street sweeping and towing

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

i wrote the new mayor to express my disgust with somerville's towing/street sweeping policy. i strongly urge anyone in agreement to also write a letter. it only takes a few minutes.

my letter:

November 18, 2003

Mayor Joseph Curtatone
93 Highland Avenue
Somerville, MA 02143

Dear Mayor:

It is my understanding that as Alderman, you supported the towing of vehicles to facilitate more effective street sweeping. I would like to express my outrage and frustration with this policy. It has nothing to do with keeping our city's streets cleaner and everything to do with making up for state funding shortfalls. It is a transparent policy that the citizens of Somerville see right through; we are neither duped nor amused.

This morning my partner's car was towed from in front of our house. Not including parking violation fees, it will cost us at minimum, $95 to get her car back. How much revenue will the city gain as a kickback from this? $10? $15? I understand we're in tough economic times and you're trying to find every last penny.

All I ask is -- why does the penny have to come, greatly inflated, via Pat's Auto Body? Why not just increase the resident parking sticker fees? I'd gladly pay $30/year (six times the current fee) for my resident parking sticker if I were reasonably sure that towing would only be used on the most dire of occasions (cars blocking hydrants, snow emergencies, etc.)

Just as the city is scrounging under a community sofa, digging for change to fund critical services, so too its residents are equally struggling to make ends meet. And you know what? I haven't even noticed any significant improvement in the cleanliness of my street since it started. This policy is nothing more than a scam, a shameless attempt to resolve tough budget decisions by taxing the citizens without actually seeking an elected-by-the-people tax increase override (which many would support!) or alternately, appealing vigorously to our state legislators to restore pre-cut funding levels.

As Alderman you supported this measure but as Mayor, I'm asking you cease it. It is not good policy. It is mean-spirited and an unfair burden on the citizens. It causes undue stress and financial strain on residents and our guests. And there are other ways.

Sincerely,
[My Name]
Registered Voter & Citizen of Somerville
[My Address]

Comments

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

Hear hear.

At least, for better of for worse, we only have one more week of sweeping until April.

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

Update: It was pointed out to me that he's not mayor yet so now I'm torn between writing the current mayor (who probably doesn't care much anyway) or sitting on this letter until he's in office at which time street sweeping won't be an issue.

Strategy tips/advice anyone?

[georgy.livejournal.com]

I would send it to both of them, as well as the alderman (or whoever) representing where you live. The more bases you cover, the more eyes will see it, the more likely something may get done! (I just moved to Somerville recently from Allston, so I'm not down with the legislative lingo yet :-))

[fidgetmonster.livejournal.com]

i'll second that; it's quite common to send a letter directed at one person (curtatone) and put in a line at the top or bottom saying who it is CC'd to. that's good practice in general, cause then the mayor can't just throw it out if they know it's also been seen by your alderman, or by a local group in support of citizens rights (whether you're a member or not).

the only thing you should probably do is say dear curtatone instead of mayor.

[enmascarado.livejournal.com]

the only thing you should probably do is say dear curtatone instead of mayor.

It would be better to refer to him as Mayor, even if he's not yet (showing proper reverence, even if you feel he doesn't merit it). Mayor-elect if you feel a particular need to be specific.

-Dan

[fidgetmonster.livejournal.com]

you're right.. it's better to ingratiate yourself with the new regime than the old. I made my suggestion because I imagined that Kelly Gay would be offended, and so not enact any 11th hour reversals. Mayor-elect covers both those fronts!

Now that makes me wonder whether the city has a similar law as the state regarding 11th hour decisions. I think it's like, anything she does within X number of days before her term ends, he can automatically overturn them when he gets in office, without having to go through the usual channels.

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

i was banking on the male political ego and thus went with a title he fought really hard to get (note, i didn't say "earn.")

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

p.s. i'm going with mayor-elect ... thanks for all the suggestions everyone. for the record i'm going to re-do it with some "cc" lines to the following people:

Dorothy K. Gay
Joe Curtatone
Pat Jehlen
Denise Provost
and perhaps some other state-wide officials

[halo-bender.livejournal.com]

I know I hate the street sweeping thing in somerville. Its really stupid. I mean I live right on the boarder of Cambridge and Somerville in Porter Square. Cambridge is swept every month and somerville every week and you can't see a difference in the cleanliness of the streets between the two.

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

Write a letter expressing that sentiment! Please!

[frederic.livejournal.com]

Well they alraady recently raised the price of a parking sticker 5 fold...

The part that bothers me is that towing works against those who don't use their car in favor of public transportation as well as favoring the upper classes who have their own driveway and/or garage space. Commuters never have to worry about where they park or when since their car is gone before the ticketing begins.

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

Write a letter expressing the public transport concern! Pretty please!

[ex-meta.livejournal.com]

If you use public transit to any significant degree, you'd be better off selling your car and joining Zipcar.

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

it really depends on how you use a car. if you zip around doing quick errands throughout the week, then yes, zipcar is definitely the way to go.

i use my car 2-3 times a week. once to visit my family on the south shore-ish area (a 6-8 hour trip) and about 2 times for long grocery/house supplies trips for our co-op (2-3 hours per trip).

when you take zipcars for long trips it gets really expensive.

[ex-meta.livejournal.com]

According to the state stats, the average cost of running an average car in the Boston metro area--including insurance, depreciation, maintenance, taxes, parking and fuel--is a cool $6K a year. That'll pay for an awful lot of Zipcar. Not many people make an 8 hour trip every week; even so, worst possible case for your figures is 8x$10.50 + 2*3*$10.50 = $7600, so not much worse than the average cost of owning a car.

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

except that in my particular circumstance:

a.) my car is free
b.) all my repairs are free
c.) my car insurance is $480/year

but seriously, if it were price competitive for me i totally would.

[ex-meta.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, if you have parents or someone who'll give you a free car and pay for the repairs, that must be nice.

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

my dad is a car dealer & a mechanic by trade. it's not that they pay for anything really.

when my dad gets me a car he does it by selling (retail) the car i'm driving for more than he pays (wholesale) for the replacement car. and i pay for any spare parts. i get the labor free. but i dunno, i think parents help out their kids in their own ways. sorry i'm defensive, i just don't want anyone to think i'm some spoiled brat who's "too good" for zipcar or anything.

[wicketgate.livejournal.com]

How very timely. My car was towed yesterday (parked in front of my house), I had to pay $95 and a $25 dollar parking ticket, WTF?? I'm new to the neighborhood, so I thought maybe I was offbase by thinking that this was extremely over the top, so it's nice to know I'm not the only one who thinks this is ridiculous. I'm going to write a letter toO!!!!

[wicketgate.livejournal.com]

BTW, is it just me, or does Pat's seem like a VERY shady business??

[prog.livejournal.com]

They certainly do not exude the air of quality customer service, but they clearly know they don't need to (what are you going to do, shop around?), and therefore don't care.

I will say that I have been their "customer" several times (between new Somerville policy, old Cambridge policy, and occasionally insane-neighbor policy), and have never been made additionally unhappy by their services, if that's any endorsement...

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

SO SHADY! SO VERY SHADY! it's like they're a privatized arm of the city government.

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

Awesome! I'd be ecstatic if everyone who commented here wrote a letter.

[slinkr.livejournal.com]

You can write to the newspaper too.

I've had similar problems with suddenly ticket-happy cops in Medford. But they did at least re-pave the street after they'd removed all the cars from it.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

write fox-25, they love this kinda dirt...

also, don't forget to mention the potential damage to a car that's towed, especially repeatedly... it's dragged, shimmied, banged around. sometimes the undercarriage is scraped. if you have awd and they don't use a flatbed truck, you get more hosage. if you have manual, and you locked your parking brakes, they have to drag it, or attempt to break into it somehow (and i've heard that when they do get in, things sometimes vanish), and ... more damage, and so on.

none of which they are responsible for. so in addition to $100+ to get your car back, you've pretty much gotta make sure they didn't hurt it other ways (more time: alignment, tires, broken door parts from slim jim)... and more money to fix.

good luck.

[signsoflife.livejournal.com]

I am no longer a resident of Somerville (I moved across 16 to Arlington last march.) In the week before I moved, my mother (who was helping me move out) was ticketed for parking without a visitor's permit -- except the visitor's permit was RIGHT THERE on the dashboard.

And, of course, it wasn't worth it to either of us to take it to Small Claims, which is where it was heading -- "But the permit was right there!" "Well, it couldn't have been there, or you wouldn't have been ticketed."

As for Pat's Towing, they scare me -- as in, based on friends' experiences, I wouldn't go to their tow yard without two big male friends as backup.