Political (snow)fallout in Somerville -- the city I reside in has a certain old-school flavor, and yesterday's brouhaha over the no-show snowstorm Tuesday night was a classic example. Our brand new mayor, Joe Curtatone, expecting a foot of snow, decided to enforce a new snow emergency policy -- sounds benign, but the result was 200 cars towed and 3,000 tickets written (at $50 a pop!) on a night when not one flake of snow fell. Mother Nature may be capricious, but Joe isn't -- he refuses to forgive the tickets...good P.R. move there. If everyone paid the fines (and there's no way in hell that's going to happen), the city would reap nearly $180,000 -- what's to stop Hizzoner from declaring "snow emergencies" in August?! I'd guess it will cost the city most of that amount in administrative costs to process hundreds of ticket appeals, and to track down the resisters who don't pay. These are the times I'm glad I rent my apartment.

UPDATE: Curtatone caves!