Mass Towing Added To A Miserable 2008 Holiday Season

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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.

While Albany, NY Does The Right Thing, Rochester, NY Embraces Predatory Towing

Flickr.com Photo, Rochester, New York

Even while another city in the same state embraces humane, creative solutions to avoid excessive and predatory towing, the city of Rochester, New York recently went all out to add more misery to what was, already, a pretty dismal holiday season...

You can read the article by Sean Carroll of 13 WHAM right here, click here for article, including something I find to be inexplicable and just-plain-wrong editorializing: the reporter's remark that "it wasn't what the city wanted to do, but it was necessary..."

Was it? Then how does Albany manage to avoid it so effectively, click here?

New York State Is Still Celebrating Its New Predatory Towing Law

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About a month ago, I wrote about a new law in New York that will ban "fee splitting" and other unethical practices. Media in New York State seem to be waking up to the reality of the new law, and...

...here is an example of an article, click here, which can be described as "celebratory" of the law. One cool aspect of the article is the fact it recognizes the Oyster Bay Town Clerk who had the seminal idea for the law.

In the article, one state legislator actually used the phrase "held hostage by predatory towers" and he also said some companies have been involved in "luring" drivers to park in "forbidden" areas with inadequate NO PARKING signs. Under the new law the State Attorney General has the power to STOP BUSINESSES FROM PERFORMING SUCH PRACTICES and SEEK CIVIL DAMAGES.

More than a month later, it seems like New York State is still "dancing in the streets" over its victory. Good job, New York State.

Unethical "Fee Splitting" Practice Banned In New York State

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"Fee splitting" is when a business with a parking lot and a predatory towing company both get a cut of the take, looking upon citizens who happen into lots--often poorly and deceptively marked--as human prey.

According to an article in newsday.com, The good, decent, and visionary legislators who sponsored this law are...

State Senator Charles Fuschillo (R-Merrick) and Assemblyman Harvey Weisenburg (D-Long Beach). Clearly, in the State of New York there is bipartisan support for stopping predatory towing. Yes, even right before Election Day! But the idea, according to the article, actually came from Oyster Bay Town Clerk Steven Labriola.

Other reform measures in the bill, according to the article:

1.) Listing the name and location of the towing company. (They didn't already do that? Good lord, and I thought New York was leading the curve in most regards. I guess Minneapolis was way ahead of New York on this one)

2.) Lot owners have to be present when a vehicle is towed.

3.) Local governments can have stricter regulations against the lots. (I hope many local governments in New York state take this and run with it!)

The unfortunately-named town of "Hicksville" is mentioned in the article as a place infamous for predatory towing.

Take note of the term: FEE SPLITTING. It's now illegal in New York. It SHOULD be illegal in all 50 States, the terrorities, and (let us not forget) Canada.

But I seriously doubt if the Canadians--whose humane towing practices are the stuff of legend--would ever allow this kind of thing to crop up in the first place.

An Insanely Abusive Towing Scheme In Poughkeepsie, New York

Pictured above: Hudson River Hospital for the Insane, Poughkeepsie, New York

Poughkeepsie, New York officials find themselves facing a $1.85 million budget shortfall, but that's OK. They plan to balance the budget on the backs of citizens who get their vehicles towed...

According to this article, the evil plan involves increasing administrative fees to get back impounded cars from $50 to $75 (ka-ching) raising the towing fee from $65 to $100 (ka-ching) and jacking up storage costs for impounded cars from $10 to $25 per day. (ka--oh, never mind)

The focus of the article is on the fact police would now be able to impound vehicles with six or more delinquent parking tickets. (Before, the law was such vehicles could only be towed when found illegally parked) There was a whole lot of talk about cracking down on ticket scofflaws, but the towing fees appear to impact EVERYBODY, not just a small number of scofflaws.

By talking a whole lot about the scofflaws while increasing towing fees for EVERYBODY, the politicians pulled a bait-and-switch. Would it have been possible to increase the various fees ONLY FOR THE PARKING SCOFFLAWS? I don't see why not. But that doesn't appear to be what happened.

Not all the council members wanted to rake the Poughkeepsie public over the coals, however. Mary Solomon (D-Ward 6) and Gwen Johnson (D-Ward 7) both thought the proposed fees were too high. I can't help but note another article from the same region of New York which talks about how the economic downturn has become a windfall...for the repo man.

One commentator on the article going by the handle "hydeparkny" wrote: Of course the (Poughkeepsie) Journal doesn't tell us *where* these parking violations occur. My guess is many of them are "alternate side" violations. Enforcement of "alternate side" is nothing but a revenue grab because the city doesn't actually clean or plow the streets to the curb, which is the whole point of the alternate side scheme."

Meanwhile, staff at the office of the City Administrator are GOING CRAZY trying to figure out how to increase more fees because of the projected budget shortfall. Prepare to kiss your hard-earned money goodbye, citizens of Poughkeepsie.

Towing Operator Backbiting In Madison County, NY

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There's a lot of bickering and backbiting between towing operators in Madison County, New York, from what I can gather in a recent article on cnylink.com...

Like many cities and counties, Madison County, New York uses a rotation system for towing vehicles involved in accidents, seizures, and break-downs which require police involvement. But, according to Dennis Fields of Sun Towing in Oneida, New York, the system has broken down and it's difficult or impossible to communicate with the 911 center.

I am hardly surprised. While the 911 Center is dealing with life and death, these towing operators want somebody as important as the sheriff of Madison County, New York, to straighten out whose precious "turn" it is on the rotation.

LIKE SO MANY OTHER TOWING OPERATOR ROTATION SYSTEMS IN OTHER PLACES (Yes, I've seen this before) confusion tend to start when a vehicle owner has a preferred tow operator OTHER THAN the next guy up on the list.

Then the question becomes, "Does that tow operator stay at the top of the list until they get a turn? Or do they go to the back of the line?"

Can busy 911 operators really be expected to care about scrupulous adherence to a rotation list, even when some towing operator keeps getting bumped? Or when a particular towing company seems to be preferred by a lot of people?

The towing companies sound like, well, "squabbling children on a playground" comes to mind. One can't help but think there should be a more automated and advanced system than (it sounds like) a clip board, not for the sake of divvying up the towing spoils but just because vehicle owners might like to know where the heck their cars went.

Yes, lost in this squabble between towing operators is the issue of ordinary citizens, and whether they are getting the choices and information from the towing system they really need. The biggest concern of the towing operators seems to be whether a special "liaison" could be appointed to deal with the sheriff's department when there are squabbles about whether somebody is getting their turn.

Seriously. A "liaison." Like somebody who mediates between two sovereigns.

At least one towing operator dared to suggest the field was (in the paraphrase of the reporter, Martha Conway) "rife for corruption, with those dispatching or responding to the scene able to influence car owners that one of their friends would be closer or somehow better."

Uh huh. Well, for the record I am a moderate who sees a need to work with towing operators as well as everybody else to improve the system, so right now I'm biting my figurative tongue to avoid throwing a few one-liners out there about who, exactly, was the one who came up with this idea about there being "corruption" associated with the towing industry.

Yes, I'm biting my tongue until it hurts.

Ouch.

New York City Declares A Towing "Blitz" Against Its Own Citizens

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You would think a career politician like NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly would be a little more skillful at choosing his words, unless the New York Post actually placed words in Kelly's mouth in its recent article...

But according to the New York Post, "about 150 cops and several tow trucks" were set to begin a "ticketing and towing blitz" on June 18, 2008, in lower Manhattan. Furthermore, this was the second blitz in three months.

Acting as though fake placards were common (I highly doubt it) Commissioner Kelly used a radio address to warn residents against using the fake parking credentials.

Dictionary.com defines "blitz" as follows:

Noun:

1.) An overwhelming all-out attack, especially a swift ground attack using armored units and air support.

2.) An intensive aerial bombing.

3.) Any swift, vigorous attack, barrage....

OK, yeah, you get the idea. So New York City is launching a "blitz" against its citizens struggling to find places to park their cars, and trying to justify it with wild-eyed talk of some citizens who supposedly use "fake placards."

Commissioner Ray Kelly says "blitz."

I say "abuse and predatory towing practices."