The Newton TAB editorial says the city of Newton should forgive the parking tickets it issued in October for blocking the new, hard-to-see curb cuts it made on Newtonville Avenue.
TAB: Forgive those Newtonville parking tickets
by Greg Reibman | Feb 10, 2014 | Newton TAB | 10 comments
I agree with the Tab and can’t imagine why the city has dug its heels in on this.
The fact that once they put the barrels out, the violations went way down shows that the majority (if not all) of the violators clearly had no idea that they were parking illegally.
A $200 fine for this sort of unintentional violation in an unmarked no-parking zone sure seems excessive to me.
Jerry – I couldn’t agree with you more.
Total agreement. I dont understand this, but what do I know. Maybe, they think if they dismiss this then they’ll have a flood of people looking for their tickets to be forgiven…I don’t know. It’s just plain wrong.
I don’t understand why the Mayor can’t make a statement “Oops, we made a mistake. We will fix the past, update the signage so it is clear, and we are sorry.”
Because the Mayor will never admit he made a mistake.
All the people who got tickets should band together and bring the city to court. Maybe then the Mayor will listen.
I just got one of these ridiculous tickets by the bank in Waban. These things are unmarked. Hard to see. The fine is ridiculously high. There is no signage for handicapped. It is just a scam and you can tell it is because I was in the bank for no more than 3 minutes and had the ticket when I came out.. Obviously they camp out these spots and target Newton driver. It is outrageous.
The steep fine is to keep people from parking in handicapped spaces, but it should be clearly marked. Marshall, Waban doesn’t have as many banks as most villages… only three. Is this the one next to Barry’s?
I honestly did not see the beveled curbing nor did I recognize the solid yellow rectangle painted back on the sidewalk itself (with no universal icon or written signage) as signifying a handicapped curb (Station Ave.). Despite driving all the way over to Newton (from Mansfield) to the parking clerk and submitting a letter of appeal, I received a form letter in response demanding $200 payment. This is so wrong.
I appealed the ticket via the email system. Was told I would get a response within two weeks. Never heard back. Inquired about it. Was told I had been told it was denied and it was due immediately! Asked for clarification of why and never received a response back. Obviously a scam from the town. Like Newton is so hard up for cash they have to rob their citizens.
Marshall, I totally understand how you feel and wish there were something we could do.