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‘A rebellion has begun’: Newton residents repaint Italian flag traffic stripes
“People are going to come out when they can, at night, whenever the police aren't here, painting their street. They're going to take back their heritage.”
When Jordan Lee Wagner thinks about Nonantum, he doesn’t just picture a neighborhood in Newton. He sees a tight-knit place where immigrants are welcomed with open arms and where generations of stories and memories have been fostered.
“You don’t see that much anymore, and certainly not 15 minute commute down to a major American city,” Wagner said. “But that’s Nonantum.”
In Nonantum, history isn’t just remembered, it’s protected. And for some residents, a “rebellion” has recently begun.
The Italian flag-colored traffic stripes that emblazoned Adams Street for almost 100 years were painted over last month. Mayor Ruthanne Fuller said the change was needed to support public safety and follow federal requirements. But to some residents of Nonantum, it felt like an erasure of identity.
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Wagner, who has lived in Nonantum since 1981, took to a Nonantum Facebook group Tuesday morning with a call to action.
“It seems to me that we should just go out and paint. What can they do? Arrest us?” Wagner’s Facebook post read. “It is insane to make a federal case out of a neighborhood restoring lines that were there for 90 years. Paint!”
To Wagner’s surprise, that’s exactly what some Nonantum community members did.
By Wednesday morning, the standard double yellow lines on Adams Street that were painted June 26 were painted over with red, white, and green hues.
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“This grassroots effort sends a message heard loud and clear across the city: Nonantum will not go quietly into the night. Its heritage will not be erased. Its voice will not be silenced,” local advocacy group Save Newton Villages said in a press release Wednesday morning.
Fuller did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday about residents repainting the lines.
Wagner said he was stunned that his post led to tangible action. He said he had corresponded over email with Fuller on June 29 and advocated for the colorful traffic lines alongside city councilors at a July 14 rally outside Newton City Hall.
After he heard that someone was reportedly arrested for painting new lines, Wagner began repainting the lines in front of his synagogue himself.
“There’s no explanation for why you would do it three weeks before the annual Festa. That’s just insulting,” Wagner said, referring to the city’s annual Italian American festival. “On top of everything else, it’s been there for 90 years. If you had waited till July, would it have really mattered?
The Newton Police Department said Thursday that a 54-year-old Newton resident was “briefly detained on scene and then released” on Wednesday.
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The person, who police did not identify, was believed to be responsible for spray painting over the double yellow lines on Adams St. near Watertown St. and on Adams St. near Washington St., Lieutenant Amanda Henrickson said.
Newton police is seeking charges against the person in Newton District Court for defacing or damaging property, the department said.
Fran Yerardi, who used to live on Adams Court, said the data that Mayor Ruthanne Fuller cited to defend the new yellow traffic lines was incorrect.
“She said it was for safety issues, but all the data we’ve asked to see has been, to be polite, it’s been fudged,” Yerardi said. “The festival starts tonight, so people are like, diplomacy is over. It’s time to take things in their own hands.”
Yerardi said police have been patrolling Adams Street every half an hour to ensure no one repaints the road, yet residents are “running out and painting outside their houses and businesses.”
“This is becoming a rebellion,” Yerardi said. “People are going to come out when they can, at night, whenever the police aren’t here, painting their street. They’re going to take back their heritage.”
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For Wagner, it represents something deeper.
“I think it’s a good example for the rest of Newton, if not all of America, that diversity of tradition can be a source of unity, rather than a stress against unity in others,” Wagner said. “When we cherish the diversity itself, it becomes a source of our unity. And Nonantum has that.”
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