![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
paradoox.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
davis_squareDoes anyone have any experience with paying a parking ticket in person at the parking office in Davis Square with say $50 worth of quarters? (unrolled) I'm not quite mean enough to show up with $50 worth of pennies (and really don't want to spend the time sitting there while they are counted), but I want to make a statement. I'll all honesty, I'd pay by credit card if Somerville didn't charge an extra fee (Boston doesn't). Yes, I could mail in a check but there is no satisfaction in that. Parking enforcement in Somerville has jumped the shark and it is time for some civil disobedience.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-05-02 04:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-02 04:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-02 04:44 am (UTC)Wouldn't it be more efficient to pay the ticket with a check or ten-dollar bills, and then in the time you have remaining (that you would have spent standing there in the parking office, waiting for Dot to count your quarters) write your own letter to the mayor; rather than try to induce the people waiting behind you in line to do so?
no subject
Date: 2010-05-02 05:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-02 03:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-02 04:42 am (UTC)i hope the businesses are keeping track of the increase or decrease in their businesses and how they are impacted.
if they are making MORE money with the turn over, then that committee did the right thing, right?
and if they are making LESS, well, then it didn't.
from some posts i've been reading, some of the businesses have been impacted more than a bit. if so, they'll make their concerns known.
me? i largely took my business elsewhere. parking tax? fooey. i miss my diesel coffee, but the risk of running afoul the parking vultures is too great.
#
no subject
Date: 2010-05-02 04:41 am (UTC)i realize you're doing this to make a statement though, and i don't know if it's different for a public office type thing vs. a private shop, but just a heads up in case they turn you away, have some other form of payment on you if you want to pay that day.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-02 05:16 am (UTC)ETA: and refusing the form of payment doesn't cancel the debt or obligation. Sorry.
Go with pennies
Date: 2010-05-02 01:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-02 01:33 pm (UTC)Please do like someone else said and use the extra time you'd have lost by writing a letter, or come up with some other way to protest whatever you think is unfair about Somerville parking. I'm pretty sure that if you decide to do this annoying act, it will annoy everyone around you and probably yourself as well when you realize it is not as satisfying as it sounds.
Did you get the ticket for something you did wrong (were there signs posted and you disobeyed them?) or was it in your eyes a wrongful ticket? If it is wrongful, appeal it. If it's not, pay your fee in an adult way and work positively in some way to get the laws changed if you do not like them.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-02 03:52 pm (UTC)I fell afoul of interpreting the "resident parking restrictions not enforced for SOS". Like people might just want to go out to dinner after SOS or not leave exactly at 6 PM.
In any case, charging $50 for a resident parking violation and $25 for a meter violation leads me to believe that Somerville Parking really does have it's head on backwards. If you just cared about revenue, you would charge more for meter violations.
Go for it
Date: 2010-05-02 01:53 pm (UTC)I say go for it but you should have them rolled with so many.
It's legal money , why make their job easier? The parking dept doesn't make it easy for the working people of this city.
do I sound bitter? You betcha.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-02 01:56 pm (UTC)I also meant to add I just recently found out that Somerville has extended their meters to 8pm.
Is this city wide? Massachusetts in general is becoming such a difficult place to live.
I normally don't use meters in Somerville since I have the sticker but I thought I only had to put up with this in Boston not Somerville.
Hell of a way to make revenue for the city.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-02 08:27 pm (UTC)Also, FYI, if you don't like parking tickets, here are two simple tips to avoid getting them:
* Learn the rules
* Follow them
I know that's not as fun as whining about it on DSLJ, but seriously, "ZOMG I HATE THE PARKING PEOPLE" has been a lengthy and tiresome subject every month or so for the past... five years?
no subject
Date: 2010-05-02 08:36 pm (UTC)I'm not referring to an unpaid meter.
2.The metersI was referring to were in effect to 8pm in Union Square. That's where I found out about it. So maybe city wide now?
no subject
Date: 2010-05-02 08:47 pm (UTC)It may be satisfying to you, but....
Date: 2010-05-02 02:20 pm (UTC)They go to the person behind the counter at the parking office, who counts them. Someone else probably counts them at the end of the shift to verify the drawer has the right amount of money. It gets taken to the bank and counted again by someone at the bank.
None of those people set the parking fees.
http://www.break.com/index/8800-penny-prank.html
Re: It may be satisfying to you, but....
Date: 2010-05-02 07:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-02 02:36 pm (UTC)What you're suggesting isn't civil disobedience. Since you're paying the parking ticket that you've been ordered to pay, it's more like civil obedience while mumbling something incoherent under your breath as you walk away. An effective civil disobedience in this case would involve not paying the ticket while making some kind of useful and interesting statement about the current state of parking enforcement.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-02 03:46 pm (UTC)Yes!
Date: 2010-05-02 10:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-04 02:01 pm (UTC)