Conference back40::soapbox

Put up a sign and tow their arses I say!

The driver will be responsible if they are properly forewarned.

Mikey

    If signs are posted explicitly saying that violators of my parking
    space will be towed at the car owners' expense, it's an open-and-shut
    case.  And most towing companies will accept a contract on those terms.
    
    If signs are not posted, I'm probably going to end up eating the towing
    fees.  Until I can get to the sign shop and procure the necessary
    signs.

There should be a sign in the parking lot indicating that it's only for the
use of customers, and that towing is at the expense of the unauthorized
parker.  I've seen dozens of such signs.

    
    Yup, state it as a tow zone and at the owner's expense.
    
    Mary
    

    
    Reason I ask is, we just had a court decision here that said it was
    wrong to charge the motorist, EVEN THOUGH the sign explicitly stated
    that his car would be towed at his expense.  I disagree with this
    decision.
    

Those Canadian Courts. Whatta sensayuma, eh?

    re: Who should pay the towing charge?
    
    Well, that's easy:  the owners of Monstrodome!
    
    Go for the "deep pockets"!
    
    Chris

    
    >Monstrodome
    
    that some kind of italian soup?

    
    
    Best to put a sign which reads:
    
    "Violator's cars will be stripped and left on blocks"

    No, it is a relative of the Leviadome, Gargantudome and the
    Humongodome and the Really Really Large Stadium which hasn't been domed
    yet.  

That's "stripped, TORCHED, and left on blocks", Andy.

:^)

    
    
    Ahhhh.. Jack.... I didn't know we were talking about NYC....
    
    :)
    

Wasn't Monstrodome a guy who made a bunch o' predictions?

    You are thinking of Monstrodomus.  He predicted there would be great
    structures capable of seating thousands that would swill weak alcoholic
    beverages by the gallons and create huge clouds of methane gas while
    watching men in tight pants hit each other.  A true vision of the
    apocalypse if there ever was one.  
    
    

Didn't play ball hisself, though?

I thought Monstrodomus was the Latin version of his name, but he was a
Frenchman named Monstrodome.

    True, he wrote the Monstrodomicon.  He also predicted the facilities
    would be used to round of the citizenry under the guise of the Nuevo 
    Orderi del Mundo.  Truly frightening.  
    
    Oh for the towing thing, make the interlopers pay.  I had to, they
    should too.  

    I thought Monstrodome is what King Kong changed his name to after
    he lost his hair.
    
    Chris

Nah, he joined The Hair Club For Apes.

    hey, did this question really deserve its very own note or could it
    have been put in the TTWA note?
    
    hey, did my question belong in this note or should I have entered it
    into the TTWA note?
    
    hey, ...

    Whack!  There, that should fix the endless loop you seem to be falling
    in.  :-)

    Back to the original question...
    
    I assume that the issue is about parking spaces that are needed for
    customers patronizing an establishment with hours that overlap the ball
    game.
    
    However, if your store closes at say 5:00 and the ball game is at 7:00,
    then why not consider being a good neighbor in the community and allow 
    non-patrons to park?  Then put up a sign that says, 
    "Park here free 5:00 to 10:00 courtesy of (establishment name)."
    
    We all have to live on this stinking planet together.  Why not loosen
    up a little?  Sure, you can take a hard-nosed attitude and post
    absolutely no parking 'cause it's MY property.
    
    And yes, I'm fully aware of that pesky liability concept.  Insurance
    companies and lawyers be damnned.
    
    I have a friend who's been there and tried that.  It works!  People
    remember the generosity and come back to drop their greenbacks.
    
    \Lou

    Sorry....I lost sight of the original question.
    
    My take - If the spaces were needed for commerce during the time the
    violator parked there, then definitely the car owner pays.
    
    If the spaces are not needed at the time, then my previous comments
    (.-1) apply.

    1. do you own the parking spots or are they public property 
       conviently located in from of your shop.
    2. what's the local law have to say about restricting access
       if they are indeed public parking spots.

    
    The spots are on your private property.
    

>    The spots are on your private property.
    
WOW! That wasn't clear from the basenote.

And the court didn't feel the parkers should pay?

Amazing. Are your liberal judges in Canada elected or appointed?

    
    Appointed.
    

Well there's another argument against Canadian gun control, then.

    
    FWIW, I have not read the exact reasoning behind the judge's decision,
    and it may rest on a fine point of the written law rather than on the
    general principle.  As I said, though, I disagree with this decision.  
    It's unfair to expect the landowner to pay up front and take the motorist
    to court to recover the towing fee.
    

    
    post  "private property/no parking"  and "violators will pay fee"
    signs around the property and then construct a fence around the
    parking area with a lockable gate on it. 
    
    when the offending parkers leave their cars, shut the fence and lock them 
    in. when they try to retrieve their cars, charge 'em $20.00 to get their
    cars back. 
    

    or... air is fairly easy to remove from tires, isn't it?

    ....and even more difficult to put back in if the stem has been er, um,
    fixed.  

    
    Well, in one of the more obscure laws recently passed (and signed into
    law, believe it or not) by the Republican Congress, in their "new
    federalism" (where they overrule state law) they say that not only
    can a private towing company tow your car away, not only is the
    car owner responsible for paying any towing and other fees, the
    car owner is reponsible for paying *ANY* fees the towing company
    demands.
    
    And there's not a damn thing you the car owner can do about it.  Pay up
    or lose your car.
    
    								-mr. bill

    
    That would encourage me not to park in tow zones, that's for sure.
    
    Not that I do now, of course, being the law abiding sort that I am.

    
    re: .33
    
    So?  What's the problem?
    
    You don't do the deed... you don't get fined.. (by anybody!)
    
    Seems simple to me...
    

     Obviously, the problem is that a situation has been created wherein a
    certain infraction can result in a disproportionate punishment, with no
    accountability or checks and balances, and to the personal profit of
    some individuals. It would appear to be legalized piracy.
    
     "You were parked illegally." "No, I wasn't." "Yes, you were, and it'll
    cost you more than the car is worth to get it back." <sinister laugh>

    oh, this is great. legal matters settled on what's reasonable. now
    there's an objective agle to base a legal system on!
    
    O Canada...
    
    

    We don't base anything on agles up here.

    
    How about aglets?

    Where are they at?

     what? the agles?

    No, the aglets.

    
    I refuse to answer a question that ends with a preposition.

    aglets is a preposition?

    
    No, 'at'!

    Is that what you're on about?

    
    Stop that at once, or I shall be forced to punish you.

    i'm sorry...

    
    Not you, Chip 8^).
    
    

>    No, 'at'!

I see you're willing to end an exclamation with a preposition.

    
    Yes, I am.  One of my favourites is "@#$%&* off!"  8^)
    
                                             

    
    <--------
    
    >favourites
    
    Are we leaning to the English way of things now my dear???
    
    

    
    ..._now_?  Where have you been?

    
    
    
    Ummmmmmm..... MKO1-1/A10 ?????
    
    
     Hold on.. let me check... (as he stands up to look at the pole)...
    
     Yep!!!!!!! There I am!!!!!!!
    

Everytime I look down, I see my aglets.

    You never wear pants?

    
    
    andy, mz_deb has this wonderfully annoying habit of throwing in u's
    where they don't belong.  just ignore her...
    
    
    

    
    It's certainly not my fault that you colonists don't know how words are
    properly spelt 8^o.

    Mz Deb,
        I thought you were in MSO land,.... 
    Isn't that in Maynard, MA  US of A  ? ? ?
    
    Dan

Spelt -- isn't that a wheat-like grain?

    
    Yes, yes, I am and it is.  Next question 8^)?

    
    So you decided to take your son to see the local smearball team,
    the Shelbyville Shelbyvillains, at the Monstrodome.  The parking fee
    was $15, and you decided that was TOO much.  You decided to drive
    around the area to see if you could find a cheaper spot.  You noticed
    this Dry Cleaner's, which was closed.  There were a few cars parked out
    front, even though the sign said that: "Cars will be towed at owner's
    (sic) risk and expense!".  You decided, "Hey, what the hey, the store is
    closed, and there are other cars here.  It won't matter if I park here."
    
    Unbeknownst to you, however, the owner of the Dry Cleaner's had
    contracted a towing company to patrol the lot after hours and grab
    whatever it could find.  They towed your car away, along with all the other
    cars there, and when you finally found the impound lot, the fee to have
    your car released was $250, which you didn't have.  No problem, you
    decided to come back the next day, but they charged an extra $50 a night
    for storage.
    
    Were you happy?  Was this fair?
    
    

    i'm going to buy a tow truck and head up to "shelbyville!!" 
    
    

    re. 62
    
    is the monstrodome the one with the falling cieling tiles?

    whew... thanks Deb. i can now go into the weekend without a worry in
    the world!
    
    :-)

Sung to the tune of some old song:

Singing way hey tow them away
We plunder the streets of your town
be it edsel or chevy
there is no car too heavy
and we always collect our fee

    RE: .62
    
    Happy?  No but it has happened to me so it is only fair it happens to
    others :-).  Seriously, if it says no parking, you are at risk for
    ignoring the warning.  
    
    Brian

    
    
    what he said

    what she said he said

    
    
    Like Baretta used to say in that oooooooooold TV series...
    
    "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time!"
    

    What if your car was parked legally and got towed anyway?
    
    Suppose I had a tow truck and a pal on the police force, and one day I
    went out and stopped at the end of every street and towed the car
    parked closest to corner and got my pal to write a ticket saying
    allthese cars were parked within ten feet of the corner, regardless of
    whether they were 10 or 20 feet from the corner.  Then I took all these
    cars and locked them up and charged the owners $500 to get them back,
    plus $100 for the storage for the night. 
    
    A good plan?
    
    At least as good a plan as going around during the winter when Boston
    had 100 inches of snow and ticketing all the cars parked adjacent to
    the snowbanks for being more than a foot from the curb.  Or going to
    the MIT campus and ticketing all the students cars for storage
    violations (leaving your car in the same parking space for more than 24
    hours is illegal, although on campus, where most of the students don't
    have a reason to go out and move their car every day, is the only place
    I've ever seen it enforced).
    
    Forget education, go out and buy yourself a tow truck.
    
    Lisa

RE: .71 

	A good plan long as one can get away with it!   Smacks of something
illegal to me.  Sounds like this note is going the way of many others.  I
wouldn't want people parking in front of my business after hours.  They are
likely to litter up my parking lot with glass bottles, etc.  Would you want one
of your best customers to have a flat or worse a cut in the foot!  As far as the
fee charged for the towing, don't park illegally, and you don't have to worry
about it.  A high towing fee will discourage those who feel it's worth $100 to
find this primo parking space.  Besides if they happen not to get towed, they
pay nothing for the space.  Are you against me charging for the use of my
property?

Mikey

    
    One would not have to park to litter your parking lot with debris.
    One would not even have to walk on your property to litter it with
    debris.  A beer bottle thrown in your general direction would do the
    trick.
    
    Lisa

There is a difference between incidental littering, and inviting people onto
one's property unsupervised.  As far as proving legal parking those spaces are
usually marked, (or unmarked by No Parking Here signs).

Mikey