Big Time. But it sure is profitable.
You know, first I should say, I’m well informed and mostly not effected by this, but it really sucks for my neighbors. Rob wonders why I care. I care because I think the city is being unpredictable and unfair to 1000s of people who live downtown. And, its part of what makes it hard to live and buy houses in the downtown since many don’t have off street parking or garages. Like I said, I’m largely unaffected except on snow emergency days except maybe having to get up earlier to move my car. Last night I got home from work, parked in the ramp a block from my house, parked for nearly free, got up by 7:30am, moved my car. Paid 80 cents. (That actually doesn’t sound right, I should have been charged for 2.5 hours.) My neighbors didn’t have the same experience and don’t all live so close to a ramp.
Just looking out my window, I can tell you that in 5 blocks that I can see from my window the city made the following money:
0 block of N Hancock = $360
100 block of N Hancock = $420
300 E Mifflin block = $120
400 E MIfflin block = $60
500 E Mifflin block = $300
So the city made $1,260.
And how many parking spots got plowed out to the curb on the side of the street that was allegedly plowed:
0 block of N Hancock = 0
100 block of N Hancock = 0 (Maybe one or two, in one area where the cars were spaced apart more there is a tree in the way, but I think those are driveways that got plowed in and not parking spots)
300 E Mifflin block = 1 (there is a lot of restricted parking here cuz of deliveries to the little store)
400 E MIfflin block = 5 (the one car that parked there was right on the end, this is the success story and where I just parked my car)
500 E Mifflin block = 0
So, the city gets $1,200, we get 6 plowed parking spots.
Now, the city will blame the “students” who live here. Either they are rich and don’t care if they get the tickets (by looking at the cars in my hood, I don’t think that is true at all) or too stupid/oblivious to move their cars.
Now this is what REALLY gets me riled up. The city is so damn unpredictable. I’m guessing the alders will get many calls this morning from people wondering why they got a $60 ticket. You see, the city FINALLY put up signs saying that this is a tow zone during a snow emergency. I think they only did that so that they could legally tow the cars. Not to inform the residents. The other thing that the city does is once a year, if you happened to park your car on the street in the area where there is a snow emergency, they put a postcard on your card. That happened a month or two ago. If your read the postcard you would have found you could sign up for an email or text that lets you know there is a snow emergency – or you can check the city’s website when it snows.
Beyond that, allegedly, if it snows more than 3 inches they call a snow emergency and plow our streets to the curb. Key word being allegedly. Check this out.
Snow Plowing Updates
by Chris Kelley, Interim Streets Superintendent
posted January 13, 2012 5:11 AM
As I am writing this today, we have received around 5.2″ of snowfall from the long lasting light snow that fell from Thursday morning and continued all day on Thursday and into Friday morning.The salt routes are being salted again this morning. The snow did come to a stop around 1:00 am. We hope to have all the salt routes resalted by the morning rush hour but there will definitely be some slippery conditions on them during the morning drive.
We are also currently in the process of plowing all residential streets in the City. We started that process during the overnight hours and the process will continue throughout the day until all streets, cul de sacs and alleys are plowed. We will have approximately 175 pieces of equipment out performing the combination of plowing the residential streets and salting the main arterials and salt routes. It may take a little longer to plow all the residential streets as we have to take 30 of our plow trucks away from plowing the residential streets to salt our main arterials. We hope to have all the residential streets plowed by 10:00 am or soon after.
There has not been a Snow Emergency declaration and we are not expecting to declare one for this storm. However, we ask that if possible, park your vehicles off the street at least until the plows come through so the plows can be more efficient and your cars don’t get plowed in.
So the first storm of the season, they don’t follow their rules about when they declare a snow emergency (3 inches or more). The second snow was almost three inches of snow, no snow emergency. People who live downtown who saw all those signs about snow emergencies conclude they don’t apply and ignore them and probably have long forgotten about the postcard on their car weeks ago. Now, when the city, seemingly randomly declares a snow emergency, no one is aware and instead of getting warnings, the city gives tickets and makes thousands of dollars because they were unpredictable.
I think it sucks. It only cost me 80 cents, but many of my neighbors won’t be so lucky this morning. And of course, there is no information on the cars with the tickets that informs them they can park in the ramps for free tonight or that they have to alternate side park again tonight or how they can find out if there is a snow emergency. The city could at least give them that postcard with their $60 ticket.
I saw a car trying to park where they allegedly plowed, they got stuck. Half a block away, there were 2 people pushing another car out of another parking spot. This will repeat itself over and over and over on the hills by my house – if the plowing was successful they might have a fighting chance on the hills. Instead, tonight they can all fight over the 6 spots that got plowed or get $60 tickets.
The one saving grace is that the city makes a ton of money off my neighbors year round. On Thursdays and Fridays we can’t park on one side of the street from 8 – noon. And you guessed it, if they don’t move, they get ticketed. I requested that the council have these parking restrictions 10 – 2 so that people could leave for work or classes by 10am and not get tickets, but they didn’t listen and so my neighbors get more tickets and the city gets more money. Anyways, my guess is, if the city is doing its job, next Thursday and Friday morning we might get our streets plowed to the curb and there will be another round of tickets. If we don’t, I’ll be even more pissed off – cuz then what is the point of moving our cars every week?
This whole process is absurd. We are a city of smart people. My neighbors can’t afford these $60 tickets – they don’t live at the Lucky. Many aren’t students, they are working people. And if properly educated – are smart enough to follow the rules. Some predictability could help. More education could help. We could have just given them warnings during the first night of the first snow emergency. What happened to the city’s motto of “educate first”. They do it for landlords and bar owners and others. Why not for my neighbors?
There is NO link on the City’s Winter webpage to the ramp parking or any notice of availability of free ramp parking there. One must go to the Parking Utility’ rates page at the bottom. Nuf said.
I strongly disagree. Anyone can sign up for text messages. It’s simple to do. Every student has text messaging. They view them all the time.
Sign-up is a simple thing to do and the city is very good at communicating through this channel.
I am quite sure the city road crews would rather plow empty streets than weave around parked cars from people too lazy, too ignorant, or too entitled to cooperate.
You are right about one thing: MONEY. It costs us (the city) very-big-bucks to run those plows. We might as well do the plowing as effectively as possible. That means getting the cars off the streets.
You’re missing my point. a) how would they know to sign up for the text? or other communications? osmosis? b) not everyone who lives downtown are students c) lazy? ignorant? entitled? That DOES NOT! describe the neighborhood I live in, but it accurately describes what many city management staff think of people who live in the area.
If you moved into an apartment in August and you just moved to Madison, how would you know what a snow emergency is or how to get information about it? If there was 5 inches of snow and nothing happened, why would you think that you needed to do something to move your car when there is less snow than that?
I dunno Brenda. Maybe they listen to the local radio which tends to discuss snow emergencies when declared. Maybe they read the local papers. Both print and web versions offer links to parking and snow route info. Maybe they Google “Madison parking” or similar. Maybe they subscribe to their neighborhood list-serv and discover their alder has provided links.
Finding links to city parking rules and public garages is not difficult. A visit to the local library (or any local business for that matter) can provide information as well.
Your post didn’t discuss how to navigate the snow emergency issue, it simply represented snow emergencies as opportunities for the city to profiteer.
Will – read the last paragraph of the post, I called for multiple things
1. Consistency in following the 3 inch rule (some predictability)
2. Warning for the first snow emergency of the year (some education)
3. Provide information with the tickets that tell people how to avoid them in the future.
Other ideas
– Smaller trucks so that they can plow around two cars that don’t move is another idea.
– Advertise the free parking ramps
– More outreach to the people who live there, mail something, post it on their doors, more than one flyer on a car once a year.
The problem of cars parked on the street blocking the snow plows could be solved by eliminating on street parking. The on street parking could be replaced by bike lanes or the width of the street could be narrowed. If you need a car then live where off street parking is available. Off street parking can be supplied in older neighborhoods when old buildings without parking are replaced with new buildings that include parking. The city could also create some off street parking lots in these neighborhoods.
See http://bostonbiker.org/2009/12/03/on-street-parking-the-enemy-of-a-healthy-city/
The problem of cars parked on the street blocking the snow plows could be solved by eliminating on street parking. The on street parking could be replaced by bike lanes or the width of the street could be narrowed. If you need a car then live where off street parking is available. Off street parking can be supplied in older neighborhoods when old buildings without parking are replaced with new buildings that include parking. The city could also create some off street parking lots in these neighborhoods.
See http://bostonbiker.org/2009/12/03/on-street-parking-the-enemy-of-a-healthy-city/
You write there were postcards placed on the cars telling people about the snow emergency rules. Isn’t that notice? Doesn’t that contridict your ‘but how would they know’ post? They know because there were post cards put on the cars. You write they probably forgot. Now the residents are too stupid or mindless to read and remember? I’ll give them more credit than you seem to do. You want to spend taxpayer dollars doing what – going door to door to tell everyone so they don’t forget? Holding their hands? Does the Streets Department do that instead of plowing? Seems the situation here calls for a little personal responsibility if you own a car and live downtown. As for the tickets – I notice you quote Chris Kelley’s e-mail dated January 13 when there was no declared snow emergency over those two days but then mention tickets received on January 20 when there was a snow emergency declared. I point this out because, in fairness, it could confuse your readers when you compare two different snow storms with different snow totals over several different days. It’s not apples to apples as you seem to think. I for one think the crews have been doing a great job in plowing in our most difficult weather.
1. There is consistency. You are talking about different snow storms (Jan 13 and 14 and Jan 20). The snow fall on Jan 13 and 14 totaled 5.2″ but there was no one snowfall that was over 3″. 2. There was a warning – you wrote that postcards were placed on the cars 2 weeks before the first snowfall. 3. What percentage of the residents downtown really don’t know about this? Aren’t we talking about a few people here – the ones you know? Smaller trucks – are you paying for smaller trucks – because as a taxpayer, I sure can’t afford it. Advertise the free ramps – who is paying for that? More outreach? Again, who is paying? I think a postcard notice is sufficient. It’s called personal responsibility. Postcards and signs – if you don’t care enough to read then the ticket should get your attention.