I'm thinking the city needs to establish price caps on towing, much like price caps on interest rates.
This is not because of anything that happened to me (I'm a pretty scrupulous parker, to the point of having one of the city's GREAT parking-meter cards...really a terrific idea, if seldom used. You never need quarters, just fill up the card with cash at sort of a reverse change machine, then stick the card in a meter slot. You can even get a receipt and be reimbursed by your employer in some cases...hard to do a quarter at a time.) Anyway, I'm writing because an acquaintance was towed the other day. Full disclosure: he screwed up. He was warned not to park in the private lot a day earlier (it's barely used; the company has all but moved out of town), chanced it the next day thinking he'd only be there an hour, and got nailed. OK, he deserved to get towed and feel financial pain. What I don't think he deserved was the $200 charge! ($225 had he not paid cash. This was a private tow lot, by the way, not the city's.) Don't get me wrong; I'm all for towing in many circumstances (in fact, I believe parked cars that illegally clog a lane on LaSalle south of Grant Street between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. should be vaporized). However, at some point the get-out-of-car-jail-fee becomes...usury. I'm all for adding on a daily fee above the tow charge if they don't pick their cars up right away, but it seems like a much lower limit ($100?) would still produce a significant deterrent effect. I know the city makes mucho dinero from this, but - having not been towed for awhile, I don't know how much this limit would cut into their haul. Still, a reasonable limit is the right thing to do. At the VERY least, make 'em post the car bail charges (this lot didn't). Opinions? David Brauer Kingfield REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
