The recent snow emergency in Minneapolis brought in nearly $1 million in fines and costs (4,615 snow emergency related towings per open data request, each around $200 in fines and costs equaling $923,000), nearly all of that extracted from low-income neighborhoods, squeezing budgets of already rent burdened communities. A $200 high quality for a lot of means constrained budgets for necessities like food and housing. That cash is required to get a automotive back. If someone can’t pay, it should go up $18 per day. Only after that are you able to schedule a hearing to challenge, reduce, or eliminate those fines.
The info speaks. Snow emergency fines and costs prey on low income, non-English speaking residents of color.
Visiting the Minneapolis impound lot the day after the snow emergency to assist a friend, I saw nearly all of people weren’t white and non-English was not their primary language. The one other white person besides myself was a Ukrainian refugee who was confused, frustrated, and needed support from an English speaker to navigate the system.
While wealthier neighborhoods are more likely to have more leisure time, work from home and resources available to clear sidewalks and move vehicles during snow emergencies, low income neighborhoods may face higher language barriers to grasp snow emergency rules and fewer resources to clear sidewalks and move snowed-in vehicles.
As plows cleared the streets and low-income residents cars were towed – their primary technique of winter transportation amidst underfunded transit and snowed in bike lanes – sidewalks also remained inaccessible. A neighbor of mine with no automotive walked within the streets next to traffic with the intention to get hot food since the sidewalks weren’t useable. A municipal sidewalk shoveling program would cost every resident about $47 a yr. This could not only improve accessibility and safety for everybody, nevertheless it would allow residents to present more attention to avoiding predatory fines and costs.
Spencer Polk is an Urban Planning student on the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and lives in South Minneapolis.