Maybe it’s a case of damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Mayor Bill Finch, feeling plowed under by criticism of the city’s blizzard response last month, called an emergency declaration for Wednesday at 5 p.m. that included a parking prohibition on designated streets. No snow Thursday during the day, but lots of parking tickets for folks who didn’t follow the snow emergency in a hospital zone. Maybe next time they will follow the rules. The snow did come overnight Thursday into Friday morning.
Brian Lockhart, CT Post, sharpens his stiletto:
Instead of snowflakes, the neighborhoods around St. Vincent’s Medical Center and College in the city’s north end awoke to a flurry of orange parking tickets Thursday morning.
“The city of Bridgeport’s cashing in today,” observed Michele Santora, a student at St. Vincent’s, as she walked from class down Anson Street in the afternoon, passing a dozen cars cited for parking on a snow emergency street.
Read more here.
Can’t have it both ways.
Out of fairness … The Mayor took a beating on the last storm–and rightfully so. If the City is going to follow protocol and do what they are supposed to do–ahead of time (an ounce of prevention = a pound of cure) then the rules need to be followed by all. This was a storm that was expected to be “something” that would be necessary to prompt the City to put the rules into effect. Can’t beat them up on this. And hopefully it will send a strong message, everyone needs to do their part to make the system work.
Bill Finch did a great job cleaning up this new snow storm. He was last seen removing the snow himself off the head of PT Barnum Statue, until someone said “Mr. Mayor I think it’s just seagull droppings.”
Dedicated public servants are merely ensuring the City of Bridgeport is not forced into bankruptcy, and making sure the citizens’ tax rates do not rise too far too fast while maintaining our number-one position nationwide. A $75 parking fee during a non-event is not too much to ask to make sure pension funds do not go broke and government workers can retire in comfort while they still have plenty of time to enjoy their lives–and perhaps move to a place where the winters are not so harsh. Besides the personal satisfaction they get from their jobs, there must be a real incentive. After all, they really are the first line of defense (and not only the uniformed employees) for the powers that be in our democratically elected system. Why is dealing with any government bureaucracy so difficult and unpleasant? To make sure you do not want to repeat the experience and waste their valuable time? To make sure you know who is boss? The government does not work for you, it works for those running it. Bridgeport is an extreme example, and appears to be trapped in a loop that condemns it to forever repeat the experience, but the powers that be operate this way on all levels, municipal, state and federal. They are the “made” men, and they really do have it made. Your city is making a statement after the debacle of the February blizzard to remind you: “Put that in your pipe and smoke it.”
I live in the city, I pay taxes, and it pleases me no end to see the city making money as opposed to spending it.
So yes, I would smoke that shit any day …
With the money saved by keeping the plows off the streets during the blizzard and the income from the ticketing blitz on Thursday, you can probably look forward to a nice tax cut in the near future. There’s more to Bridgeport finances than meets the eye. Smoke ’em if you got ’em …
I for one think if the parking rules were enforced with tickets every day–it would be a good thing. Broken Window theory–fix the small things first.
This is called common sense and once again the Mayor has shown a lack of it. This is just gouging residents to make up for a so-called development policy that is driving away businesses to local towns. Go to Pepper St. in Monroe … there is a business and light industrial park … many of these businesses moved there under Finch’s watch.
BRG–exactly what does your comment have to do with the fact people who refused to comply with a parking ban got ticketed as a result?
Finch did the right thing this time and yet still, people parked wherever they saw fit totally disregarding the parking ban. No one can say they weren’t warned well in advance of a pending storm this time and the parking ban was well advertised in the media. It appears the people who were complaining about insufficient access to the hospitals during the blizzard are now the same ones who are complaining they were ticketed for failure to abide by the parking ban during this snow event. They deserved to be ticketed, this a prime example of a double standard. Indeed, Finch is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t.
The Mayor informed the public about parking issues. Especially around a hospital. We are a large city not a rural country bumpkin community. The Mayor was right to ticket those cars and that has nothing to do with the high taxes we pay. These fines are imposed in all towns and cities. This is an issue you cannot attack Mayor Finch on. I cannot imagine anyone seeing this any other way.
*** WINTER BLUES AND PANIC IN THE PARK CITY, ALL JUSTIFIED WITH B/S SNOW EMERGENCY PARKING TICKETS FOR MUCH-NEEDED CITY REVENUE ON THE BACKS OF ITS UNDERREPRESENTED AND OVERTAXED CITIZENS, NO? ***