Snow emergency policy modifications
Feb. 13th, 2006 03:22 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
sonofabish.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
davis_squareSince I found myself with some free time, I wrote an email to my alderman.
If any of you are inclined to do so as well, you can find out what ward you live in here. and that will give you the contact for your alderman as well.
Dear Alderman Taylor,
I am a constituent of yours and I live at ** School Street.
I am writing to you about some possible adjustments to the Snow Emergency procedures and policies. As you well know there have been a number of recent problems.
First, many of us are grateful for the notification system. It takes a lot of guesswork and hassle out of knowing when there is a snow emergency. As a further refinement, would it be possible to set up 2 notifications- one to email people and a shorter abbreviated version that can be sent as a text message? I ask this because I currently receive both and the full notice requires 5 separate text messages.
Second, we had the situation today where the city declared the snow emergency over at 10am and requiring all cars be moved from municipal lots by noon. I did see that this was later extended to 7pm to allow those at work time to get home to move their vehicles and the extension is very much appreciated by many people. I think a better solution in these circumstance would be to set midnight of the day the snow emergency is ended as the deadline to move the vehicles. Even at 7pm, people might be hard-pressed to make it home by then and not everyone works the sort of job where they are allowed to leave early to tend to what many employers consider a personal matter. And because the schools and municipal offices are not open in the evening, this would not affect the conduct of city business.
Third, many people would like to see the '48 hour rule' abolished. While there is an interest in not having abandoned vehicles on the street, it appears that the law punishes more legal residents of Somerville than removes abandoned vehicles. Telling people they must move their car sends the wrong message to those who ride the T and only use their cars to run errands or for trips. An exception would have to be made for municipal lots requiring vehicles parked there to be moved by the midnight deadline.
Along with this is also the problem facing those like myself who travel for work and are gone for weeks on end. This is a problem not only for snow emergencies, but also for street sweeping parking. A couple of possible solutions would be to establish a long-term parking lot free to those residents of Somerville so that we are assured that our car will not be ticketed or towed in our absence. The second would be a registry with the police and/or parking department that the car is not abandoned and that we are away on a trip.
Adopting these suggestions would go a long way to resolving many of the problems that exist with the system and would make Somerville a more car-owner friendly city.
Many thanks,
Steve Zakszewski
If any of you are inclined to do so as well, you can find out what ward you live in here. and that will give you the contact for your alderman as well.
Dear Alderman Taylor,
I am a constituent of yours and I live at ** School Street.
I am writing to you about some possible adjustments to the Snow Emergency procedures and policies. As you well know there have been a number of recent problems.
First, many of us are grateful for the notification system. It takes a lot of guesswork and hassle out of knowing when there is a snow emergency. As a further refinement, would it be possible to set up 2 notifications- one to email people and a shorter abbreviated version that can be sent as a text message? I ask this because I currently receive both and the full notice requires 5 separate text messages.
Second, we had the situation today where the city declared the snow emergency over at 10am and requiring all cars be moved from municipal lots by noon. I did see that this was later extended to 7pm to allow those at work time to get home to move their vehicles and the extension is very much appreciated by many people. I think a better solution in these circumstance would be to set midnight of the day the snow emergency is ended as the deadline to move the vehicles. Even at 7pm, people might be hard-pressed to make it home by then and not everyone works the sort of job where they are allowed to leave early to tend to what many employers consider a personal matter. And because the schools and municipal offices are not open in the evening, this would not affect the conduct of city business.
Third, many people would like to see the '48 hour rule' abolished. While there is an interest in not having abandoned vehicles on the street, it appears that the law punishes more legal residents of Somerville than removes abandoned vehicles. Telling people they must move their car sends the wrong message to those who ride the T and only use their cars to run errands or for trips. An exception would have to be made for municipal lots requiring vehicles parked there to be moved by the midnight deadline.
Along with this is also the problem facing those like myself who travel for work and are gone for weeks on end. This is a problem not only for snow emergencies, but also for street sweeping parking. A couple of possible solutions would be to establish a long-term parking lot free to those residents of Somerville so that we are assured that our car will not be ticketed or towed in our absence. The second would be a registry with the police and/or parking department that the car is not abandoned and that we are away on a trip.
Adopting these suggestions would go a long way to resolving many of the problems that exist with the system and would make Somerville a more car-owner friendly city.
Many thanks,
Steve Zakszewski
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Re: But the 48hr rule isn't usually enforced...
Date: 2006-02-15 04:50 pm (UTC)If memory serves me correctly, for whatever reason after one of the big storms last year they did enforce the 48 hour rule and several hundred cars got ticketed.