Government
‘Tougher Than The Swiss’: Ticketed After Three Minutes, New Canaan Woman Critical of No-Grace-Period Parking Policy
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A local woman appealing a $20 parking ticket she had received in Morse Court told officials this month that New Canaan’s lack of a grace period for those who overstay a meter by even a few minutes makes the town “even tougher than the Swiss” when it comes to enforcement. Jane Little told members of the Parking Commission at their most recent regular meeting that she used to live in Geneva, Switzerland, where “they created watches” and people are “as precise as precise can be.”
“Nothing is free in Switzerland—at the grocery store, you pay for parking,” Little said during the commission’s Jan. 14 meeting, held in Town Hall. “There is no free parking anywhere in Switzerland, so when confronted with this situation and I go up in French and ask the parking attendant: ‘I am here. You see me.’ They would tear it up.” (Here, Little made a tearing-up gesture with her hands.)
Parking Commission Chairman Keith Richey responded: “Unfortunately, our parking attendants do not speak French.”
Ultimately, the commission unanimously upheld the $20 ticket (it came out later that Little’s husband likely had been forgiven a parking ticket at Talmadge Hill within the past year, and may not have told his wife about it—“We don’t want to cause marital discord,” Richey said), though the discussion triggered what could amount to a new grace-period policy in the Parking Bureau.