sudden enforcement of over 48 hours parking rule?

[inq.livejournal.com]

went out of town for a week last week and when i got back, the car had 4 $20 tickets for being parked in one spot for over 48 hours. i've lived here a long time and never have i seen this enforced on my particular street (it's a little one-way street near davis in somerville). so, for $80 i guess i should have just driven to the airport and parked there, but i wondered if anyone else had been suprised by this arbitrary and capricious enforcement? (yes, that's the language from my letter of appeal.) also, at least one of these tickets was a mere 8 hours after the one previous, which doesn't seem to make much sense...

new parking officer, perhaps? i noticed a couple of other people on the street had a nice little ticket collection going as well...

Comments

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

I don't know anybody who's successfully appealed a parking ticket in Somerville, so let us know how that works out for you.

[dani-namaste.livejournal.com]

The only time I was able to get a partking ticket lifted was when the city sent me a notice of a $100 ticket for parking in a spot 5 miles outside of where I was actually parked during a snow emergency. When I then tried to appeal a particularly bulls*** ticket (for parking in a clearly marked spot that apparently becomes Not a Spot at a certain time of day), they wouldn't let it go because they "had already overlooked one ticket." Never mind the fact that the ticket had no basis for being given.

Welcome to Somerville!

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

How did you convince them the car wasn't where they said it was?

[dani-namaste.livejournal.com]

I volunteered to call my best friend - she was with me, in my home, on the night in question. My home is five miles away from the spot I was allegedly in. They also looked up the ticket and noticed that the car they had ticketed was a completely different make and model than mine.

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

I had some friends get tickets for parking w/o a permit in front of my house right after a snow emergency - the snow emergency webpage specifically says (or said, anyway) that no parking rules will be enforced for a period after the emergency was lifted (12 or 24 hrs, can't recall). I sent in a letter with a printout of the web page specifying when the emergency was lifted, and they dropped the tickets.

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

When I looked at the snow emergency rules, it said that parking regulation, including the 48-hour rule, will be *strictly* enforced after a snow emergency, not the opposite. (Not contradicting you. I'm sure they've changed it, probably more than once.)

[dreamgirly19.livejournal.com]

i have appealed and won all but one ticket and i have had about 8 total. so it is possible.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

What's your technique?

[dreamgirly19.livejournal.com]

I show some boobs? No, I just go in and Im sugar sweet to the guy...I listen to what he is saying...I explain why I shouldnt have gotten it in the first place. He usually says ok.

I had tickets for 1. commerical vehicle parked in residential spot (even though it was in front of our own house ugh), 2. overnight commercial parking, 3. visitor pass already used2x, 4. meter issue, 5. street sweeping day.

The only one I lost was the street sweeping.

[dani-namaste.livejournal.com]

The guy's generally pretty cool - the woman is the one you just can't win with.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

I've appealed 4, but they were all from the same time period. I don't think my excuse would work for anyone else, but it did that once.

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

i appealed a 48-hour violation successfully.

but here's the messed-up thing. my appeal wasn't successful because the ticket was given unfairly (even though it was-- i had only been in that spot for 33.5 hours) or because i brought it fairly decent proof that i had been moving my car (even though i did-- pay stubs that show i work 40 hours a week mon-fri in needham, and a movie ticket stub for a 7:30pm saturday movie in burlington). the guy told me that these things weren't proof because i "could have taken someone else's car" to work and the movie (which is kinda... why would i have a car if i had someone else to take me to work every day?) my appeal was only successful because i swallowed my pride when the guy said "well, it looks like to just made a mistake, so i'll let it slide this time" and instead of saying "no you jerk, i didn't do anything wrong" i said "ok, fine, i made a mistake. thanks".

so basically i successfully appealed a wrongly-given ticket by admitting to being guilty of something i didn't do. nice system we have here.

incidentally, when i asked the guy if there was any way i could prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future, he said no.