Chief David MacDonald and the Newton Police Department invite you to take a moment of your time to complete this short survey about our Department. Your Input will help us to improve our services and outreach to the Community…. https://t.co/JZT8Ux5h6a
— Newton Police (@newtonpolice) January 8, 2019
I submitted the survey (noting the more than great job consistently done by the Police Dept.) — but noted/asked for one thing at the end of the survey — POLICE, PLEASE SUPPORT GETTING RID OF THE BLANKET WINTER STREET PARKING BAN!
I submitted also, commenting on the sketchy massage parlor near me and how the NPD is hamstrung by the City Council around it :/
And what Jim said. Is there anyone (who doesn’t have off-street parking) who supports it?
Pat, I personally have more than adequate off street parking (driveway). My comment pertains to this being unfair to others — when all that should be required are parking bans during snow incidents announced by the city.
Exactly. I’m in agreement with you. There are some, however, who feel that eliminating the parking ban would invite a flood of cars on streets, and that it should stay. Easy for them to say :/
Pat, if there is strict provision for car removal in advance of city announced snow incidents, what would be the difference insofar as “flood of cars” in winter vs. rest of year? The rest of year would still have the so-called “flood of cars” — and there’s no parking ban on that.
I agree the city should eliminate the blanket winter parking ban, or at least show some discretion when handing out tickets. Over the years I’ve received two tickets for parking in the street overnight in front of my own house, because I simply forgot to park my car in the driveway. Both nights in question it was mild outside without any chance of snow or frozen precipitation.
This survey did not even put the noise and pollution of leaf blowers in their list of issues for Newton. Pretty clear that enforcement of that ordinance is low on their priority. It was demonstrated to me before by the huge amount of time it takes the NPD to come (so much that the gardeners cannot be caught in the act) as well as the lack of record keeping so that the NPD does not know whether a specific gardener is breaking the law for the first time or not.
My only issue is the lack of enforcement related to drivers AND bikers running red lights and ignoring crosswalks
@Isabelle, the police do keep a log and it is available in every police cruiser. The log is also sent to the Mayors office and they send out letters to every house that has a violation. And just so you know from what I hear the officers of this fine city have responded to over 700 leaf blower calls since this stupid law has been enacted so to say they are doing nothing is so disrespectful to the men and women of our police department. They could be using the hundreds of hours wasted responding to these calls dealing with traffic issues or other real crime.
The leaf blower law is definitely NOT a stupid law. It is a step in the right direction. Newton residents are demanding that they no longer be assaulted by by these highly-polluting and unbelievably noisy two-cycle gas-powered leaf blowers. If landscapers would start abiding by the law, our Newton Police would not have to spend so much time responding to calls of leaf blower violations. The new law is actually a compromise: Many Newton residents would prefer a total ban. Landscapers can still use leaf blowers EVERY DAY of the year except holidays! Why are landscapers so unconcerned about their neighbors that they cannot even make this reasonable compromise? We live in this world together. We share the air. Many of us have spoken – why is it so difficult to make a compromise to make life better for others?
Poisoning the air we breathe and making a horrendous amount of noise so that people cannot work in their homes are REAL crimes.
Battery powered leaf blowers (landscapers having back-up batteries on hand) are the quietest type by far emitting less pollution (at the lawn-site).