My son, who attended Newton North high school (class of 2020) struggled in college and returned home in the fall of 2021. After a difficult period, he eventually found a rewarding and productive job caring for children with Autism in Dedham. This afforded enough income for him to launch into adulthood, eventually finding an apartment with roommates in the Nonantum area. It was key at the time for him to be near us for continued support, but not under our roof in Newton Corner. One persistent pain point was the winter parking ban. The apartment did not have off=street parking, and he tried several solutions including a municipal lot a half mile away, other parking areas in the city that were not monitored, or just paying the tickets. These were all terrible solutions, did not make anyone safer, and at the end of the day, amount to merely a regressive tax on Newton residents who can least afford it. The ban has no place in a city that claims to care about equity and fair treatment of all its residents.
David Auerbach
Newton Corner
