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December 26, 2006
Mandatory charity
I went up to Easton Town Center today, where I did a little post-Christmas shopping. It's a private shopping mall designed like an English public town square, so it has that strange pseudo-town vibe that the Supreme Court loves to mess with. It also has English-y street names like "The Strand" and "New Bond Street," which I suppose is better than Olde Cherry Tree Court or some stupid name like that which developers like to name their streets. Easton has the most curious parking meter system. The money you put in the meter goes to charity. I tried to take a picture of it, but the picture came out poorly:

The meter money goes to charity, but if I had a good picture, you would see that failure to pay the meter results in a $50 fine and getting your car towed. So, in essence, you are being compelled to donate money to charity. Now I know you are actually paying money to Easton to park, who then gives it to charity. But I don't like the idea of being threatened with towing. I wonder if charities get the $50 towing fee?
entry no. 698
Posted at December 26, 2006 04:48 PM
Comments
Don't be silly; you would have to be really egregious in your behavior to get towed. Maybe if you ignored like 5 tickets you *might* get towed. Now if you can't donate 25 cents to charity for your quick parking spot, you probably deserve to be towed because you are a cheapskate. But if you really want free parking, go to the parking lots or the garages. Don't complain about the meters, which need to be priced high enough to encourage people to leave them quickly so other people can use them.
Posted by: Anonymous at May 9, 2008 11:24 AM