Tow fee on street sweeping days hiked
Move also seen as revenue booster
Leaving your car on a Boston street on street-cleaning days has meant just a $25 ticket -- an annoyance, yes, but to many a small price to pay for urban living.
No more.
The city has announced an aggressive campaign to ticket and tow cars in violation of street-sweeping restrictions. Motorists will face not only the $25 parking ticket, but a higher fee for ignoring the signs: a $90 towing fee instead of $75.
''This is part of our overall effort to keep the city clean," said Seth Gitell, a spokesman for Mayor Thomas M. Menino.
City officials said they have received an increasing number of complaints in recent years from neighborhood associations and community groups about street sweepers forced to zigzag around illegally parked cars while newspapers, cigarette butts, snack wrappers, and other detritus remain undisturbed.
''Everything blows to the curb, and if you can't get to the curb, you can't keep the city clean," Thomas J. Tinlin, acting commissioner of the Boston Transportation Department, said yesterday. ''The difference between a street where vehicles are parked and where they're not after it's cleaned is dramatic."
But some drivers would rather have the grime than the higher fine, which comes on top of recent increases in various city fees as part of an effort by the Menino administration to stave off another property tax boost this year.
Andre Wright, a Dorchester resident, said $90 is reaching a level beyond what many city residents can afford.
''This is difficult to swallow," he said yesterday as he headed out of the Transportation Department's Frontage Road offices to pick up his car from the tow lot. ''I think it's crazy. It's not like the city needs this."
Ross Levanto, vice president of the Beacon Hill Civic Association, called the new city effort ''a net positive." It adds another potential headache for parking-starved Beacon Hill car owners, he said, but most residents there say cleaner streets will be a benefit worth the trouble.
Last year, the transportation department towed 17,718 vehicles, but only 199 of those were for violations of street-sweeping restrictions, which has long been a towable offense. During the same period, parking enforcement officers gave out thousands of tickets for cars and trucks that blocked street sweepers from getting to trash-strewn curbs.
Tinlin said the city was not announcing how many cars it planned to tow this year or what neighborhoods tow trucks will focus on. Rather than removing all cars in violation, he said, the city will begin unannounced towing sweeps in ''problem areas."
That effort began yesterday, he said, with 35 cars towed to let street sweepers work on Northampton Street in Roxbury. The new towing fees take effect Friday.
Although city officials said the program is about cleanliness and not cash, Boston stands to generate more revenue from the new program. In theory, the city could raise millions by towing some of the tens of thousands of cars it ticketed last year.
But even with the increase in the towing fee, Boston is still a less expensive place to get the hook than some other major Eastern cities, according to municipal transportation officials.
In New York, the towing fee is $185, while Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia both charge $100. Hartford charges $67. In Boston and other cities, people whose cars are towed must also pay a fine for the parking violation and a storage fee if the car is left at the lot overnight.
Danny White of Cambridge, who parked on a Boston street yesterday for a job interview, called the new rate unfair.
''They don't need to rip you off," he said. White got towed, but did he at least get the job? ''I did," he said.
Wright said he misses the days when the towing fee was far lower: It was $12 until January 2004.
Tinlin said the city's towing operation has come a long way since then.
''People used to laugh at us," he said. ''We were one of the cheapest valet companies in the city." 