An anonymous local hero was able to get a Portland city employee a parking ticket after reminding the city’s parking control officer that Maine is, in fact, “not a communist state.”
On Thursday, a disgruntled Portland resident posted to the city’s 311 SeeClickFix portal, an online tool for residents to report quality of life issues, such as discarded hypodermic needles, trash, homeless camps and parking violations.
The anonymous user shared a picture of a Nissan Rogue — that they claimed belongs to a Portland city employee — parked illegally in a “no parking any time” zone on Oak Street.
“I have to call at least once a week for one of the city of Portland employees illegally parked right here,” the anonymous user wrote.
“I can not exit the parking lot when they park here and have been stuck for hours on end and no one from the city will do anything about it,” they continued.
“This is not a communist state or country, rules for thee, but not for me does not apply,” they added.
“Ticket them or [tow] them now!” the user demanded.
In response to the aggrieved resident’s complaint later that afternoon, Portland Senior Parking Control Officer Andy Martin thanked the anonymous poster for clarifying that Maine is indeed not a communist state.
“Thanks for pointing out that this is not a communist state,” Martin replied. “The vehicle has been ticketed.”
“Your request has been resolved by the Parking Division, and closed,” he wrote. “Thank you for partnering with us to keep The City of Portland a great place to live and work.”
In a follow-up post to the platform, an anonymous user, who appears to be the same person behind the original parking complaint, criticized Martin’s response and suggested he needs “another course on how to be professional.”
“Is this response from after the retraining? Hmmm seems like another course on how to be professional is needed,” the user wrote, with a picture attached of Martin’s response to the original post.
“Maybe return comments from Andy [Martin] should be monitored before being posted,” the user suggested.
Replying to the user’s feedback on Martin’s professionalism, the Portland 311 account stated that the user’s comments had been shared with city’s Director of Parking.
The interaction led to a popular post on a Reddit community for Portland, with users weighing in on whether they found the parking control officer’s response appropriate.
“That’s honestly a hilarious response from Andy,” one user commented.
“Andy should consider that he’s on the ducking taxpayer’s payroll and pension and handsome f—ing healthcare plan,” another commented.
“Again with the communism slander,” one user wrote, to which another replied, “The fall back boogie man of the least informed people on the planet.”
“Such a waste of time making anyone respond to these lunatics in the first place,” one Redditor remarked. “Good for Andy, might as well inject a little snark at the unhinged masses that abuse the SeeitClickitFixit site.”
Although methodologies vary, communism and governments based on the communist ideology are estimated to be responsible for 94 million deaths.
This is not the first time parking dispute in Portland has made headlines.
In 2015, House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross (D-Portland) resigned her former position as the city’s “Director of Equal Opportunity and Multicultural Affairs” after an internal investigation began into her dispute with a parking lot attendant.
Ross was placed on administrative leave after city leaders saw a video recording of Ross becoming belligerent with a Unified Parking Partners employee.
Because Ross resigned, rather than letting any disciplinary action occur, the city of Portland’s attorneys subsequently decided that the video is not a public record and cannot be released under Maine’s Freedom of Access Act.
