The Newton Tab reports that the Board of Aldermen just approved an increase in the fine for wintertime overnight parking from $5 to $25/per violation. The increase doesn’t take effect until November.
Next year’s overnight parking tickets just got more expensive
by Chuck Tanowitz | Feb 28, 2014 | Newton | 25 comments
$5? Why would anyone move their car for that? I remember getting a $50 ticket in upstate NY about 15 years ago for the same thing. Seems like we’re way behind on this.
It’s a charge that has no effect on a $1MM, $2MM or $3MM homeowner. They are targeting cars in the most condensed and affordable blocks, many of them renters (some of them retail customers and employees). So is the 500% increase needs to have reasonable options. If none exist, it’s a message from the city not to rent on certain streets. Disinvestment is not that easy
Using percentages as a statistical measure muddies the waters when you’re talking about the difference between $5 and $25, It’s simply not an accurate representation of the facts.
If we want streets that are safe and well plowed in a timely manner, then we need cars off them during snow emergencies and during the time period when snow banks have an impact on parking.
You nailed in Jane. It has absolutely nothing to do with percentages. It’s all about the actual cost. As with any fine, it needs to be tough enough to discourage violation, while small enough to not cripple a one time offender.
Jane, I take your point about snow emergencies, but do we really need a blanket ban on overnight parking for five months of the year?
Raising it is the right thing to do. For those people who don’t move their cars, it creates narrow streets if a plow can’t plow correctly. $5 isn’t worth it and $25 is pretty cheap compared to a tow!
Robert-Unfortunately, no one knows how much snow we’ll have in any given year. Do I think we need a ban this year? Yes, for two reasons. The streets are narrow due to the amount of snow we’ve had and darkness presents an additional safety risk. It’s the responsibility of the BOA to set safety standards in many areas of city life, and I’m comfortable that this is one that will serve that purpose over time.
Jane, let’s stipulate that the overnight parking ban is there for the purposes of ensuring that the DPW and city plowing contractors can easily clear away snow. It’s not about the narrowness of the streets, which are equally narrow whether it’s night or day.
In this day and age, the city could easily declare an overnight parking ban when snow is expected and after a storm, and communicate that fact on the city website. Modern weather forecasting is such that most people will be aware that snow is coming.
If you wonder why this seemingly trivial concern gets me so animated, it’s because our family doesn’t have much parking space. Picture this: it’s a freezing cold night (but no snow, mind you) and I’m sitting up in my warm bed, reading. My wife says to me, “Have you moved your car off the street?” I realize I have not, because the other car wasn’t pulled all the way in and there’s not enough room. So I can either chance a $5 fluorescent love note from the constabulary, or pull on a pair of shoes and overcoat, and run out into the night to do the necessary maneuvering.
I dare say that raising the fine to $25 will tip my behavior towards the latter course of action. I usually pick up a couple of these parking tickets in the late fall, and let’s face it, $5 is really just a friendly reminder that the nights are getting longer. But don’t get me started on the subject of trying to pay parking tickets on the city’s web site.
Robert, maybe the person who didn’t move the other car all the way in could do the car-moving? 😉
Going out to move a car at night doesn’t seem like any more of a hardship than rolling out the bins late at night, which I often end up doing in the cold in my pajamas, or taking a dog for a walk, although of course, people choose to have a dog.
Paying parking tickets online? You mean being forced to use only a credit card – no bank debit option like all other online options? And being forced to pay a “convenience fee”? I tried to find out why, but was told only that “it’s a different vendor”. But, why is it a different vendor? “Beacuse they are not the same”.
Julia, you don’t get a ticket for forgetting to put out your bins, and there’s usually time to do it in the morning anyway. But my point is this: if there’s no snow, does the city have a compelling reason to hand out parking tickets? I would argue ‘no’.
Max, you’ve just opened a can of worms there. So, upon finding the aforementioned parking ticket, I decide to come back into the house and pay it immediately instead of letting it fester. Except that I can’t, because the ticket is not yet in the system, and won’t be for a few days because the cop has not yet gotten around to submitting it. At this point, the ticket gets buried on the kitchen counter under the mounds of kids’ artwork, and the usual pile of not-yet-triaged crap that comes through the letter box every day. Eventually the ticket will surface, by which time there is a surcharge on it. Grrrrr.
Robert – It’s inconvenience versus a safety issue, and once again I return to the issue of responsibility. In my mind, the BOA must maintain safety as its highest priority, as they did in this instance. However, I happen to have a low tolerance for inconvenient situations, so I sympathize with your example.
I agree with Max and Robert, crazy not to be able to pay any city bill online by now. Besides being more convenient for citizens, it ought to be cheaper for the city than manually processing checks.
Julia, not to be misunderstood, you can pay parking tickets online at the Newton website. However, unlike other bills (water/sewer, excise, etc.) you do not have the bank debit (no fee) option. You must use a credit card and incur a “convenience fee”.
The city really needs to offer a more viable overnight parking solution. Parking in the school lots between 2 and 6 isn’t really suitable.
I don’t have a problem with the ban or the increased fine but the police could choose not to ticket when there’s no safety issue, couldn’t they? We live on a wide street, several houses away from the corner. Most of the houses on my street have short driveways and no garages. The only time anyone in my household parks on the street during the parking ban months in when we have overnight guests and we can’t fit all the cars in the driveway. If we know that snow is expected, we tell the guests to move their cars to a nearby parking lot (that may or may not be legal parking).
If we park on the street when the streets need to be plowed or sanded, a $25 fine is perfectly appropriate. But why ticket when there is no safety threat? Emergency vehicles can pass through the street without a problem. It’s cases like this that make residents think that the city is raising rates for revenue, not for public safety.
@Gail I agree with you. I would like to see us find a way to allow overnight parking when the weather is clear all year long. As you point out our current policy is a particular burden on those without long driveways – which often means those of lesser means.
I agree that $5 is no deterrent- I got one of those this year and didn’t mind- $25 would definitely feel worse, even though I could afford it.
It would be nice if this increase came with it:
– Enforcement priority for snow emergencies and times when snow is not yet completely cleared curb to curb (current enforcement seems a bit more random
– The pilot program proposed earlier for parts of Nonantum and Newton Corner (including my neighborhood), through which certain neighborhoods would lift the winter ban except during snow emergencies.
Perhaps we can evolve towards a policy that makes more sense while making “true” snow violations hurt a little more via higher fines.
This is bs. I live in an apartment building with a lot for only half the cars in the building, leaving 10-15 cars on the street every night. The 5$ tickets were reasonable, but at $25/night I’ll have to move out. The nearest municipal lot is 2 miles away and there are no spots to rent on craigslist.
This makes no sense whatsoever. The only issue is clearing the roads during a snow emergency, which we already have bans for. You should at least be allowed to get an overnight parking permit if you live in an apartment without sufficient parking facilities for all of their tenants.
The increased city overnight parking fine perfectly incentivizes this parking app, that makes private driveway space available for just this kind of need:
https://www.spot-park.com
Nathan, you propose new developments not include as many on site parking spaces as their are residences regularly when most will have at least one car. I really don’t see how a person who supports that can also support this parking ban. I think, in a town with many two, three and above family homes/residences without enough off street parking, blanket parking bans (cold weather??) are ridiculous. When I lived in Newport you knew to move your car if it snowed and had a place to put them. Pete is not alone in this and it seems to go against a stated goal of attracting younger people to Newton unless of course they happen to be wealthy.
Well, everybody on my street (those who do not have adequate off-street parking options) got tagged this weekend with the shiny new $25 tickets- it seems the ticket increase is intact, while the pilot program for neighborhoods needing it seems to have been forgotten- does anybody know what happened to the pilot program discussion for Ward 1? I seem to recall it was on the docket for one of the city committee meetings a few months back.
@Doug
It’s something that needs to be addressed in Ward 1 – Nonantum, Charlesbank, and other sections of Newton Corner that do not have adequate off street parking options. For some reason our Aldermen are being somewhat about a parking trial that was supposed to but never took place in our area. Call me about this…
Well, the street got hit with tickets for the 2nd time in 3 nights. Won’t speak for my neighbors but I am definitely not happy with the confluence of fine increase, increased (read: any) enforcement, and the apparent rejection of the pilot program.
I exchanged emails with Alderman Lennon about it, and apparently there was some resident objection in the Nonantum area- I don’t know all the details, but perhaps the Charlesbank area could play host to a pilot, rather than the residents being an ATM for parking enforcement.
It seems quite hypocritical for the administration to tout Newton’s desire to support affordable housing creating more density and prompting developers’ to plan for fewer parking spaces but put “scarlet letters” charging $25/night on the cars with no where to park but on the street, when there is no snow predicted. I certainly support affordable housing. I also support anyone who must park in the street. At $25/night, this policy will force people out of their homes. Ridiculous. There was already a story on here about a young mother with a toddler this policy penalizes.