Since When Does Our Police Department Do Free Enforcement for Private Companies?

I have been meaning to write about this for ages--this and the myriad other ways that various entities--local, national, private and public--extract every possible penny they can from me and my neighbors, family, and friends.

As far as I can tell, all of these practices are immoral, and most of them are either illegal or would not stand up in court, were someone with as much money as a wealthy corporation to provide a challenge.

The photo at right shows a metered parking lot, located at approximately 399 Main Street, Malden, Massachusetts.

Like most drivers, when I see a parking spot with a parking meter, beside a big, blue public parking icon ("P"), I take it that I'm looking at public parking--whether it's on-street or in a lot.

In the case of the parking lot in question, if you parked here and your meter did in fact expire, so that you returned to your car to find a City of Malden parking ticket on your windshield, you might be aggravated to have been ticketed, but it likely wouldn't occur to you to question whether the city had a right to ticket you in the first place. Right?

Well, I'm telling you that in this lot, the city should not be ticketing you or anybody else.

Here's why. This parking lot is not a public lot. That's right; it's a privately owned lot, and all the money deposited in its meters is destined not for the City Treasury, but for a private company. I am not sure which company is the owner. I believe it's either LAZ or Fitz who, between them, have a good stranglehold on area parking. Let's say it's Fitz. In any case, it ain't the city.

So, tell me why you should be required to pay the city $15 if you are late feeding Fitz's parking meter. What city rule or ordinance have you violated? What jurisdiction could the city possibly have over parking time limits in a privately-owned parking area? What right might the Registry of Motor Vehicles possibly claim to put a hold on your ability to renew your license and thus operate a vehicle legally simply because you didn't pay parking citations wrongfully issued to you while you were parked on private property?

And why should my tax dollars be used to pay a policeman to check the meters in a private lot?

I don't know which is worse!

If Fitz wants to monitor its own lots and tow cars away when meters expire, let them. If they want to impose some kind of legal fee structure to deter parkers from not feeding their meters, fine. In that case, they can take the market consequence and see if parkers still want to park there given the extreme enforcement. But it is outrageous that a private company that is too stingy to hire its own parking lot attendants is able to avail itself of free policing on the taxpayers' tab!

And it is indefensible that while residents endure double-digit unemployment and struggle to put decent food on their tables and decent roofs over their heads, that they are once more nickle-and-dimed by their own government--in this case for dollars to which the government ought to have no legal claim whatsoever.

Here's the cherry on top. You know how I found out about this debacle? I was at the Malden police station to get a parking permit, and in the course of speaking with the officer at the window, he began quietly to complain about the wrongs of parking in Malden. It was this officer who told me that the parking lot on Main Street does not even belong to the city, that all the officers know it, and that they resent being made to ticket residents who are parked there.

The officer, who asked not to be named, wondered aloud how many cumulative police hours are wasted patrolling that lot as a freebie for Fitz that could otherwise have been used to do something actually related to public safety or improving, not deteriorating, the quality of life of Malden's residents.

What do you think? Is there any possible justification for the city's issuing public parking tickets to cars parked on private property?

Government Contracts Used as Cash Cows to Nickle and Dime Taxpayers for Private Profit

Let's start this story with the Massachusetts law that prohibits charging extra for credit card transactions

MASSACHUSETTS POSSESSES A "NO SURCHARGE RULE" FOR CONSUMER PURCHASES

"No seller...may impose a surcharge on a cardholder who elects to use a credit card in lieu of payment by cash, check or similar means."

Statute: Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 140D, § 28A(a)(2) (West)

Discounts for Cash Payments are allowed in Massachusetts

Discount offered to induce payment by cash, check or other means not involving a credit card not considered a finance charge if offered to all prospective buyers and disclosed clearly and conspicuously.

Statute: Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 140D, § 28A(b) (West)

Statutes cover: Credit cards only

Statute: (Mass. Gen. Laws Ann. ch. 140D, § 1 (West))

And yet...

Yesterday I went to City Hall to pay a state excise tax on my car. It turned out that they didn't accept payments for that there, so they referred me to the next town over, whose city hall has an electronic kiosk (a machine) where taxpayers can pay their excise tax.

I drove over to the other town. I didn't have the excise tax bill with me because I had misplaced it. Since it can be easily looked up using my driver's license number, I wasn't concerned.

I found the payment kiosk. It turns out not to be owned and maintained by the Commonwealth, but rather by a private company (Kelley & Ryan Associates) that, it seems, has a contract to collect various payments (like excise tax or parking tickets) owed to the Commonwealth.

I initiated my transaction, following a system of prompts that began by offering me a selection for taxpayers who didn't have their bill right there with them.

I entered my name, date of birth, and license number. Then I had to enter my Social Security number. This rubbed me the wrong way. I do realize that SS numbers are in fact taxpayer ID numbers. However, here in Massachusetts, we specifically have the option of not associating our SS number with our driver's license, and it should be very simple to accept my payment and associate it with my vehicle simply by using my license number.

I have no particular confidence that this electronic kiosk is managed in a secure-enough fashion to sufficiently protect my identity. That's why this method of requiring input of my SS number bothered me.

The next step was to enter a number printed exactly as shown on my bill. Wait, wasn't I in the processing flow for people who don't have their bill handy? Yes, I was. Anytime I see a system designed that badly, it greatly lowers my confidence in the general care taken to build the system. So at that point, I was certainly regretting having entered my social security number in the previous step.

Needless to say, I couldn't proceed with the transaction.

The kiosk was located right next to the payment window of the city Collector's Office. An employee of that office saw me standing there, and saw that I was leaving the kiosk without finishing. I guess she must see that a lot, because she called me over to the window to tell me that I didn't need to use the kiosk--that she could take my payment in person.

Great! A helpful, friendly civil servant. I gave her my driver's license and credit card, and after a few moments, she handed me a printed receipt. Mission accomplished!

Back home, I took the receipt out of my purse and went to file it in my desk. That's when I noticed that I'd been charged an extra 3% for an "online convenience fee." Huh?! I hadn't paid online. I hadn't even paid at their kiosk. I had paid in person at a city office. Right?

I phoned Kelley & Ryan Associates right away. I told them what had happened, and asked them why I'd been charged extra. The employee of Kelley & Ryan told me, "you have to pay extra to use a credit card. Three percent."

"Umm, that's illegal," I told her. "You know that, right? It's illegal in Massachusetts to charge someone extra for paying with a credit card."

She replied, "well, that's how it is; it's three percent extra."

Now, as I said, the receipt identified this extra charge as an "online convenience fee." When I first read that, I immediately suspected that this was really a charge for using a credit card. I thought it likely that Kelley & Ryan are well-aware of the Massacusetts law, and that they try to skirt it by pretending their credit card fee is some other kind of fee.

But the Kelley & Ryan employee made it clear--explicitly confirming to me that this was in fact an additional charge because I chose to pay with a credit card.

The law does allow a vendor to offer discounts for paying by check or with cash. I attempted to give Kelley & Ryan an out, and I asked the employee, "okay, well is there any way I can get a discount then?"

Not surprisingly, she answered me with a scornful tone. "No! No discounts!"

That about wrapped it up for me. Kelley & Ryan have an exclusive contract to collect government taxes from millions of residents of the Commonwealth, and they are illegally increasing the burden on the taxpayer by 3% for the (I'm guessing) millions of online transactions!

This stuff just infuriates me. It is wrong. It is corrupt. It is theft.

And it is just one more example of how American citizens are nickle-and-dimed by both private companies and public entities to drip 90% of them of every bit of available funds they have.

Companies like Kelley & Ryan profit at the public trough--illegally charging individual taxpayers, and I'll bet cumulatively overcharging the Commonwealth, to perform a service that could, and probably should, be kept in-house by the state.

Why should a private, for-profit company be allowed to collect taxes for the state? That they "enhance" whatever profit they already make through the terms of their contract, by illegally passing on their processing fees to the taxpayer, simply rubs copious amounts of salt where the Commonwealth is already hemorrhaging its treasure to outside vendors.

Imagine the outrage the Chamber of Commerce would express if the Commonwealth announced it was going to increase some tax by 3%. Why, the Chamber just poured all kinds of money into defeating the alcohol sales tax increase in Massachusetts by ballot initiative at last week's election. They wouldn't be able to stop quoting how many jobs would be eliminated by a 3% increase on whatever, and how many businesses would suffer.

Yet not a peep when a huge increase is levied by a private, for-profit company on a public tax obligation!

This blog post is the first step in my attempt to right this wrong--to recoup my 3%, as well as all the three percents that have illegally been levied on my Massachusetts compatriots.

Is Chobani Making Me Fat?

Over the past few months, I have gained an unusual amount of weight, going from 120- to 128-pounds on a 5' 5" frame. I know, I know, it doesn't make me a whale and I'm not anywhere near the average American weight for a woman of my age and height. But that's not the point. We Americans have become terribly fat in the past 20-years, and I have no interest in becoming an average-sized American. I want to be thin, and like anyone, if I consume too many calories, I gain weight.

So I watch what I eat--especially since I do not exercise. I read the nutritional labels. I pay attention to caloric intake. I eat very little junk and choose healthy foods. I eschew added sugar, especially high fructose corn syrup. I cook meals and try to eat small portions. It's pretty much that simple, and the result is that I stay thin while eating delicious food.

Over the past year, Greek yogurt seems to have become quite popular. I have tried the several brands that my local Stop & Shop has begun to carry. Fage brand may have been my favorite, but Chobani is excellent and costs less. So Chobani is my choice. And since I am about to criticize them for their confusing, if not misleading, packaging, let me first share with you some great things about Chobani. It's:

· All natural. Has no preservatives or artificial flavors.
· Has no synthetic growth hormones or rBST-treated milk.
· Includes 5 live & active cultures, including 3 probiotics.
· Made with real fruit.
· Has twice the protein of regular yogurts.

So, I have swapped out my previous morning or afternoon snack in favor of Chobani 2% plain yogurt. I purchase the medium-sized container (16 oz / 454g). Normally I choose a snack that has 150 to 200 calories. The nutritional label on the Chobani container indicates that there are 2 servings per container, and each serving has 170 calories. That works for me!

But this morning, as I was taking a new container of Chobani out of the fridge, it occurred to me that half a container, 8 ounces, or half a pound (!) seemed like an awfully big portion. So I sat down with the container, and examined the Nutrition Facts panel more closely than I had before. When I was done reading, I was pretty confused. Look at the label for yourself:

1. The whole container is 454g, but the Nutrition Facts panel says the container is half that: 227g.

2. The Nutrition Facts panel says that a serving size = 1 container, and that each container = 2 servings. That makes no sense. If a container = 2 servings, then obviously a serving size = 1/2 container.

3. The Nutrition Facts panel shows that a serving has 170 calories. But without knowing how large a serving is, that information is useless!


I can judge just by holding an unopened container that the weight shown on the front of the container is most likely correct: 16OZ (1 lb., or 454g.).

That means we can assume that the information shown in #2 (in the photo) is incorrect. One container does not equal 227 grams.

So the question is, is there a typo, and the Nutrition Facts panel should simply say "Serving Size: 1/2 container (227g)," or are there really 2 servings in each 227 grams, as the label indicates?

If the latter, then I have been eating twice as many calories in Chobani yogurt than I thought. That would mean between 170 and 340 calories more per day than I intended--or about 255 extra calories per day.

A pound of fat is gained for every 3500 extra calories consumed (and not burned). At a rate of 255 extra calories consumed per day, it would take 2-weeks to gain 1 pound.

Have I been gaining 2-pounds per month because of my Chobani habit? Is Chobani making me fat? And if delicious, Greek yogurt isn't the culprit, where the heck is this gross, extra weight coming from?

I'm going to email Chobani today, and see what they have to say about the Nutrition Facts label. Either way, it obviously contains an error.

How Bad Can the MBTA Get?

My car's in the shop this week, and I am using public transportation, rather than renting a car, in an effort to be a little greener.

I'm only 18-hours into my MBTA adventure, and it is already very, very lame. It's just as bad as when I was a student who couldn't afford a car, but now it's much more expensive, and my obligations are a lot more pressing.

Last night I took the T from Malden Center to Dean Road, Brookline. This was the "high point" of my experience so far. The Orange train arrived soon after I reached the platform. There were no delays, and the throngs of Bruins playoffs and Red Sox fans were happy and not obnoxious. I transferred to the Green Line at North Station and waited about 8-minutes, passing up a B train and boarding a C train. 75-minutes after starting my trip, I arrived at my destination. That's about 25-minutes longer than it would take me to drive on an evening with a Red Sox game.

The ride back on the green line was uneventful. Back at North Station, I waited about 10-minutes for the Orange Line. When a train pulled in, it was already pretty full. Everyone boarded. Now the train was completely full. But instead of pulling out of the station, the Operator announced we would be standing by for a few minutes.

Turns out, the Bruins game was ending (yeah, we won), and the MBTA thought a good game plan would be to make an already-packed train wait 10-minutes so that it could be completely over-stuffed with hundreds more riders, many of them both loud and intoxicated. Classic!

Finally the sardine can pulled out of North Station. Alas, the one passenger on the train wearing a Philly jersey is spotted by the drunkest, most aggressive Bruins fan on board. This Bruins-fan jackass, a total embarrassment to Beantown, spent the entire ride heckling the Philly fan (and his Bruins jersey-wearing girlfriend), more and more intensely.

By the time the train reached Malden Center (my stop), other passengers needed to intervene to keep the drunk Bruins idiot away from the poor Philly guy, who the entire ride had done nothing to provoke or encourage the drunk guy. I stopped by the security booth and asked them to have security meet the train at Oak Grove and make sure the Philly guy and his girl got off the train safely.

Does the MBTA really think that this is going to be an unusual scenario? Could it possibly be a bright idea to have some extra security on nights when Boston teams are in the playoffs on home turf?

Okay, so on to this morning. My daughter attends preschool 1.8 miles from our home. It's a bit of a long walk for a little kid, early in the morning. I went to MBTA.com and figured out which bus route we needed. The 108 - Linden Sq. to Wellington. We needed to reach the school no later than 9:00 a.m. The obvious choice was the 8:20 bus from Linden Square, arriving at Malden Center at 8:34 and reaching our destination at 8:39.

We really needed to catch that bus, so I figured the safest thing would be to leave our home at the same time the bus was starting out from Linden Square. Since we'd be boarding a couple of stops before Malden Center, that should leave plenty of time. Here's what actually happened:

8:20 - The 108 bus presumably leaves Linden Square. Simultaneously, my kid and I leave our home.

8:22 - We have a sight-line of the bus route. No bus passes.

8:24 - We reach the bus stop--several minutes before the bus could possibly arrive if it left Linden on time.

8:26-8:40 - We watch the 3 other buses that use the stop we are at come and go. Twice. There is no bench or covered area. It's hot and uncomfortable. I begin to despair of making it to school on time. I ask the driver of another bus that stopped whether there is unusual traffic on Salem Street. He said there is not.

8:41 - The #108 finally pulls up to the curb, already approximately 11-minutes late only 1.5 miles into its route, and having taken about 85% longer to reach us than it should have.

8:43 - We reached Malden Center.

8:54 - We reach our destination 15-minutes past the scheduled time, and 3-minutes past the time that bus was due in at its terminus. "Look on the bright side," I tell myself, "I won't have a long wait for the bus to go back home." Ah, still so naive, right?

At 8:59 I leave the school and begin walking back to the bus stop. I have a clear view of the bus route the entire time. No MBTA bus pass in either direction.

9:00 - An inbound bus back to Malden is scheduled to leave Wellington, reaching my stop 5-minutes later.

9:01 - I arrive at my stop, expecting a wait of 5-minutes, or so.

9:08 - Still no bus. Another person joins me at the bus stop.

9:10 - A 108 bus speeds past in the other direction, toward Wellington. That bus is apparently only 7-minutes behind schedule.

9:15 - A nicely dressed Jehova's Wittness from the Caribbean approaches and begins to proselytize to me.

9:20 - Still waiting, but at least I'm saved now.

9:25 - More riders waiting at the bus stop.

9:31 - Bus #0706 arrives for the 108 route. If #0706 is the bus that should have left Wellington at 9:00, it is 26-minutes late. If #0706 is the next bus--that should have left Wellington at 9:20, then it is exactly on time...but the previous bus either never showed up, or left Wellington a minimum of 5-minutes early. Either option is completely and totally unacceptable!

9:43 - My bus reaches Malden Center. The male driver briefly yells out the door to the female driver of another 108 bus that is sitting beside us (#0614 maybe, but I forget exactly), something about her being late.

9:47 - I get off at my stop.

My 3.6-mile round trip should have involved 22-minutes of riding time, 26-minutes of scheduled turn-around wait time, and perhaps 8-minutes of waiting at the start of the trip.

That's a total of 56-minutes, getting me back home at 9:17, and making it just barely worth taking the T, rather than walking the 3.6-miles.

Instead, I rode the bus for 26-minutes (about 18% over estimate), waited for 37 unscheduled (i.e. late) minutes, and arrived home at 9:47 (30-minutes late) for a total trip time of 87-minutes.

When you have to make a trip of a few miles, but it's still faster to walk than to take the T, that's when you know just how bad the MBTA is.

The MBTA seems anti-environment and anti-person. If this is how things tend to go on the MBTA, there is no way a sane person who can afford a car would choose to give up their car in favor of public transit.

As for those who cannot afford a car, and must depend on the MBTA to get to their jobs, do their shopping, drop their kids at daycare. Oh my goodness! I cannot imagine how much time in their lives is basically wasted, stolen, squandered...all because the MBTA, despite endless fare hikes, cannot get its act together.

I would say I want my fare money back, but I am sure the insufferable process to obtain a refund would cost me far more than the few bucks I paid for this morning's awful customer experience.