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Boston's Morning Newsletter
What we learned from Cambridge's no-tow street sweeping experiment
Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from WBUR's daily morning newsletter, WBUR Today. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here.
While you continue reading the tea leaves on whether Taylor Swift will be at the Patriots game this weekend, here’s what to know for today (the first thing being don’t ask Bill Belichick about Taylor Swift):
PSA for on-street parkers: Cambridge is planning to double the cost of a ticket for those who don’t move their cars during street cleaning next year, as the city extends a new no-tow experiment. Since this past spring, the city has put a pause on towing cars parked on the wrong side of the street during the once-a-month sweepings and instead fined violators $50 (a softer punishment than the cost and inconvenience of getting towed). But now, Cambridge officials say $50 fines might not be harsh enough. So, they’re moving to increase penalties to $100 in 2024. Here’s why and what’s next:
- Tickets are up: People seem willing to pay the occasional $50 fine rather than move their car and find a new spot in the dense, residential city. According to a city report released last week, street cleaning tickets are up 93% — from 6,905 tickets in April-October 2022 to 13,322 during the same time this year. The number of repeat offenders also increased from 632 to 1,883 this year. “A $50 [ticket] doesn’t seem to encourage people to move,” City Councilor Paul Toner told WBUR’s John Bender, adding that $100 “might be more of a sting.” (That said, it still costs residents less time and money than getting towed, which added up to $130, plus storage fees of $40 a day).
- Streets are also a bit dirtier: While Cambridge has employed workers with rakes and leaf blowers to clean around unmoved cars, the city says the volume of material swept is down 10% this year. “I’ve been getting emails with people sending me pictures with their streets covered in leaves,” Toner said during a meeting last week. However, the city’s report said they were able to maintain an “appropriate level of cleanliness.”
- The pilot has been popular: In a randomized telephone survey, Cambridge found 69% of residents supported making the no-tow program permanent, with 21% opposed.
- What’s next: The Council voted 7-2 last week to extend the pilot a year. However, they still need approval from the State House to raise the fines to $100 before the 2024 street sweeping season begins in April. The city also plans to assess the program again in January 2025. Depending on how it goes, they could bring towing back or make another change, like gradually increasing fines for repeat offenders.
- Zoom out: While nearby Somerville and Charlestown also issue tickets instead of tows for street cleaning, don’t expect the rest of Boston to follow suit anytime soon. Boston officials say they’re sticking with towing so sweepers have “complete and total access to the curb” where most leaves and litter collect.
- One other thing: Cambridge is also going back to a male voice for its infamous street sweeping announcement truck, after trying a female voice. The reason: according to residents (and science), the higher-pitch female voice was harder to hear through walls.
If at first you don’t succeed: Geoff Diehl is eyeing another run for elected office in Massachusetts. Diehl — the (unsuccessful) GOP nominee for U.S. Senate in 2018 and for governor in 2022 — filed paperwork Monday indicating he may run for state Senate in 2024.
- It would be Diehl’s second shot at the Brockton-area state Senate seat, which includes his hometown of Whitman. The seat is currently held by state Sen. Michael Brady, a Democrat who won it in a 2015 special election against Diehl.
Heads up, South Coast: MassDOT is advising drivers entering Rhode Island to prepare for a disruptive highway closure just over the border. Officials abruptly announced yesterday that all I-195 westbound lanes on the Washington Bridge in Providence will be closed and detoured for two to three weeks so crews can make repairs after finding “a critical failure of some bridge components.” And so far this morning, the traffic looks BAD.
- After the detour, westbound traffic is expected to move to two lanes on the eastbound side of the bridge. But permanent repairs could take three months or more to complete.
One of Boston’s biggest employers, the financial services company State Street, is laying off 1,500 people this month — a 3.6% cut to its 42,000-person workforce. According to the Boston Business Journal, State Street had 7,500 employees in Boston as of 2022, but the company isn’t saying how many will be impacted.
P.S.— The best way to avoid street sweeping tickets and tows? Sign up for your city’s text alerts. Here’s the link for Cambridge’s reminders for street sweeping days. (Boston and Somerville have them, too.)
