Residents of one Boston neighborhood are fed up after they say they were issued tickets for dozens of “fake parking spaces” spray painted on their street.
Twenty-nine spaces were counted, stretching two city blocks along Glendale Street in Dorchester. The person who did the painting could not be reached for comment.
“I thought the city came and put the lines in the street,” Aja Jones said after receiving a ticket.
Several persons said a fellow neighbor painted the spots himself last month to make the parking situation on their street a little more orderly.
They said that they didn’t mind what he did, but they were floored by the consequences that came to their front doors.
According to neighbors, they received $50 violation tickets from the city coding department for the illegally painted spots in front of their properties.
At first, many neighbors said that the small font on the tickets made it tough to read and make sense of. When they got through the comment section their confusion shifted to anger.
“I think this is intimidating, it’s bully like behavior by the city by the coding department to think that the response to that is to issue tickets to everyone,” said Linda Cruz, a landlord with property on the street.
Cruz said the city is pointing a finger at every homeowner with an illegally painted sign in front of their property.
“This is shameful. I’m not paying this $50,” she said.
Some of those who received a violation said they don’t even park out on the street.
“It’s ridiculous,” neighbor Antonio Tavares said. “He paints the street and we have to pay. Why?”
A spokeswoman for the city of Boston said she was still working to get to the bottom of the neighbors’ claims on Wednesday night. She encouraged neighbors who feel they were improperly ticketed to file appeals on the city’s website or by calling 311.
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