Scranton will repeal a nearly century-old ban of overnight parking on streets.
An ordinance from 1928 — enacted when Calvin Coolidge was the U.S. president and Edmund Jermyn was the mayor of Scranton — bans overnight parking on any street in the city.
Still on the books but not enforced in more modern times, the ordinance came to light earlier this month during the city’s backing of a debt refinancing of the outside operators of the parking system, according to minutes of recent meetings of Scranton City Council.
During the July 8 council meeting, Scranton Tomorrow President and CEO Leslie Collins urged the city to review the 1928 ordinance that prohibits parking during nighttime hours.
“It is very vague. It does not specifically describe one specific location,” Collins told council.
The next week, on July 15, council voted unanimously to introduce an ordinance from the administration of Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti to repeal the antiquated ordinance.
Noting the 1928 parking ban is completely at odds with modern reality, council President Gerald Smurl said he was glad to see it repealed. He asked council Solicitor Tom Gilbride to further explain the issue.
The 1928 parking ban arose when “there were very few cars owned by very few people back then,” Gilbride said. “Probably those on the wealthier side owned cars. They all had off-street parking, carriage houses. This law basically back then said that no cars can be parked on any city street, in any street in the city anywhere. This ordinance just repeals that.”
This past Tuesday, council unanimously advanced the repeal ordinance on second reading.
City officials “definitely have to get rid of antiquated pieces of ordinances,” Councilwoman Jessica Rothchild said. “So of course I’m supportive of getting this off the books.”
Smurl, Rothchild and council members Tom Schuster, Mark McAndrew and Bill King all voted in favor of introducing and advancing the repeal ordinance. Next, it likely would come back before council at its meeting Tuesday at City Hall at 6:30 p.m. for a third reading and vote on adoption.
Some of the cars available in 1928 included the Studebaker, Duesenberg and Ford Model A.