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I've always thought it would make more sense to scale monetary fines with income. Decide how many hours of work each offense is worth, and fine accordingly.
So, parking fines are set at (spitballing) two hours pay.
The billionaire hedge fund dude pays $1,000,000* for each violation, while the minimum wage folks pay $30.00.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a far, far right libertarian -- but I think debts to society should be matched with your rewards from society.
*Divided 1 billion by 2000 hours.
The guy managing a billionaire hedge fund is paying out so much in tax FOR society you have no damn clue. In addition, he's most likely got a driver who is employed to drive him. So there goes the idea he'd be parking illegally anywhere and even if he did, I'm pretty sure he can afford to have a private parking spot paid for...
And you're very lucky you had the $350 to get your car back out right away, do you realize that?
Now, put yourself in the shoes of someone who works for minimum wage who doesn't have that money, and then it gets compounded at 150 a day or so, while he still doesn't have the money. Within a week or so, his transportation is gone, now the property of the tow lot.
You willingly admit you've made the decision to park illegally yourself. The difference here, is that you had the 350 to cover your error and retrieve your property.
You don't even know what my financial situation was like back then, as a college student, who are you to judge. $350 was a hell of a lot of money to me to fork over to cover a dumb mistake. Yeah, I had money because I'm smart enough to save money in a rainy day fund. Others who don't have that option maybe shouldn't park in tow zones???
I keep wondering how much everyone thinks an impound fee should be?
go buy a 80-100,000 truck, insure it, maintain it, have an office, a staff, a driver, put fuel in the truck and then when the police call, drop whatever you are doing to go to a random location (even if you are on your way to a call, hopefully they will wait and not call someone else), bring the car back to your lot (which needs to be secured) and then HOPE that someone will pick it up, if not you are out whatever it cost you to do the call.
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"I don't understand. But I don't care, so it works out."
(set 7 days ago)
35,629 posts, read 17,968,125 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by likealady
You don't even know what my financial situation was like back then, as a college student, who are you to judge. $350 was a hell of a lot of money to me to fork over to cover a dumb mistake. Yeah, I had money because I'm smart enough to save money in a rainy day fund. Others who don't have that option maybe shouldn't park in tow zones???
I would have guessed, already, that funds were tight because you were in college.
What, exactly, are we disagreeing with here?
I'm not judging you. You're judging other people.
A little empathy goes a long way, LikeALady.
And a follow up question. You're good with getting royally ripped off, and your money going to a private business who provided about 40 bucks worth of service to your college, rather than, say, a Campus Cop parking ticket for about 25 bucks that would go to the university?
This measure definitely rewards bad behavior; and deepens the divide between classes. Why not just lessen the fines and fees for cars left for three days or having multiple tickets on records, by 25-50%, with provisions against raising the prices by certain amounts? That way, there are still penalties, but they're not as steep.
Why is all of the sudden being poor a excuse for breaking the law. This argument is such bleeding heart liberal bs. Oh this man is poor and he parked illegally but he can’t actually afford to pay for his parking violation or tow bill so we’re going to forgive his violation , but you on the other hand are not poor so you can afford to pay for the same parking violation.
At what point do the poor take personal responsibility for their own actions or inactions? I can sympathize with the poor. Early in life I was in a situation where I didn’t have a lot of money and i was scraping a living. But I never thought I deserved some special treatment because of it.
It's a racket and a huge one. I'm not saying that all Cities/Counties in the state do this but I know first hand of several that have a very cozy relationship with local Police. A cop will see a car with an expired reg, or with unpaid tickets and call a tow, he/she will then show up at the tow yard and indicate that they would like to have a chance to bid on that particular vehicle when it goes up for lien sale. The lien sale process can be exploited so that only the cars that are of no value are ever shown to the public, the rest go to cops and friends and family members of the tow company who usually are the only bidders on the cars and end up paying $50-$100 for some really nice cars, trucks and RV's.
The other scam that this bill does not address is that managers of parking lots and apartment complexes can legally enter into a 'general agreement' with a tow company so that the tow company can cruise the parking lot and tow vehicles without the property owner specifically requesting a tow, so parking in the 'guest only' space in your apartment complex for over an hour can result in your losing your car. The tow charge is exorbitant as are the daily storage fees. If you get towed on Friday you probably won't be allowed to get your car until Monday but you will be on the hook for storage fees for four days when you pick it up.
And to add insult to injury the tow company charges you a fee to start the lien sale even if you show up to reclaim your vehicle, they are so sure you won't get your car they start the lien sale 72 hours after your car is towed.
I have lived without a car. Yeah I wanted one but with $400 a month room rent and making $8.70 an hour, you can imagine the fun. THEN I lost my job and for 2 years I was on UI... Oh I kept applying, but there was pretty much nothing. But I did score a $500 car. I had it titled, inspected (OK, it was over 20 years old so DEQ didn't apply) I drove it to interviews BUT I always parked legally. I didn't go speeding or drive drunk.
So those who are whining "But I'm poor" well, you obviously weren't THAT poor to afford a vehicle, even if it's a beater. And what gives you the right to park illegally?
Want to complain? How about the citations cops write. In Oregon for not having the front license plate is a $488 fine...THAT'S ROBBERY....
Once again, the measure passing through the state legislature isn't about illegal parking. It addresses towing cars as a way to get people to pay their outstanding traffic tickets or car registration. It has nothing to do with illegal parking. Illegally-parked cars would still get towed, if the measure passes, no matter the income of the car's owner.
Status:
"I don't understand. But I don't care, so it works out."
(set 7 days ago)
35,629 posts, read 17,968,125 times
Reputation: 50652
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2sleepy
It's a racket and a huge one. I'm not saying that all Cities/Counties in the state do this but I know first hand of several that have a very cozy relationship with local Police. A cop will see a car with an expired reg, or with unpaid tickets and call a tow, he/she will then show up at the tow yard and indicate that they would like to have a chance to bid on that particular vehicle when it goes up for lien sale. The lien sale process can be exploited so that only the cars that are of no value are ever shown to the public, the rest go to cops and friends and family members of the tow company who usually are the only bidders on the cars and end up paying $50-$100 for some really nice cars, trucks and RV's.
The other scam is that managers of parking lots and apartment complexes can legally enter into a 'general agreement' with a tow company so that the tow company can cruise the parking lot and tow vehicles without the property owner specifically requesting a tow, so parking in the 'guest only' space in your apartment complex for over an hour can result in your losing your car. The tow charge is exorbitant as are the daily storage fees. If you get towed on Friday you probably won't be allowed to get your car until Monday but you will be on the hook for storage fees for four days when you pick it up.
And to add insult to injury the tow company charges you a fee to start the lien sale even if you show up to reclaim your vehicle, they are so sure you won't get your car they start the lien sale 72 hours after your car is towed.
Exactly how hard is it not to get a parking ticket? To keep registration up to date? I would think a poor person would be even more on top of it given they would not want to owe the money.
It can be hard. My son lived in Oakland for a few years and spent most of his free time moving his car around to avoid getting cited. It seems that there was inadequate parking space for residents, let alone the hundreds of cars who parked there to go to their appointments at Kaiser, so he was forced to park in two hour zones and run around moving his car every two hours. He had a very good job and paid his tickets but they amounted to quite a bit of money and it is actually quite easy to see how it would have become an impossible burden for someone with a low paying job.
Just in case anyone is going to jump in and give a lecture on how this whole thing was his fault, please do me a favor and don't go there.
Now, they're called "poverty-related" tows in CA, which means "the poor," unlike the rest of the people in SF, won't have their vehicles towed. Nice.
Typical, coming from David Chiu.
It doesn't exempt anyone. It relates to all cars for the violations stated in the statute.
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