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yes, tom, this is now your responsibility. good job and thank you!
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This thread should also help avoid any other thread of people posting about how long it took for them to get their cars out of the impound lot because they didn't know there was a snow emergency.
I figure a new thread needed to be started considering things are working a bit different for informing people of snow emergencies. If you are new to living here, please read the web pages. It is slightly confusing at first but you get use to it.
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Thanks for the links
Wow, the MPLS twitter page chose a very understated background.
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Ha, I literally said "hey-o" when I opened that twitter page.
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haha, but you know, if they are changing it every time there is a snow emergency then good for them. I am always amazed at people who have lived here forever who complain about not knowing about snow emergency stuff.
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snow emergency twitters! genius!
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maybe it is a useful website
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That'd be funny if they didn’t understand the limitations of Twitter yet and just copy/pasted their update and it looked something like:
Thanks for checking out the Twitter feed. You're probably wondering if there is a snow emergency or not and after some long and hard consideration we have decided that
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on facedbrook
http://www.facebook.com/MinneapolisSnowEmergency?ref=nf&v=wall
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When I first tried to follow the city of Minneapolis Twitter its feed was set to private.
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Saint Paul not on FB, as far as I can tell.
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http://www.facebook.com/index.php?#/pages/Saint-Paul-MN/St-Paul-Snow-Emergency/52977232356?ref=nf
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Damn, yo, don't know how I couldn't find that before.
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Parking on the street is for poor people.
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Cars are for poor people.
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I'm so glad that wasn't this morning. We have mom-in-law's car while she's out of town and I was looking at it there in the street covered in snow and wondering if I had to drag my ass out there to push it into the driveway. Now I have a few more hours to procrastinate doing it.
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just discovered I locked my car with the key in the ignition this morning, lock out on way, $60, crap
of all the days to do this
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I noticed on the news tonight (Kare 11 & KMSP9) that they didn't actually SHOW people how the snow emergencies work (at least in Mpls) - they just had the goofyball reporters outside of the lot talking about it.
Ironic in the sense that they are touting Facebook & Twitter as useful tools to get the message out and they are - but in our modern age of pervasive idiocy people need pictures to help learn this procedure which can be very confusing. I had no clue how they worked until a couple years ago when I saw a photo illustration on the fridge when I moved to Minneapolis proper.
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they probably don't show you cause the rules can be different in mpls and st. paul. people might need pictures to explain to them which city they're in.
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So for the second year in a row some idiot park right in front of our house, then the plows came. Now we will have a giant pile of snow where one of us parks 95% of the time.
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I just got a $42 ticket outside of my job, cause i parked on the ALREADY plowed street, assuming it was alright. I'm terrible at life stuff. #@!*&^#!@$#(#*@(
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$42 is way better than $150 plus having to get a ride to the lot plus waiting in line, on the bright side. That sucks, though.
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i always worry about my car, i park at the side ov my building off an alleyway on a patch of gravel or some shit. I *think* i was cool there last year, but I'm not positive. I live off a busline to the U, so kids always park on my street and take the bus to class so there isnt much room to park during school days. i hatttee getting towed.
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Declared for Minneapolis TODAY!
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Yeah, the ticket sucks, but those lines at the impound lot are hell.
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Okay, here's my situation:
I cannot park on the side streets by my house. There is like a foot of slush. It took me 20 minutes to get out of the driveway. It seems like the main road (28th St) was plowed, but how do I know for sure? I'm parked out there right now, as are a bunch of other vehicles. It looks like a vehicle toward the end of the block may have been towed earlier cuz there is a bunch of snow that didn't get plowed. I don't know what to do and I hate this shizzz.
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HMH, fight that shit.
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i just spent a long time getting my car into the driveway. not fun at all, but at least i wont get towed. sorry if uptown smells like burning rubber.
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So, um, they plowed our street but have not plowed to the cub yet. Instead they LEFT all the snow piled up so it's now impossible to park on the street. Like, five feet from the curb.
Fuck you TIm Pawlenty for fucking over the Twin Cities with your bullshit tax policies.
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i live on a snow emergency route in uptown - i am parked on the odd side of a street about 5 blocks from my apartment in a pile of snow that was never removed from the last snow event - not looking forward to trying to move the car on sat
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ugh i totally could have parked on the snow emergency last night. i wonder how long it's gonna take me to get out of the driveway... that's if i can get my car doors open.
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I parked on the even side of the street last night because it seemed to have been plowed more recently than the odd side. I knew I would have to get up early today but was totally fine with it. Even parking on the plowed side, it was a pain to get my car out. This shit froze solid and I am so so so so so so happy I shoveled last night. I drove around the neighborhood in NE Mpls and the side streets are a disaster. I parked on a main street. These roads right now are at their worst because it froze so quickly.
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doors frozen shut booooo
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HMH's doors were frozen shut too, I think she was going to try dumping some boiling water on there to get it open. I really detest this kind of "snow."
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The greenway was plowed & safe to ride today, amazing.
A group of much older riders passed me going super fast.
The streets are hilariously bad though, little ice mountains
all over the place. Somebody hit a plow trying to pass on
the right while I slowly pedaled over the Marshall bridge.
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After going to the Turf tonight, St. Paul should really have waited to declare a show emergency as Minneapolis did. Snelling and Univerisity were both fucked.
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what are the streets like? how much snow did we get?
i am driving back today from WI and have no idea.
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fuck. im not sure i can drive back today.
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David posted this on Dec 27th, 2009 at 03:11:57 am
After going to the Turf tonight, St. Paul should really have waited to declare a show emergency as Minneapolis did. Snelling and Univerisity were both fucked.
Marshall was like a bombed out ox cart track, and seemed to only have been sanded in the middle of the blocks. The intersections were ice vomits. I was scraping the bottom of my car on the rut ridges and hearing the ice bombs explode beneath me. I couldn't believe how shitty the St. Paul roads were. Cleveland, Cretin, St. Clair, Marshall - all fucked. Crossing back into Minneapolis was like returning to civilization.
Fuck You, St. Paul
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while driving to extreme noise yesterday, i found myself on harriet ave, between 31st and Lake...total nightmare...there were tire ruts dug into the ice, but in the middle of the road...which was fine until i encountered an oncoming car about halfway down the block. that was tricky. especially cuz the douche just kept coming towards me. had he waited until i passed, it would have been all good.
motherfuckers be impatient and shit.
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Declared.
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arent they supposed to wait until the snow is done falling?
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they have a twitter feed now, kinda handy
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my fucking lowrider does not like this rutted street situation. stupid goddamn lowriding honda with spoilers. why would anyone try to steal that thing.
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WOAH MAGS IS ON TWITTER?
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lol. Saint Paul is super weak when it comes to this, for sure. I like to think it keeps out the baddies.
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I think I will enter my St. Paul Streets car driving skillz in this Olympic's halfpipe event.
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bump, move your car, Mpls
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must only be for MPLS right now. I haven't gotten the email for a St Paul declaration.
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St Paul no, as of yet
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45 minutes to shovel me and the neighbor out of our parking spots, two hours and a total of 11 people to get just one car back in. I'm not sure the city has even considered plowing our alley this year. Is there some sort of anything that back be done to force them to take care of our foot deep ice ruts?
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I often complain about having to hire private contractors to plow the alleys in st. paul, but really, it's great. My alley is always cleared hours before the streets are. They have already plowed at least 3 times.
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3 times today.
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How the fuck has St. Paul not called a snow emergency yet?
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From their website, they say they are waiting for the storm to end. I sorta get that logic.
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oh is there snow over there, too? what a coincidence.
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we got towed. did mineeapolis change the snow emergency rules? I thought they were on the three day plan.
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on a similar note, this winter has made the potholes TRANSCENDENT!
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called in Saint Paul
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last night my feet were very very cold and the buses dont come very often so i drove to kitty cat klub. drove around for about 10 minutes looking for non-snow emergency parking before i realized the closest i could get was like 5 blocks from my house. went home, waited for the bus for 15 minutes, and got a ride home from some people i chatted up.
and watched one girl at the bar freak out as we saw her car on a tow truck
good story.
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so minneapolis is done with the plowing and stuff and you can park wherevers now?
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one more day.
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Saint Paul start(ed)s tonight. I actually had to snowblow well into the street because I could barely get out this morning.
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dannypaws posted this on Feb 09th, 2010 at 08:23:06 pm
so minneapolis is done with the plowing and stuff and you can park wherevers now?
you can park anywhere that has been plowed
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until thursday
Minneapolis limits street parking until April 1
Snowbanks have narrowed the streets, leaving not enough room for both parked cars and emergency vehicles.
Last update: February 9, 2010 - 8:47 PM
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With curbside snow piles turning many city streets into narrow passageways, Minneapolis is banning parking on one side of most residential streets starting Thursday.
That day at 8 a.m., parking will be banned on the even-numbered side of non-snow emergency routes, which are streets that have blue street-name signs.
The ban will last until April 1, unless conditions allow it to be lifted earlier, the city said Tuesday. The ban begins 12 hours after the current snow emergency ends at 8 p.m. Wednesday.
The city noted that about 30 inches of snow had fallen so far this season, with very little melting. Narrowed streets can be tricky for large emergency vehicles such as firetrucks or ambulances if cars are parked on both sides, hence the restriction.
A truck from the Minneapolis Fire Department will demonstrate the difficulty of driving down neighborhood streets today at 1 p.m. at E. 19th Street and Stevens Av. S.
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You'd think a guy wanting to be governor would at least see after downtown potholes. Or how about at least the ones on 5th Avenue, the street any visitor cabbing in from the airport hits first.
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the streets are in the worst shape i've ever seen them, any winter. biking is the art of dodging constantly.
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I know this thread is about cars and snow but as a year round bicyclist, I'm happy to have more room on the road.
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OOOOPS!
My fuck-up this time. Brain dead at end of eve last night.
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Sympathies. Getting towed is the most royal of pains-in-the-ass. I hear the impound lot doesn't even wash your car anymore.
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On the pothole tip - the extreme rain/freeze scenario really, really fucks up streets. Plus patching potholes in the middle of winter doesn't really work. The asphalt doesn't set right and it's basically like putting sand in a hole - it all just comes out the second it gets driven over. So, you know for what it's worth. Plus, you may have heard the city has no money. I mean NO money.
But the plowing jobby over Christmas was unconscionably bad. Like bad bad bad.
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i agree getting towed sucks. they dont seem to do it much in my neighborhood resulting in streets that dont really ever get plowed.
i think they should not tow people but fine them the cost of the city coming a second time and removing the snow that couldnt get plowed the first time
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That would be a crazy dollar amount.
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After the initial rage and self-hate, I kinda treated it like an adventure outing for the day. A really expensive Valley Fair day where the only ride is just.... a line.... in the wind and snow..... for an hour or two.
It was all cool till I realized they didnt even have some Swiss Miss waiting in the lobby when we got in. Vacation over.
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Will they enforce this by towing? Seems like a logistical impossibility. When I lived in Loring Park, plenty of cars would escape the tow during snow emergencies; there were more violators than the tow-trucks could handle.
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the towing/ticketing/impound relationship is such a racket. Lower income people with nowhere else to park but the street get fucked.
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there are a ton of cars on my block that never got towed
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You guys should all read what fil drummond posted. Bullshit, but understandable bullshit. Spring me, please.
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there was a guy waiting at the tow place in front of me who lived in whittier and said he got towed along with a bunch of people in his neighborhood because they were used to the city not towing/plowing where he lived. but this time...
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They might just ticket you first. But who needs/can afford a ticket? The crybabies are the ones who don't pay attention or don't do the right thing.
This is public safety issue. I think they will tow.
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I am very lucky that in the 10 or so years I've lived here with a car, I only messed up once, and miraculously only got a ticket, not towed. I can't even imagine the hassle of getting towed, but looking at it from the public safety side, I don't know what the alternative would be.
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Of course the one person that didn't move their car this morning was parked in front of my house. They weren't ticketed or towed and I'm going to have a mountain of snow in front of my house. Thanks, asshole.
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I wish the city would pay for body work on the part of my car that got smooshed in by some idiot who couldn't turn around in the narrow street one night. Come on, can't ya leave a note?
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my neighbors shoveled all their snow into the street for some reason. now there are huge mounds of ice that the plow cant go over.
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A friend of mine had an expensive night at the clown lounge:
$5 cover +
$9 beer +
$23 cab ride +
$53 parking ticket +
$186 tow fee
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if you never spent time living where there is calender parking, you probably don't quite grasp how much this is going to suck.
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our street was plowed really pitifully after the Xmas storm. Hopefully they'll do a better job this time.
taco satori said something about how we're not going to be able to park on this certain street for the rest of winter because the lanes need to be wider for emergency vehicles. there is already extremely limited parking due to douchebags from the U. has anyone heard of this? why wouldn't they just plow it more?
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this is not directed at anyone but:
It's amazing how many people think that owning a car entitles them to free parking.
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pfft to that.
someone should start a new thread and link this info on the new parking restrictions in minneapolis (I don't know how to link):
http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/news/20100210WinterParkingRestrictions.asp
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WMDEEEE posted this on Feb 09th, 2010 at 09:24:58 pm
the streets are in the worst shape i've ever seen them, any winter. biking is the art of dodging constantly.
It's amazing WMDEEEE, because I remember saying the same thing last winter, and I didn't think it could get any worse, and amazingly it did.
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So, no parking restrictions on "Snow Emergency Routes"?
I live on one, and it's a one-laner with the snowbanks. I don't know how the buses get through it.
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What street is that?
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The city made a killing off the many people who parked on the odd side today. I had to navigate through three tow trucks to get myself down to where I could turn around and park on the even side, which according to this
That day at 8 a.m., parking will be banned on the even-numbered side of non-snow emergency routes, which are streets that have blue street-name signs.
won't be an option come tomorrow.
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WMDEEEE posted this on Feb 09th, 2010 at 09:24:58 pm
the streets are in the worst shape i've ever seen them, any winter. biking is the art of dodging constantly.
Fully backed.
I saw an ambulance get stuck mid block in my neighborhood (stevens) because they couldn't fit through with parking on both sides not too long ago. I know it's going to be a pain in the ass for people who drive, but continuing to allow parking on both sides really is creating a hazard.
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I used to have a really good rundown of the numbers that show that the city doesn't really make money off snow emergency towing but I lost it. Suffice it to say, the cost of towing and impounding barely gets covered and anything extra that would come in just goes back to paying for plowing.
But it stills sucks!
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"The facts are that Snow Emergency enforcement is actually a losing proposition for the City. You have to look at both sides of the accounting ledger. Sure, there is revenue that comes into the Impound lot and it is tempting and popular to assume that it’s all profit and it’s some evil City plot to make money. But in many cases we actually have to pay the towing contractors more than the Impound lot fee (There is a range of prices for tows that are a result of the competitive bidding process to procure towing services.) In the end, any “profit” goes toward the operation and maintenance of the Impound lot and helps fund the added overtime for enforcement activities. Then, if you look at all the lost efficiencies in the field caused by having to enforce the rules, there are huge costs to the taxpayers in lost productivity. If everyone complied with the rules and we didn’t have to wait for enforcement, we could be done in two thirds the time and have a much better finished product."
This?
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WE (Minnesota) SHOULD BE MAKING MONEY OFF THAT SHIT!
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NOW, I'm mad about it.
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Maybe we could sell the snow! Or sell ads in the potholes. Just thinking outside the box here.
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I don't know how common it is to tow half a street of cars parked nigh bumper to bumper, but I imagine it makes up for the leaner ones. Hasn't an increase in enforcement and ticketing been necessitated by leaner times economically and Pawlentily, thus depleting the city gov't coffers?
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"But in many cases we actually have to pay the towing contractors more than the Impound lot fee."
then there's something f'n wrong with their bidding process, right?
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Yeah, Vancouver should buy our snow. With their canadian quarters I ALWAYS seem to have when I want a soda. I buy a freaking pop like once every month or something like that, and EVERY. TIME.
why oh why does that always happen?
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leaner times leading to leaner gov't $$$, that is
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Pawlentily haha taco.
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TS - that is kind of true in traffic enforcement - more to get that to pay for itself given the budget cuts. But not so much in snow parking - if for no other reason than the above explanation.
But the overall budget on snow removal and street maintenane is very much impacted by the lga thing. Most of the problems with the plowing this year haven't actually been budget-related, though. The no-snow-emergency on Christmas snow-then-rain thing was the real problem.
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And I don't really know what should've happened on Christmas. I mean, I want to say there should have been a snow emergency but then again I don't know that hundreds of people hanging out at the impound lot on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day would've gone over too well, either.
It sucks!
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yeah i would have actually felt kinda guilty if i saw some poor guy plowing my street on Xmas. and the freezing rain right after is what started the problem for sure.
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Hm, I dunno, 'trude. I think MOST of them dudes/ladies would have been JUST fine with making double to triple overtime working christmas.
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^That's what my friend's dad makes on holidays if he has to plow. (Illinois)
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Oh, the plow people would be one thing. I'm talkin' about the towed people.
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yeah i know i was just adding.
jstix, this is NOT about some shmuck making a couple extra measly dollars, it's about MY HOLIDAY being RUINED by having to witness his poorness and having to work while I eat ham and laugh.
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hahahaha
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In case no one has heard about it, Minneapolis has banned parking on the even side of the street until April 1st (not an April Fool's joke. This means only park on the odd side of non-snow emergency streets. You can still park on both sides of snow emergency streets.
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Front-loaders arrived in my neighborhood last night and laid waste to the sidewalk snow-ice banks taking up four corners of every block.
Thanks, Soapy! Thanks, City!
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Did they actually remove snow?
the street I live on in St. Paul had plows come through last week that cleared off the bike lanes and parking areas that had been encroached upon by the snow. I woke up to eight foot tall mountains of black ice and snow in my yard that I'm certain will be there until June. I cannot even see the street from the sidewalk. Goodbye grass...
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They did indeed remove. So nice when it happens.
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What a confusing parking rule. I hope they're using the towing revenue to clear the snow away. In my hood they'll let cars sit on both sides for days, waiting for people to get comfortable before they swoop in and tow a dozen people.
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