Cleaner streets behind towing

The city has launched a towing blitz to remove vehicles that park on streets scheduled for street cleaning, saying that other measures have failed to clear the way before street sweepers come through to remove trash and dirt at the curb.

Boston has signed agreements with 10 private contractors who are swarming neighborhoods. Now instead of violators being ticketed for parking in street- cleaning zones, their vehicles are towed to lots across the city.

Complaints have poured in to city councilors from vexed motorists who say that they can't keep straight parking rules requiring them to vacate curb sides on certain days of the month and that there are too few places to park in congested neighborhoods like the South End. But city officials say they plan to keep up the towing indefinitely in order to halt a perennial problem.

"Residents wanted cleaner streets," said Dorothy Joyce, spokeswoman for Mayor Thomas M. Menino. "That forces us to tow more cars."

The city has towed an average of 190 vehicles a day, a total of 10,433 since ramping up the program in April, compared with only a few before the program started. Officials said that previously the city rarely towed vehicles parked in street-cleaning zones, opting instead to issue tickets and sweep around the offending cars.

The city had come under criticism, including from the Globe, for failing to remove garbage that accumulated at the curbs of city streets. Now the towing program has ruffled some feathers.

"I just think they're tow-happy right now, and it really is getting oppressive and extremely expensive to deal with," said Kristine Glynn, a 36-year-old lobbyist who left her home on Beacon Hill at 8:20 on Monday morning to find that her 1994 Honda Accord had been towed minutes earlier. "The parking is so unbelievably limited. To add this just adds insult to injury."

In an experiment with aggressive towing last fall, the city used seven towing contractors and targeted neighborhoods deemed to have the most frequent offenses. The aggressive program is now in force citywide. The city has also expanded some street-cleaning routes.

In an effort to warn motorists of the new policy, officials have put fliers on the windshields of parked vehicles, with reminders to move on street cleaning days.

"I wish I didn't have to tow a single car," said Dennis Royer, the city's chief of public works and transportation. "I don't want to tow a car. But we're still towing, because there always seems to be people who forget or don't know what's going on. We're hoping over a period of time people get used to this and adjust."

Parking in the wrong spot on street-cleaning day can be an expensive mistake, costing at least $130 in fines and towing costs. Additionally, there's a storage fee of $20 each day a vehicle is impounded. The city keeps $10 from each tow, officials said.

It was the intransigence of offenders, amid mounting complaints about dirty streets, that prompted the towing blitz .

"For us to be successful, we have to get to the curb," Royer said. "If you get me to the curb, I can clean this city. But I can't get to the curb unless we tow people."

There is little sympathy in City Hall for the floods of people calling to complain.

"I can't tell you how many people who have called me after they parked in a zone for street sweeping and wanted me to help," said Councilor John Tobin of West Roxbury.

"Well, the sign is up," he said. "When you play with fire, you're going to get burned every once in a while."

"We can either have clean streets, or we can coddle people who feel angry that their car was towed," said Councilor Michael P. Ross, who represents Beacon Hill and the Back Bay.

"I don't expect people to be happy that their car was towed," he said. "But people need to get with the program, and we have to make a choice as a society: lax enforcement or clean streets. And I believe society wants clean streets."

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.