Can't think of a better place to ask this question - parking tickets

[paradoox.livejournal.com]

Does anyone have any experience with paying a parking ticket in person at the parking office in Davis Square with say $50 worth of quarters?    (unrolled)   I'm not quite mean enough to show up with $50 worth of pennies (and really don't want to spend the time sitting there while they are counted), but I want to make a statement.  I'll all honesty, I'd pay by credit card if Somerville didn't charge an extra fee (Boston doesn't).    Yes, I could mail in a check but there is no satisfaction in that.     Parking enforcement in Somerville has jumped the shark and it is time for some civil disobedience.  

Comments

[ron_newman]

You will annoy everyone behind you in line.

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

recently i was turned away from a local liquor store buying something like an $8 or less bottle of wine with (pre-counted) quarters. because i was poor and just wanted to not think about being poor god dammit, not to be an asshole. (the boss of this place really had a bug up his ass for no reason, but i digress.)

i realize you're doing this to make a statement though, and i don't know if it's different for a public office type thing vs. a private shop, but just a heads up in case they turn you away, have some other form of payment on you if you want to pay that day.

[docorion.livejournal.com]

Knock yourself out, but the clerk can, in fact, refuse the payment. An older US statute notes that "Minor coins of the US are legal tender for any amount not exceeding 25 cents in one payment"; and there is case law noting that even offices of government may make such rules as they deem necessary for the efficient functioning of the office, such as (for instance) refusing to accept pennies as payment. You may find this website (http://www.mtas.tennessee.edu/KnowledgeBase.nsf/0/AB04FB8C07985FEC852570310052C341?OpenDocument) instructive in the matter.

ETA: and refusing the form of payment doesn't cancel the debt or obligation. Sorry.

Go with pennies

[spettacolo.livejournal.com]

$50 in quarters is 5 rolls of quarters. You can hold that in one hand. Unrolled, it would take maybe 2 minutes to count out. Pennies would make a much larger statement.

[i-custard.livejournal.com]

That 'statement' will only serve to frustrate the person behind the counter who is just doing a job in this bad economy and probably has nothing to do with you getting a ticket. Trust, they will not pass on the 'statement' to the magic parking gods.

Please do like someone else said and use the extra time you'd have lost by writing a letter, or come up with some other way to protest whatever you think is unfair about Somerville parking. I'm pretty sure that if you decide to do this annoying act, it will annoy everyone around you and probably yourself as well when you realize it is not as satisfying as it sounds.

Did you get the ticket for something you did wrong (were there signs posted and you disobeyed them?) or was it in your eyes a wrongful ticket? If it is wrongful, appeal it. If it's not, pay your fee in an adult way and work positively in some way to get the laws changed if you do not like them.

Go for it

[photolight1.livejournal.com]

Recently when going through the toll booth I gave the guy some quarters and about 5 pennies...He looked at them and said 'thanks a lot' with an attitude.
I say go for it but you should have them rolled with so many.
It's legal money , why make their job easier? The parking dept doesn't make it easy for the working people of this city.

do I sound bitter? You betcha.

[photolight1.livejournal.com]

Could not find an edit button..,

I also meant to add I just recently found out that Somerville has extended their meters to 8pm.
Is this city wide? Massachusetts in general is becoming such a difficult place to live.
I normally don't use meters in Somerville since I have the sticker but I thought I only had to put up with this in Boston not Somerville.
Hell of a way to make revenue for the city.

It may be satisfying to you, but....

[ringrose.livejournal.com]

Fifty dollars in unrolled quarters. That's 200 quarters. I'm making a few guesses here, but...

They go to the person behind the counter at the parking office, who counts them. Someone else probably counts them at the end of the shift to verify the drawer has the right amount of money. It gets taken to the bank and counted again by someone at the bank.

None of those people set the parking fees.


http://www.break.com/index/8800-penny-prank.html

[pushupstairs.livejournal.com]

This would be roughly as effective as complaining about the implementation of the MCAS exams to your local elementary school's janitor.

What you're suggesting isn't civil disobedience. Since you're paying the parking ticket that you've been ordered to pay, it's more like civil obedience while mumbling something incoherent under your breath as you walk away. An effective civil disobedience in this case would involve not paying the ticket while making some kind of useful and interesting statement about the current state of parking enforcement.

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

Pissing in the wind.