While Newton’s Winter Parking ban is scheduled to continue through Marathon Monday Watertown’s police chief just announced the early end of the overnight-parking ban there, Watertown News reports.
Do we really need to wait three more weeks to lift the ‘winter’ parking ban?
by Greg Reibman | Mar 26, 2019 | Newton | 10 comments
If they didn’t end the ban early a few years ago when it was in the 80s in early April, they probably never will. (And they actually ticketed my street during that heat wave!)
NO!! Especially when the police are so subjective when it comes to handing out tickets during the winter ban. (Sorry for repeating what I said in another post but…) There is a house in the neighborhood that parks at least one, sometimes two cars in the apron of their driveway for 8 – 14 hours a night during the ban. Blocks the sidewalk completely. Not one ticket issued. Another has a landscaping tool trailer parked on the street overnight for the last week. Not one ticket. It’s a joke, except if your in a neighborhood that is regularly targeted.
I’m MORE THAN CERTAIN, that if the blanket winter parking ban — rather than snow/storm particularized — were put up to a city-wide vote, it would be soundly rejected. So how can this continue? (Shouldn’t the city council be accountable to the wishes of the vast majority?)
If some restriction is desired to deter student parking, just be honest about it — and have the law/regulation refer to that in the appropriate places it is desired.
Short answer, no. It is (slowly) getting warmer. The odds of winter weather decrease each day. And if by chance we do get measurable snow or ice, the city could easily declare a snow emergency for the two days it would take to melt without a blanket ban.
To @Jim’s point above there *is* a mechanism to get a citywide vote, called a ballot referendum. Section 10-2 of the current charter lays out the petition mechanism for getting an issue in front of city council and – failing action of the council that satisfies those who have brought the issue forward – Sections 10-8 and 10-10 spell out the procedure for bringing it to the voters in a referendum.
Referendums are a horrid mechanism for determining public policy. From a large number of very good reasons, we have chosen to govern ourselves via a representative democracy. If the representatives cannot do their jobs they should be removed from office. Apparently, the idiotic parking ban is not of such importance for any of the braintrust to have suffered electorally. Given the fondness Newtonians seem to have for using local government as a tool for inconveniencing their neighbors, this should come as no surprise.
@Elmo – Agree. Referenda are absolutely a tool of last resort. But, when all other tools fail…
@all: This seems like a basic common sense issue, which doesn’t translate well into the political process. Councilor’s Albright, Kelley, and myself have been working to make changes on the Winter Parking Ban policy, and we are challenged with any and all hurdles you can only imagine.
As we used to say with the Sox, wait till next year, as we actually have some ongoing hope for change.
Looks like “no” is covered in comments here, but just wanted to add my “no” to the pile.
And as horrid mechanisms go, a blanket parking ban is a horrid mechanism for managing the streets for the relatively few days a year there is a snow emergency.
Can the ban.
Councilor Cote, so has there been any movement on this? Thanks for your hard work on it over the years.