I strongly support repealing the overnight on-street parking ban in Newton during the winter months.

I used to live in West Newton on the first floor of a two-family home. My spouse and I owned the house, and my niece and her husband lived in the unit upstairs. We all worked, and it was really difficult for us to fit four cars in our tiny one-lane driveway and to juggle them around when one of us had to leave for work in the morning. The on-street parking eliminated that burden. When we had friends and family visit, there was no place for them to park overnight during the holidays and on special occasions during the winter months.

Due to the number of multi-family homes in West Newton, it is a more affordable area of Newton for people with lesser incomes to live on, especially for people who cannot afford to buy a single-family home. The multi-family homes are closely situated next to one another, and there is less space for parking while there are more families and drivers needing to share those limited parking spaces. The on-street parking alleviates that issue.

It is unfair to burden people who pay to live in this area to have to find parking somewhere else overnight during the winter months. We all managed to do this just fine when there were snow emergencies, because it was not a nightly affair. But to force people to do this every night for four months of the year is unreasonable and accomplishes nothing. The Public Works department and fire and police departments have no problem with overnight street parking, and the overnight parking ban can and will continue to stay in effect during snow emergencies. Residents can manage that during the limited number of times we have snow emergencies during the winter.

We already successfully piloted the end to the overnight ban in 2020-21, so why do we need to keep it in place? It just disproportionately affects people of lesser means. If there are some areas near the colleges in Newton that present specific challenges with students leaving their cars parked on the street for extended periods of time, then those specific streets can be isolated and addressed to protect those neighborhoods.

Repealing the parking ban also alleviates the need for homeowners to remove lawns, trees, plants and green space for driveway expansions on their property. Many of my neighbors in West Newton were forced to do this.

I now live in a single-family home in Waban and am fortunate enough to not have issues with parking overnight, which is the case for much of my neighborhood. Many people like me could vote against this issue because it doesn’t affect them. But I do not forget the real burden it presents to other people in our community and our former neighbors, and I stand with them. I strongly vote “Yes” to repeal the overnight parking ban and encourage others to do the same.

Lynn Colangione
Waban