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

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

ISTR they did this on Kidder Ave. not too long ago.

The whole thing smacks of revenue enhancement.

[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.

[elements.livejournal.com]

This is the post with info on what happened on Kidder:
http://community.livejournal.com/davis_square/638326.html

Evidently the houses on Kidder itself got letters then, or were supposed to have. We definitely didn't get a letter...

[ron_newman]

Certainly you should publicize this in local newspapers and organizations, but I don't see this as a state issue.

[thebostonreader.livejournal.com]

I sent an email to our Alderperson, Rebekah Gewirtz, and am waiting for a response.

[artic-monkeys.livejournal.com]

What about Tom R.'s role? Does he not investigate this kind of stuff? If there is a problem at the city level caused by the city itself, then what is the next highest level that can get involved to help fix it?

[bgum.livejournal.com]

I wonder if a) Pat's Towing needs any authority from the city before making a tow. I've heard they don't in Boston, they can just tow anyone they see parked illegally if a truck happens to be driving by.

b) would such a policy, with less oversight, make such injustice more likely, i.e. if they had to call traffic and parking first, they might say, don't tow until noon, the 48 hr point.

[artic-monkeys.livejournal.com]

maybe, My feeling is that they would just tow anyway and if there were ever a problem they would say the called and got an ok to cover their buts. It is not the rules that are the problem , it is the fact that they are all buddies and they won't follow the rules.

Right now, it seems that they are breaking the rules on the 48 notice, and they are not really making an effort to inform everyone of their actions. Then they sneak the tow trucks in ASAP. If someone raises a big enough stink they let them go. If not they end up paying. I say we all raise a big stink about it before it happens to us. I can only imangine what else they are getting away with.

[kalimba21.livejournal.com]

On a similar note -

The first day of school in somerville was street cleaning on the street by the Healey school. Many of the new people - bringing in their kindergartners, got $50 tix, and then the whole street was torn up for repaving 2 days later.

It's all about the revenue.....