Double Snow Fail, Philly Style
I live on the main eastbound street in West Philly, just off the Penn campus. It's a critical route for inbound commuters and is thus one of the city's "Snow Emergency Routes."
When City Hall declares an official "Snow Emergency," all parked cars must be removed from these streets. Failure to comply can bring either a $150 ticket or are towed to a city storage lot -- where you don't get the car back till you pay the ticket AND the towing fee AND the storage charge, and the lot is somewhere in the middle of East Bumblefuck, so you also get to shell out for a $50 cab ride if you can't find a friend to take you there.
Last night, a Snow Emergency was declared, effective 9 AM today. It's been repeatedly announced on every radio station, reported in the newspapers, and they even had the City Hall autodialer call every land-line on the affected streets with a reminder.
Which brings us to Fail #1: They have the cheap-ass model autodialer, which does not have the capability of waiting until an answering machine's message is complete before it rattles off its spiel. Those who hear the news via voicemail of one or another variety only get the last half of the message.
So, about 3 PM this afternoon, I'm out in front of the house doing the first round of shoveling. (I figure that four rounds of 3" shovelling is wiser than one round of 12" shovelling, and my back agrees.) Clearly, the message has not gotten through to many of my neighbors, as there are at least a dozen snow-covered cars parked on my side of the street alone.
[Aside: Some of this is attributable to two key factors, which the city hasn't figured out yet:
First, many of the block's residents are students, who don't have land-lines, only cell-phones, and who don't generally pay attention to local news or radio.
Second, my block also has a fair number of immigrants from Asia, Africa, and South America. They don't have much English yet, and I've no idea how well they keep up with local events.
(And, obviously enough, neither of these groups is likely to know what the city's "Snow Emergency" regulations entail to begin with.)]
Also on the block, stopped next to the first of the improperly-parked cars, is a Philly Police car. The operator is sitting inside the car, writing tickets, and then getting out to place them on the offending vehicles. He wipes away a bit of snow from the windshield and tucks the ticket under the wiper blade.
When he finally gets to the cars directly in front of my house, I've just finished shovelling for the moment and the snow is already doing its best to erase my efforts. I wander over to take a closer look. And, as I expected, it's time for...
Fail #2: They're using standard thick-paper ticketing stock, tucked inside a paper envelope. These tickets will get covered up by snow, so the owners won't notice them until they are actually ready to drive away. If there's been any melting prior to the owner's arrival, the tickets will also be sopping wet and totally unreadable. And some of those owners will probably start their cars and turn on the wipers in order to clear the windshield, mangling the ticket even further. (Which means that they won't get to pay up until they receive the second notice in the mail, complete with late fees and interest charges...)
Nice work, hometown!
When City Hall declares an official "Snow Emergency," all parked cars must be removed from these streets. Failure to comply can bring either a $150 ticket or are towed to a city storage lot -- where you don't get the car back till you pay the ticket AND the towing fee AND the storage charge, and the lot is somewhere in the middle of East Bumblefuck, so you also get to shell out for a $50 cab ride if you can't find a friend to take you there.
Last night, a Snow Emergency was declared, effective 9 AM today. It's been repeatedly announced on every radio station, reported in the newspapers, and they even had the City Hall autodialer call every land-line on the affected streets with a reminder.
Which brings us to Fail #1: They have the cheap-ass model autodialer, which does not have the capability of waiting until an answering machine's message is complete before it rattles off its spiel. Those who hear the news via voicemail of one or another variety only get the last half of the message.
So, about 3 PM this afternoon, I'm out in front of the house doing the first round of shoveling. (I figure that four rounds of 3" shovelling is wiser than one round of 12" shovelling, and my back agrees.) Clearly, the message has not gotten through to many of my neighbors, as there are at least a dozen snow-covered cars parked on my side of the street alone.
[Aside: Some of this is attributable to two key factors, which the city hasn't figured out yet:
First, many of the block's residents are students, who don't have land-lines, only cell-phones, and who don't generally pay attention to local news or radio.
Second, my block also has a fair number of immigrants from Asia, Africa, and South America. They don't have much English yet, and I've no idea how well they keep up with local events.
(And, obviously enough, neither of these groups is likely to know what the city's "Snow Emergency" regulations entail to begin with.)]
Also on the block, stopped next to the first of the improperly-parked cars, is a Philly Police car. The operator is sitting inside the car, writing tickets, and then getting out to place them on the offending vehicles. He wipes away a bit of snow from the windshield and tucks the ticket under the wiper blade.
When he finally gets to the cars directly in front of my house, I've just finished shovelling for the moment and the snow is already doing its best to erase my efforts. I wander over to take a closer look. And, as I expected, it's time for...
Fail #2: They're using standard thick-paper ticketing stock, tucked inside a paper envelope. These tickets will get covered up by snow, so the owners won't notice them until they are actually ready to drive away. If there's been any melting prior to the owner's arrival, the tickets will also be sopping wet and totally unreadable. And some of those owners will probably start their cars and turn on the wipers in order to clear the windshield, mangling the ticket even further. (Which means that they won't get to pay up until they receive the second notice in the mail, complete with late fees and interest charges...)
Nice work, hometown!