Keep on towing
DISTRICT CITY Councilor Bill Linehan's proposal to eliminate towing by private companies on street cleaning days is no "breath of fresh air," as you put it in your April 9 editorial "For a cleaner sweep of Boston." It's pandering to the residents (and nonresidents, as one study found) who are too lazy or disorganized to move their cars. This city must be the dirtiest in North America, and the last three seasons of towing cars that block the street sweeper have been the most effective effort yet in addressing that problem. Charging more for tickets will not change behavior. Towing will.
You're also wrong to say that towing is arbitrary. So what if the tow trucks can't get to every car in every neighborhood. Eventually all the scofflaws will get their just deserts. My car was towed last summer, and I know how effective that is for making me ensure it doesn't happen again.
It's fine if Linehan wants to change the time towing starts. It's fine if he wants to get more money for the city, but that is beside the point. The practice provides jobs for the tow truck drivers and presumably improves the bottom line for the tow companies, which is a good thing in this economy, though also beside the point.
Towing is the first thing in my many years of living in Boston that has made a difference in the city's appearance. Keep it up.
Karen Cord Taylor, Boston 