Winter is definitely here, and everyone knows what that means: Hot cocoa by the fire, Christmas songs on the radio, near-full parking lots at the mall, and the spirit of giving…parking tickets, that is.

I am referring to the thorn in every apartment-dwelling driver’s side: the city of Lewiston’s overnight parking ban, running from Dec. 1 through April 15 – the ordinance that drives up city revenue, one $20 ticket at a time. The ban that has people shuffling their parking lots like a valet service in New York, only to wake up and see the grass is still green, and the street is empty. The ban that is so essential to providing efficient snow clearing by public works, even when not a flake of snow has fallen.

I challenge someone to provide a logical explanation as to why taxpaying citizens are prohibited from parking on a public street for 5.5 months out of the year, when there is accumulative snowfall perhaps two or three times a month.

I understand the need for the emergency parking ban, but there seems to be a rather clear line between what is necessary to aid in snow removal and what is merely unjustified policing or the flexing of local government muscle.

For all intents and purposes, the emergency parking ban is more than adequate.

Why does the city feel compelled to waste the law enforcement budget having officers drive around all night citing parking violations?

Jeff Purcell, Lewiston