Tow Job

By John Strand
Staff Writer

Downtown Fargo is bustling and growing, we all know that. But Tuesday night’s towing blitz is not a sign of growth, but rather short-sightedness and disregard for those very residents and patrons of downtown businesses. That 33 vehicles were towed in what we call a “feeding frenzy” is not the best way to get the result city officials supposedly want.

Best we can tell, this was not a police directive, but rather a directive or request by the Street Department. From what we gather, police would likely agree they have better things to do, and goodness knows, they do not need the PR that goes with this, as they are fulfilling a request from city directors.

On the heels of a recent towing blitz in the avenues spanning downtown, Tuesday’s blitz addressed cars parked in streets. Where we had the sense from the first blitz that impending snow removal was on their radar, this time the message seems to be about necessary night time street cleaning.

Yeah, uh huh.

Those of us living downtown have likely witnessed our street cleaners in the middle of the night. They buzz up and back the middle of the roadway, and they are done.

HPR has had numerous complaints about our filthy downtown. This action seems to put the burden our our dirty downtown on the backs of those who live and shop and who patronize downtown.

We don’t buy it.

When there are things like the Downtown Fargo Street Fair, Cruising Broadway or other public events, they alert drivers of vehicles with glowing, hunter-orange signs that scream for attention. That works to a large degree.

Our police have far better things to do, that’s our guess. And our city leaders have a challenge on their hands to find a better way to do this, that’s our position.

That there is a vacuum in the messaging concerns us: who is advocating and fighting for the people in this discussion? Not one city leader or commissioner, to our knowledge. But, given our history in bringing over 600 petition-signers to their attention over implementation of Saturday parking tickets, on top of a previous doubling of ticket costs, we are not surprised, frankly.

That the Tuesday night tow were driving in a fashion that warranted arrest and ticketing also concerns us. They were literally racing, even when they had cars in tow. Ok, not racing, but speeding and creating a potential safety risk of a different sort. That they even were running stop signs and without consequence is also disturbing.

Thirty-three times no less than $100 apiece. Do the math. Then add the first blitz in. It’s even more upsetting. We can and need to do better than this. We can and need to bring a voice of the people to the table, because at times like this, it’s absent. We can and need to be more considerate.

The towing blitz is something akin to bullying. Flog and punish them. Make them pay. Teach them a lesson, or three.

It’s interesting that the street department has such command over our police department. Who, in fact, authorized that?

We don’t blame the police. We blame the process, the approach, and the result that is gotten by a means that is costly, painful, and, frankly, a waste of valuable public resources. “If we towed you once, we towed you a hundred times,” could be Fargo’s motto. While tongue in cheek, there’s some merit to that.

We hope that is the last towing blitz we ever see in downtown Fargo. We hope someone, somewhere, will do something about it. We challenge our city commissioners to find a better way.

Questions and comments: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)