On August 27, the second removal of Italian-flag tri-colored stripe from Adams Street (photo: Martina Jackson)
Two months and a day after Nonantum residents were surprised and angered by the late-night grinding of the roadway on Adams Street – and the appearance of double-yellow lines in place of the colors of the Italian flag – the City sent a team of contracted power-washers to again remove the green, white, and red stripes that had been repainted over the yellow lines.
During five days of the 90th annual St. Mary of Carmen festival (Festa), late-night neighborhood painters had applied the traditional tri-colored stripe, representing the Italian flag, over the double-yellow lines on approximately half of Adams Street, covering part of the route used by the St. Mary of Carmen Society to carry the statue of the Madonna to and from Our Lady Help of Christians Church on the final day of the festival.
The City’s action and the community’s vehement opposition, directed at Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller, have been the subject of unprecedented news coverage in Massachusetts and the nation. Many have questioned the Mayor’s timing in removing the tri-colored Italian stripe on Adams Street just before its traditional repainting for the festival’s 90th celebration.
Unlike the painting of the double-yellow lines, where neither the community nor its three City Councilors received notice of the late-night activity on June 26 (three weeks before the beginning of the 90th Festa celebration), Mayor Fuller repeatedly said that the repainted tri-colored stripe would be removed. On Monday, August 25, Newton Department of Public Works Commissioner Shawna Sullivan sent an email to leaders of the St. Mary of Carmen Society Festival, announcing that the power washing would occur on Wednesday, the 27. “No Parking” signs appeared along Adams Street the next day. Protesters arrived at the Italian American Club just before 7AM, the stated time that the…