Towing on Willow Ave.

[thebostonreader.livejournal.com]

This morning I ran out of my house on Willow Ave., just as they were towing my car away. They were doing construction. I got them to stop, but I had to pay the guy to NOT tow my car. According to the police officer, they have to be paid whether they tow or not, since they got the truck out. Never mind that there were other cars on the street that he was going to tow anyway. It seemed shady to me when they told me it was a $50 fee, and then the tow guy said he'd take $40, which I didn't have, so he ended up taking all the money I had, $29, and let me move my car to another street.

Now, the temporary signs they put up, they said had gone up the regulated 24 hours before, which is not true because they were not there at 7am yesterday morning. We would have seen them on our way to work. Also, according to this page they are supposed to go up 48 hours in advance.

So when my roommate and I went back out, we talked to the police officer and said we hadn't known about the construction, and he called the tow company right away and told us to go over there and they'd give me my money back. He was pretty nice about it, although he had stood by and let the guy charge me before. So I guess it worked out since I got my $29 back (it would have been more if I'd had more) and the worst that came of it was that I was late for work. Other folks were not so lucky, though. I saw at least two other cars being towed - a Honda and a pickup truck. It's good to know that making a stink about these things can help.

There does seem to be a pattern in Somerville of putting up signage way too late when they're doing street construction. They really need to start getting signs up 48 hours in advance the way they're supposed to.

Comments

[xuth.livejournal.com]

Just so that you and anyone else knows, I saw them putting up the signs on my way to work yesterday at around 10:30!
If you're feeling like it you might make some efforts to let people know that their cars were towed illegally (a couple of signs or something) and probably contacting the city itself. I'm not a Somerville resident (I'm just over the medford somerville border) and I wasn't directly affected (other than knowing when the signs went up) so I'm leaving this to other enterprising souls. I am willing to vouch that the signs were put up when I said they were though.

[elements.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that bit of evidence. One of the guys this morning told thebostonreader that the signs had been up by noon yesterday, but then nobody would admit to it when we went back outside - I guess someone realized that admitting that would be the same as admitting they hadn't even given us the 24 hour notice they claimed was all that's required.

We're planning on checking in with Alderperson Rebekah Gewirtz first, and then seeing what else we can do.