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?