As in Oh, you have a car in Dizzy City? Well, that was stupid. Here, let us tax you for it:
Since enacting a snow emergency Friday, the District has handed out tickets totaling more than $1 million in fines for violators of its parking ban. That translates to thousands of pink violation slips slid under windshield wipers, and hundreds of cars towed from city roadways.
As of Wednesday afternoon, D.C. had issued 5,284 snow emergency tickets — each at a cost of $250 — and towed 673 vehicles since the snow emergency went into effect at 9:30 a.m. Friday, according to D.C. Department of Public Works spokeswoman Linda P. Grant. In total, $1,321,000 in fines has been issued, in addition to $67,300 in towing fees at $100 apiece.
To reference Tom Lehrer: ah, towing/parking meters. Those sturdy… bastions of civic revenue. But you can get a song out of it!
One of my coworkers was blasting the District for fining people for walking on the street when the sidewalks hadn’t been cleared, and it didn’t appear that they had fined people for not shoveling their sidewalks.