Neighbor News
The Real Solution to the Newton Parking Ban
While the City Council has begun discussing incremental solutions for some areas, there is an easier answer.
In response to this article posted yesterday: https://patch.com/massachusett.... Let's start by thanking the city council for recognizing that action must be taken on this issue. However, so many of our citizens without driveways will continue to suffer this winter unless they are made fully aware of the hardship this is causing.
All of the stated purposes of the ban, such as snow removal, narrow streets, and preventing neighboring areas from taking our spots, can be solved instantly, with two basic features of the 21st century that the City has easy access to.
1) In case of snow accumulation, citizens can be warned via internet, text, or phone, to move their cars off the streets for the 24-48 hours after the snow event to allow for snow removal.
Find out what's happening in Newtonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
2) Allow overnight parking for residents only. On an ordinary night, while police are patrolling the streets between 2 and 6am, if they scan a license plate and discover the car is registered somewhere other than Newton, then that car receives a ticket. No more neighbors from Watertown will be able to "abuse" our streets (or at least no more than there already are).
I have yet to hear a reasonable explanation from anyone as to why those two solutions would not work.
Find out what's happening in Newtonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Residents of Newton who are suffering from excessive and unnecessary overnight ticketing, you need to take the following action:
Each time you receive a ticket for parking overnight in your own neighborhood, on your own streets, copy and paste the following email text and send it to citycouncil@newtonma.gov as well as the councilors from your individual Ward if you know their emails.
"Dear City Council,
I live on [_________] street in the [_________] neighborhood of Newton.
Last night I received a ticket for parking overnight near my own house. As a resident of Newton with limited access to off-street parking, I believe that this overnight ban is unfair and strongly favors homeowners with driveways. At the moment, there is no snow to remove and my car being here is causing nobody any harm.
You need to lift the ban entirely except during snow removal situations and replace it with a fair solution, including residential exemptions, so that those of us without driveways can safely park close to where we live without being punished.
Thank you for your time and consideration."
