Government

Divided Commission Voids $25 Ticket for New Canaan Man Who Parked Poorly Downtown

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Officials last week voided a $25 ticket issued to a New Canaan man who parked more than 12 inches from the curb on Main Street downtown one morning this summer. Joseph Somma told members of the Parking Commission during an appeal hearing that he’d been making a quick run from the New Canaan Field Club on the morning of June 24 (a Monday) to Baskin-Robbins to pick up ice cream for kids. A resident of New Canaan for 16 years, Somma spotted one parking space in front of the popular ice cream shop, pulled into it with his new truck and “didn’t realize how bad I did park,” he told the Commission during the Sept. 4 hearing, held at Town Hall. “I did park and I broke the rules.

Government

Data: Parking Tickets Issued and Associated Revenue Down Since 2017

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New Canaan issued about 20% fewer parking tickets for the first eight months of 2018 compared to 2017, and the figure has declined again by an another approximately 5% this year, officials say. Total revenue from parking tickets also has declined in the year-to-date period since 2017, from about $263,000 to $231,000, according to new data released during Thursday’s meeting of the Parking Commission. 

So far this year, the Parking Bureau itself has either dismissed or reduced the fines associated with tickets by some $52,000, according to the department’s manager, Stacy Miltenberg. “We are being lenient and merciful,” Miltenberg said at the meeting, held in Town Hall. “We are going out there and we are trying to educate people, and maybe people don’t understand but we are trying to be a kinder and gentler department. I know some people don’t think we are.

Government

Town Officials Void $30 Ticket for Woman Who Parked in Main Street Loading Zone

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Town officials last month voided a $30 ticket that had been issued to an out-of-town woman delivering large books to a Main Street business. 

Terese Becker of Milford told members of the Parking Commission during her July 11 appeal hearing that she made just two trips to carry a total of about 12 large fabric and wallpaper books up to a business at 80 Main St. Becker said during her appeal hearing at Town Hall that she purposely parked in a loading zone on the morning of May 30 (a Thursday) near the corner of East Avenue because “actually I thought I was loading.”

The books themselves are long and heavy, she said. “So I literally took two trips from the car to the store, ran them up, two trips back down,” she told the Commission. “And I got a ticket. If I am not allowed to do that, that’s fine, I am happy to abide by the rules.

Farva Jafri

Ticketed Woman Accuses Parking Enforcement and Town of Racism, Threatens Lawsuit

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An Armonk, N.Y. woman on Thursday night leveled accusations of race discrimination against the town of New Canaan and parking enforcement while appealing a $30 ticket she’d received downtown earlier this year. Farva Jafri told members of the Parking Commission during an appeal hearing that she watched an enforcement officer usher along white motorists with running cars stopped in hash-marked “no parking” zones on the east side of Main Street on a March afternoon while she herself received a ticket for having her car in the same type of area. “This is ridiculous,” Jafri said at the hearing, held in Town Hall. “This is a completely white town.”

She added, “This is racist.” The parking enforcement officer who issued the ticket, and the commissioners, flatly rejected claims of racism—and ultimately the appointed body voted 3-0 to uphold the ticket—though not before Jafri in expletive-laden accusations and legal threats shouted at town officials and some of the other 12 people in attendance.

Chris Hering

Parking Commission Votes 3-2 in Favor of Extending Main Street Loading Zone from Half-Day to Full-Day

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Saying the change will ease traffic and send a clearer message to non-commercial drivers, officials are recommending that an area on Main Street that serves as a loading zone for half of the day become a full-day loading zone. In addition to extending the time of the loading zone at Main Street and East Avenue, members of the Parking Commission are recommending that the area out front of Organika be striped as a clear signal to motorists, who often are ticketed there. The proposal originated with the Parking Bureau and was supported by a 3-2 vote on the Commission at the appointed body’s May 2 meeting. 

As it is now, because the loading zone operates from 7 to 11 a.m. and then coverts to regular two-hour parking, the town can’t indicate beyond signage—for example, by painting the curb or street—that it’s a designated area for trucks, commissioners said. But if the loading zone extends to 3 p.m., more can be done to make it clearer to motorists that they can’t park there during the day. In the afternoon, because the loading zone is not in effect and regular cars park there, “the trucks get there, they are blocking in the cars, they are parking on East Avenue and blocking the traffic going down East Avenue,” Parking Manager Stacy Miltenberg told commissioners at the meeting, held in Town Hall.