's "snow emergency" waived

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

On the city of Somerville's website there's an announcement from the Mayor and the director of Traffic and Parking, stating that if you received a ticket and/or tow for the snow emergency today, you can have the ticket waived (and up to $25 of tow fees reimbursed) by going to the T&P office or calling 311. Apparently, you'll be required to sign something stating that you are aware of the City's snow emergency procedures.

Details at the link above.

Comments

[wneleh.livejournal.com]

Oooh, thanks for the info! I've passed it along to someone who got a $100 ticket today.

[simianpower.livejournal.com]

Screw Somerville. Yeah, I said it. Their random, unfair, and punitive ticketing have made me actively hate a city that could've been great. They've driven me to move away from the city, and to take my business elsewhere. "Balancing the books" has turned into an all-out money grab at the expense of residents and visitors alike, and I think they're going to find that those residents, visitors, AND small businesses will move to more friendly shores in short order. I'm actively recommending that my friends find places in Cambridge or Arlington or Medford rather than Somerville because my experience there has been so bad and costly.

[ron_newman]

In Arlington you can't park overnight on any street at all.

[simianpower.livejournal.com]

That's a specious argument. In Arlington every resident has a driveway or other dedicated parking spot, so that's yet another point in their favor!

[surrealestate.livejournal.com]

That's simply not true.

[tom-champion.livejournal.com]

"In Arlington every resident has a driveway or other dedicated parking spot, so that's yet another point in their favor!"
Talk about a specious argument! The simple fact is that Arlington is much less densely populated than Somerville, which has thousands more registered vehicles per square mile than urban communities like Boston or Cambridge, let alone a quasi-suburban community like Arlington.
I'm very sorry if you've had bad experiences with "arbitrary" or "punitive" ticketing -- I know you're not alone in feeling that way -- but the rules themselves aren't dissimilar to those in Cambridge or Boston, and the economies of those communities haven't crumbled in the face of citywide permit parking requirements or high fines for violations.
There are many suburban communities where residential zoning codes and developmental sprawl have resulted in plenty of parking for all -- no sharing or special rules required. But Somerville isn't one of those: never has been; never will be.

[simianpower.livejournal.com]

When I moved to Somerville just a year ago it didn't feel this way. It's just the past six months or so that there's a sudden frenzy of ticketing. It's become a rather important part of the city's cash flow, which is exactly the problem: the city and its employees have a vested interest in penalizing residents and visitors. Most cities issue tickets to make sure that the parking/traffic rules are obeyed, while Somerville makes/changes rules to ensure that they can get enough ticket revenue. There's a line out the door at the ticket office by 9:30 AM. At some point they're going to have to hire more people, which just means making sure to give out more tickets to pay those extra salaries. Wow, look, the city's now become its own parasite.

I've gotten tickets for parking in a spot that has been used by me and others for the whole year with no warning of its change of status (arbitrary, especially since days later people were once again parking there with no tickets). I've gotten tickets that I couldn't even fight because they sent the court date (conveniently) to the lease-holder (Nissan) rather than me, so that I never learned of my court date and had to pay late fees on top of the ticket fees that I was never allowed to contest (unfair). The one ticket I did manage to contest was thrown out by the arbiter because even he thought it was an unfair law. Even the people enforcing these "laws" know that they're bullshit! A friend of mine just got two tickets within 20 minutes for parking a Zipcar... in the Zipcar parking lot! She parked where she was supposed to and got ticketed twice for it (punitive)!

This is out of control, and makes Somerville a very hostile place to live or visit. I have no trouble with the people of Somerville, or even the businesses... just the government. A person from the parking and traffic office I talked with about this said I was preaching to the choir, that they'd moved out of the city because of this crap despite still working there.

And now the city will "generously" pay up to $25 for towing citizens' cars, which costs quite a bit more than $25. For a city that prides itself on its citizenry's involvement, it shows a rather appalling lack of concern for their well-being or continued residence. I'm so glad I no longer have to put up with that crap. I reiterate, screw you, Somerville government.

[tom-champion.livejournal.com]

There's no doubt that Parking Control Officers make mistakes. We all do.
It sounds like you leased a car while you were in Somerville. Was it insured as "principally garaged" in Somerville or was it insured out of the dealership so you couldn't get a resident sticker? When I leased a car, I insured it for Somerville and had no difficulty getting a sticker that let me park all over town.
What was the violation in "a spot that has been used by me and others for the whole year with no warning of its change of status (arbitrary, especially since days later people were once again parking there with no tickets)." Was it a 20-feet-from-an-intersection-rule? A 48-hour rule? The type of violation makes all the difference.
I know that interim T&P director (and former Police Chief) Bob Bradley is doing his best to improve customer service on processing and appeal matters -- and that things are already improving.
What won't change, and what shouldn't change, is Somerville's effort to maintain a reasonable balance between the interests of the many groups -- residents, businesses, customers, workers, visitors -- competing for an ever-scarcer and more valuable resource: curbside parking.
There's no question that there is a revenue component to Somerville's recent changes in parking regulations. Somerville doesn't have the commercial real estate tax base of cities like Boston and Cambridge, so the City of Somerville has to cover the cost of government in other ways. Proposition 2 1/2 limits the amount of money any city or town can raise through property taxes and Somerville suffered a 21 percent cut in state aid last year.
But Somerville city government was, and remains, a relative bargain: Somerville spends fewer tax dollars per capita than any community in Massachusetts with a population of 50,000 or more.
It's true that living in a densely populated urban community is more complicated and demanding than living in the sticks -- and more complicated now than it was even a few years ago.
But, in the end, Somerville's city government is an expression of the majority will of its people and its business community.
You can't offer a targeted "screw you" to local government while holding people and businesses harmless. Mayor Joe isn't king -- and the government that you so blithely dismiss as a "parasite" is the same entity that funds the libraries, the schools, public safety, public health, public infrastructure and all the other shared services and facilities that make civilization possible.
I promise you that, if the disconnect between the city and its government is as big as you say (and not just a spurious libertarian talking point for talk-radio shouters) -- then the Mayor and the Aldermen will be out of office in no time.
I hope you have better luck in your new community -- and that they make fewer demands on your time, attention and personal resources. Being an informed and engaged citizen can be hard work, but some places are more laissez-faire than others.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Good response Tom, thanks for being the voice of reason. Part of the trouble though is that it's not just parking. In the past year or so I've gotten innumerable tickets for ridiculous things like "grass/weed overgrowth" and not having a lid on the trash can and, just last week, "trash not in barrel" -- which wasn't even an option on the ticket; the person scribbled that in the margin and checked the $100 box. A HUNDRED F***ING DOLLARS for allegedly having trash not in the barrels, which I can't even argue with because how can I prove that I didn't have trash not in barrel?

I understand that the rule about covering the trash can is intended to deter animals. Okay fine. And I understand that "grass/weed overgrowth" can potentially have a negative impact on pedestrians walking past my property. But we get SO damn many of these at my home, it honestly starts to feel like someone has some kind of vendetta. Is the city really paying an inspector to wander the streets looking for untrimmed bushes and uncovered trash cans? And again -- A HUNDRED DOLLARS??

So when you put that together with the astoundingly aggressive parking rules, it does start to feel like the city is more interested in squeezing as much cash out of residents than in actually keeping the streets clean and safe and whatnot.

As for the new parking regulations. This has been discussed to death here and I know that most of us don't really want to get back into it. But just one thing: My mom lives in Cambridge and once a week she picks up my son from school. Where is she supposed to park in the neighborhood of the school? She can't get a Somerville parking sticker. She can't use my visitor permit because the school is more than a few blocks from my house. So she's supposed to...what...incur a $50 parking ticket once a week? Park at a meter 15 minutes' walk away from the school? Park in the teachers' parking lot? I tried calling 311 to ask whether there was a special type of permit for this sort of thing, and they couldn't give me anything. This is the kind of thing that makes people feel that Somerville is really unfriendly and unwelcoming to people from other towns who want to do business (or pleasure!) in Somerville.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

"My mom lives in Cambridge and once a week she picks up my son from school. Where is she supposed to park in the neighborhood of the school?"

That's exactly the reason why most states with permit parking require cities to allow nonresidents to park for an hour or two in all permit zones.

[tom-champion.livejournal.com]

What happens very quickly is that, when fines go up, so does compliance, and the number of tickets issued goes down.
If the City were purely interested in revenue, it would find a price point that most people would consider a nuisance, but not enough of a penalty to change behavior. (And, as noted elsewhere in this discussion, they wouldn't rescind their share of the towing fee on a snow emergency that was declared in good faith on the basis of the best available forecasts.)
I do know that the increase in trash enforcement was a direct response to resident complaints about blowing trash and, above all, vermin -- and that the new regs were developed with a substantial and lengthy public process. I also know that inspectors issued warnings for several weeks before the new policies went into effect -- and that this was quite some time ago.
I can't speculate on the overgrowth citation, but the City regularly gets complaints on this problem from accessibility advocates and from just plain old neighbors who think they've spotted a problem.
As for the final issue you raised, have you tried talking to the school principal's office? The local school administration may have a better handle on this than do the 311 constituent service reps.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

But, in the end, Somerville's city government is an expression of the majority will of its people and its business community.

Not the people who decided to change the permit parking laws.

I've seen suggestions that only 25% of the city streets were effected by the permit only imposition.

99% of the streets in my ward were permit free.
No response from my Alderman when I emailed him.

Nothing from him letting the rest of the ward's citizens know this was coming down the pike, and that they could be at any of the hearings about it.

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

One thing it seems no one in the city considered: landlords without driveways cannot rent to non-resident college students with cars anymore.

[tom-champion.livejournal.com]

One thing non-resident college students and their landlords have failed to consider is that free curbside parking is NOT a guaranteed perk that comes with admission to colleges located in the greater Boston area.
State law says students don't have to re-register their cars while they're here, but that doesn't mean that their colleges and unviersities, or their landlords, or the communities that host them, have to give them free parking.
There are real advantages to going to Tufts or Harvard or MIT, but easy parking is not among them. If that's your goal, head to Colby (where 80 percent of the students have cars) or similar institution.
Otherwise, rent an off-street space, or re-register your car while you're here.
Yes, there are landlords who don't like the change, because renters have to do more work (and pay more in insurance) to ensure that they can park on the street. But for their neighbors who pay local excise taxes, insurance rates and permit fees year in and year out, the new rules mean that permanent residents no longer have to subsidize parking -- and give up parking spaces -- for transients.
You can disagree with their conclusion, but don't think for a minute that city officials didn't consider the impacts.

[ron_newman]

There's a simple answer to this, however: the city should sell a 'non-resident student' parking permit for an annual fee, larger than that for a regular resident.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

Why not sell parking permits to anyone, and set the price at market rates?

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

don't think for a minute that city officials didn't consider that idea.

[tom-champion.livejournal.com]

That's right -- there were internal discussions prompted by one of our parking consultants on purely market-based solutions.
And just think how happy that would make local residents and businesses . . . Anyone who wanted a space could buy the rights to one -- and this would either by a dedicated, unshared space that no one else could use, or it would be a permit that anyone could use, anytime, anywhere, regardless of proximity to business or domicile, and regardless of time of day or day of week.
I honestly don't think that would be too popular.

[tom-champion.livejournal.com]

But Ron, even without such a program, many Somerville residents already feel that students are taking up too many parking spaces. Knowing the political and operational consequences, neither Boston or Cambridge would ever dream of doing this. Why should Somerville?

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

"The simple fact is that Arlington is much less densely populated than Somerville" -- yes, on average. But looking at individual neighborhoods, East Arlington looks like many parts of Somerville.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

You can park overnight in Arlington in certain circumstances. You can call the police and ask for permission, and I think in some neighborhoods they've given permission on an extended basis.

[closetalker11.livejournal.com]

Oh, please. It's a freaking parking ticket, not a repressive government regime.

[dashford.livejournal.com]

Exactly how does the waiving of parking tickets constitute "an all-out money grab"? It seems like the very topic of this thread refutes your contention.