Parking crackdown in Cedar Rapids set to begin Monday

Cedar Rapids motorists who park in the street may want to make sure they dig out and move by Monday.  That's because police plan to start towing vehicles for illegal "on-street" storage beginning next week.

Legally, no one can park a vehicle on a city street for more than 48 hours in a row without moving.  And police said after a big snow storm, it's pretty obvious who's violating the rules and which vehicles need to move.

Residents who have to leave cars in streets overnight already had one set of rules to follow Thursday and Friday.  The city declared a residential snow emergency for those days so plows could have more room to clear side streets.

The idea is to move all cars on the streets from one side to another depending on the date.  But it's a confusing concept.

One southeast side resident, Ed Ware, thought he had it right.

“I'm supposed to be on the even side today (Thursday) because they'll plow the other side, right?” Ware said.  Unfortunately, that's backwards, and when told Ware replied “well, I'll be darned.”

The residential rules say people need to park on the side of the street with “even” numbers on “even” calendar dates.  Today, Feb. 4, drivers should park on the side with even house numbers.

But Cedar Rapids Police said it's crystal clear which cars haven't moved at all since the snow storm. Cedar Rapids police spokesperson Sgt. Cristy Hamblin said those are prime candidates for the tow trucks beginning Monday.

“We're going to give them a courtesy because it was such a heavy snow storm.  So we'll start towing the beginning of the week.  We'll give people the weekend to get their cars out and shoveled,” Hamblin said.

Under city rules, police can ticket or even tow vehicles that ignore the residential  snow emergency rules.  But Hamblin said in practical terms, officers usually wait a few days after a big storm to crack down.  Some neighbors said those vehicles under mounds of snow that obviously haven't moved in days are one of the biggest roadblocks to getting streets cleared.

One resident, Wade Tibbott, said “I agree, yes. In fact, a neighbor here had a couple of his vehicles towed and he got the message.  So yeah, I think towing is probably going to get the message across.”

Police said when the tow trucks do start moving in, they'll probably tow several dozen vehicles parked illegally.