Parking enforcement is good for our community. It increases parking availability, keeps traffic moving and makes streets safer for everyone.

In a Maine Voices column and a subsequent letter last week, several community members called parking enforcement “heavy-handed” and “vindictive.” I disagree. Every day, I see cars parked for hours in 15-minute loading zones. Delivery and ride-hailing vehicles park in no-stopping zones, and block alleys, driveways, bike lanes and traffic. There’s one blocking Spring Street right now. Solving these problems calls for more, not less, parking enforcement.

As the Maine Voices column said: We are all in this together. Delivery driving and gig work are hard. Maybe Portland should designate a loading zone or two on every block to give delivery and ride-share drivers safe, legal places to stop. In the meantime, parking enforcement can do its part by ticketing illegally parked cars. Delivery and ride-share drivers can do theirs by parking legally.

Sarah Elkind
Portland