Dear Editor:
This is an open letter to Mayor Dawn Zimmer.
My name is David Frank. I’m writing to you as a businessman, one who’s been in business for 40 years and one knows a little about keeping customers and revenue coming in without government assistance.
On 1/12/12, I was in your fair city for dinner. Hoboken is where I entertain my clients and have been for 6 years, once every 3 weeks spending no less than $150.00 each and every time eating at your restaurants and drinking at your bars. I have never had an issue parking on the street. Whether it be dumb luck or a new ordinance that I missed, on that night my car was booted for being on a residential block. Without question I missed the sign. Was it clearly marked – that’s debatable, the fact is I missed the sign. I live in Philadelphia, and in this city a car is booted only after repeated offensives or outstanding tickets.
What happen to me is so wrong there is little rational or reasoning that I can think of. I can understand it if I had outstanding tickets, but a first time offense is despicable. A ticket with a warning, the same obnoxious size (8.5 x 11) as your current “seizure” notice with the message “Warning, We Have Your Plate Number, Next Violation Subject To Boot” would serve the same purpose if the true intent was to keep space available for the residence. But evidently such a harsh and aggressive move by the city is a cash grab, plain and simply.
The problem throughout our country is fundamental, our cities are being run by politicians and not businessmen. What you did to me is equivalent to selling bad product and then suing the customer who paid for it. A businessman would take the product back and make good, Hoboken chooses to go negative, immediately. Don’t rationalize, it’s bad P.R. If the city was a business, who would ever buy from you again? No one. The $150.00 you gained in booting my car, pales to the thousands of dollar you cost the local business and the city’s reputation, because my story gets told.
David A Frank,
President Midvale Paper Box Co.