Snow emergency

[easy-wind.livejournal.com]

If you are as outraged as me about the City of Somerville handing out $50 parking tickets for violating a snow emergency when... THERE WASN'T A FLAKE OF SNOW ON THE GROUND, I encourage you to write to Mayor Curtatone to express your views:

JCurtatone@ci.somerville.ma.us

Comments

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

Perhaps what he meant was that they have never given out tickets and towed cars before any snow fell.

That might well be the case. Maybe in the past the city has "declared" the emergency before snow starts coming down, but just didn't take any actions to enforce it. They started aggressively towing for street cleaning last fall, too. It used to be just a ticket, now it's a trip to Pat's Tow. Definitely a revenue-enhancement decision.

Re:

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

I really wonder sometimes just how Pat's Tow lucked into such a sweet deal with the city. I can't believe how much they charge to get your car back. I've been towed in Cambridge before and had it cost 1/3 less money, not to mention Cambridge also charges less for the fines. The snobby part of me thinks Somerville is a bit too big for its britches; the cynical part of me thinks this is all just revenue-based law enforcement. The net effect is like, "Hey, sodomize my wallet, please? Thank you, sir, may I have another?" Feh.