No tow, but $100 ticket for street cleaning?

Is there anything in Linehan's bill that gives a $100 ticket to the selfish people that double park outside their cousin Tommy's apartment. Or the selfish people who park in the bus stop next to Bailey's. FIND A PARKING SPOT. They do exist even if its not right outside the front door.

While this is a sound idea i see only one drawback, when a car is towed, in particular to the BPD Lot on Frontage Road, the owner is required to PAY IN FULL ALL TICKETS AND FINES before their car can be released!
The City may actually loose more money then it gains even if they raise the street cleaning fee!! So by eliminating the towing we may be in more of a fiscal mess!! I would not eliminate the towing and still raise the ticket penalty....

You know what the worst part is, is that when you used to get a ticket only, the 4 hour window was fair. Now, you can't park for 4 hours, and if you do you're towed. I run a service company in Boston, and when I arrive at a customer's home to do work, I've gotta park there. Then, the street cleaners may not come for 3.75 hours, but at any point I can be ticketed and towed. The window should shortened to about 2 hours.

Three strike rule!

These tickets are getting ridiculous. Especially in the economy we are in.
Sometime you just make a mistake and forget about street cleaning because you are looking for work!

All of the BTD have computers now. I say use the three strike rule. If you get three tickets then you get towed.

Ahhh, the Mumbles mafia at work. Hey Mumbles....let's hear again how poor Boston is when he and pals are squeezing every penny out of the public.

But what about all those poor tow truck drivers you will put out of business eh?

First of all, I am not from South Boston. I seems to me that a $100 ticket for not moving your vehicle in Southie where there is no other place to park it is a little much when the BOSTON POLICE can park anywhere they damn like and nobody does anything about it.
This is once again a case of punish the taxpayer and reward the government workers.

This is easy-- no towing, but YES to the $100 fine. I have a car in the city in a neighborhood with much tighter parking than Southie (having lived in both neighborhoods I know this as fact) and it's not that hard to make sure your car doesn't get ticketed or towed. Follow the rules on the street signs, it's pretty simple. The towing is a little extreme though.

Great idea! Towing is a waste of resources and only benefits the tow companies. This new plan gives the city more money to clean the streets (which are always filthy) and is much more efficient than towing. I hope you do it citywide. Thanks!

C'mon, now -- it's not too hard to imagine the lobbyists for the two companies schmoozing the city councillors to a fare-thee-well to preserve their cash cow. They've got a guaranteed daily income on days when street sweeping is in effect, so why would they take this ordinance without throwing a chunk of their swag at the councilors (in the form of "campaign contributions" by the owner's relatives and neighbors)?

Is this about clean streets or making money? How will the towing companies make kickbacks to Menino now?

I think that is the back of my car in that picture.

Menino, fix the potholes and line the streets with the proceeds! Back Bay side street cleaning starts at 6:00 AM. That needs to be addressed as well.

Excellent idea! The system should be fair for all offenders.

everyone gets ticketed, but the politically connected (cops, firefighters, city workers, pals of Menino, ie most of Southie) will get their tickets tossed. Plus, the point of towing is so the sweepers can clean the streets, a bigger ticket doesn't move the car out of the way of the sweeper. Just move your car, its not that hard.

Got to love ol' Boston ... always trying to nickle ($50) and dime ($100) you at every step.

Put this in for the Fenway, it is ridiculous that a city strapped for cash lets the towing company come away with so much money. I hate getting tickets and being towed but an increased fine and no towing would help the city, and cost the offender less money. I also agree that moving the cleaning time would get more commuters' cars off the street.

I have been in favor of this policy for a long time. Towing benefits nobody except the towing companies.

Sorry, that won't fly. The point of towing is to clean the streets. A higher fine gets the city money, but leaves the residents with the same filthy streets,

This is a fiscally sound solution. It is punitive getting your car towed plus very difficult to get it back. the tow cost does not include getting to the yard - often by cab. Sometimes there is damage to the car door mechanism or other worse damage. Someone is not going to forget and leave their car very often with a $100 - $125 ticket. A very smart solution which should be applied all over the city and the city gets needed revenue. Nick

What neighborhood do you have to live in to not get towed every single time without fail?? In the South End the tow trucks have been lined up like vultures 6 and 10 deep on every street getting cleaned, every day since they made towing part of the street cleaning operation. It's a hassle and it seems like a revenue generating scam for the city, and now it's extra annoying to hear that it's sporadically enforced. But raising the ticket price won't make people any more likely to move their cars than the possibility of getting towed would, it will just mean more streets won't get cleaned, and those tickets will be ignored, guaranteed.

We get to keep more money, and cut out the tow compainies piece of the action.

Sounds like more about putting $ in city coffers than about getting the streets clean. Guaranteed, without towing they will not be swept curb to curb. How about applying the street cleaning regulations year round? Getting the snow cleared close to curb to close curb would make the street parking in congested neighborhoods available, eliminate fights over shoveled spaces, and put the $ in the coffers needed to buy more BTP tow trucks.

This is one of the most stupid ideas that I have ever heard of. Here the city gets the benefit of an astronomical fine, but the citizens of the city still have to deal with dirty streets. I don't know why Boston has had this fixation with allowing parking scofflaws to get away with blocking the street sweeper for so many years. I am pleased, as well as others that I have spoken with that care about the city, that they are towing cars for street cleaning.

The towing of cars is not arbitrary, it is very clear cut. If you park your car in a spot when street cleaning is scheduled it gets ticketed and towed. It's just that simple.

Why aren't they towing everybody?

What's the matter with this city!

People who live in the South End should not own their own personal vehicle. This is the perfect neighborhood to live car-free in, but of course trying to get any Americans, even Bostonians to live without their cars is like trying to take away their right arm. :P

-- Chex, Car-free in Boston previously & now Montreal for 7+ years...

I'd be all for it, if the street cleaner did anything but push the trash around a little. I saw them towing cars on our street last year, but they didn't even clean the spot where the cars were- the street cleaner was long gone.

I like the idea!, Being one who got hit with the ticket and tow, I like that the ticket gets incresed and leaves the tow company out of the loop, they tow your car and damage it and don't care because they are getting paid most of the money out of your pocket for parking in your own neighborhood.
I like the from 8am to 9am as well , this gives people enough time to move their cars, I am so impressed. GET RIDOF THOSE LOUSY TOW COMPANIES!!

Why not the $100 ticket and the tow. Who cares if it's arbitrary. As someone who has had his car towed a couple times, I can attest that there is no better deterrent than the likely threat of a tow. In neighborhoods like Back Bay and Beacon Hill, there are plenty of well-off residents who have no problem with forking over the fine, but who have a real problem with getting towed. By only having a fine, the system allows for the well off to essentially buy their way out of having to obey the law. Being towed may be a huge pain, but the threat of it is very effective at getting us all to obey the law.

What's the point of a ticket if you can't clean the street? Either tow all the cars and clean the street, or move on. Makes no sense.

Now that's the way to think. No I'm not being sarcastic. SIN TAXES... not general taxes! Increase fines for scofflaws and use the money for specific city/town services. State should also OK use of (portable) speed cameras on highways and front $$$ to cities and towns to buy several. Cameras will free police for "Police Work" and reduce accidents ... and 100% of the fines would go directly to city/town of violation (Staties get state highway fines). Also, increase fees dramatically for anyone holding a liquor license be it packy or restaurant. Again safety on roads and fees to pay for city/town services.

How about getting the cops over there to ticket the litter-bugs.. then you won't need the sweepers at all! People CLEAN UP YOUR OWN MESS! Earth Day is every day!

if you have a problem with this, then go read the article about how the city says it has better things to do than to ticket illegally parked Police Cars.

BUT, it has plenty of manpower to give out $100 tickets to regular people. hey, the police protect us, they are great. but at the same time, treat the citizens with more respect.

(sigh) it's classic haves against the have-nots, the bailed out and the regular joe. revolution people, revolution.

if you are a Banking Exec or a bigwig with AIG, you should get your car-towed every day so you will see how if feels for regular people who are losing their jobs, fall behind on payments and lose their homes and cars.

I don't understand why the street cleaning is ONLY in the spring-fall. The City should do it all winter to clean up the snow that builds up between storms.

If the City got the cars off the street to clear the snow between storms, then the snow piles wouldn't take away every other spot. I would bet people wouldn't be so possessive of the spot they shoveled.

Good idea to stop the towing,

I am supportive of this measure. For the most part I'd think people (or in the case of South Boston their parents) pay the fines. I'd rather than money be going to the city, as opposed to Joe's Tow company. If you have a Parking Permit, you should be smart enough to read the signs and remember when street cleaning is.

I'd like to see this extended to fining people who leave their dumb space savers in a spot 49 hours after the snow storm.

I believe that the cars are actually towed in order for the street sweeper to get to the curb and do their job. Towing the cars is less about being arbitrary and punitive and more about clearing the streets of cars so that they can be cleaned by the sweeper. I'm sure that if the city had more equipment and more drivers, more cars would be towed, but the cars that are towed are simply the ones in the line of fire for the street sweeper on that particular date. The streets are terribly dirty so I am totally for the policy as it currently stands...paying attention to the signs and acting accordingly has kept many of outs of trouble!

I like it. I would raise the price to $150 though. All the yuppies here have the money.

As a towing operator for one of the City's Towing Companies, I am involved with the Street Cleaning towing on a daily basis.

The signs are posted on every street we tow. How hard is it to read them?
As for the ticketing, if the sign says 12:01 pm to 4:00 pm, they don't start ticketing until 12:30 pm. So right there you have 30 minutes extra to move your car. Every car towed goes through a process with the Boston Police Tow line, so there is no mistake that the car was towed for Street Cleaning.

Sweep the gutter in front of your own house. If an inspector comes by and the gutter has not been swept, add a surcharge to the owners property tax.

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