Mass Towing Added To A Miserable 2008 Holiday Season

Flickr.com Photo

As if it wasn't bad enough that our nation had one of the worst Christmas retail seasons ever, the large pre-holiday winter storm which dumped snow all over the nation gave many cities an excuse to...

...add even further misery to tightly-stretched holiday budgets with predatory towing practices.

Idaho Falls was an example of this, click here, but I can't really single out this city. Abusive, mass-attack towing happened all over the country...with the notable exceptions of Albany, New York and, (I can assume this based on earlier coverage) Madison, Wisconsin.

It is frustrating for me to see the snowstorm a-coming...to watch media reports about delayed flights, cars buried in white, streets full of slush, and to know beyond a doubt people will get towed, they will be abused, they will be turned upside down and money shook out of their pockets.

And, worst of all, many will assume "that's just the way it is" or tell themselves they were "stupid" for parking where they assumed, innocently, they could indeed park.

Predatory Towing Reform May Happen In Rexburg, Idaho

Flickr.com Photo, BYU Rexburg, Idaho

It only took a decade of complaints from victimized students, most of them from BYU-Idaho. What is the lesson in this? Well,...

If reform takes a decade, better start complaining RIGHT NOW.

According to this article, the proposed ordinance in Rexburg, Idaho aims to address towing concerns at a particular apartment complex, where tow trucks have ranged freely, snatching cars. Now, a representative from the apartment complex will have to be on-site, no more "patrol towing." And there will be an appeals board, too.

It sounds like a good model, especially for what sounds like a rather small town situation. I hope some sympathetic people get on the board. Indeed, students who were victimized should make a point of "packing the board," if at all possible.

This is my first post about Idaho, and it's a great way to put that state on the "Towing Utopia" road map!