The Newton LineGate fight has escalated into a rebellion as residents are taking back the road, trying to restore what they say is part of their neighborhood’s identity after the city ripped it away in the middle of the night.

Adams Street, at the forefront of the weeks-long feud between Nonantum residents and Mayor Ruthanne Fuller, has been partially repainted in red, white and green, just in time for this week’s Italian festival.

Neighbors from Nonantum and residents from other city neighborhoods are continuing to blast Fuller’s decision, which they say came out of nowhere, to paint the road lines on Adams Street yellow, three weeks before the 90th annual Italian-American festival, known as “Festa.”

Jordan Lee Wagner, a Jewish neighbor who attends the Adams Street Shul, said he’s willing to risk being arrested to help defend the community. He put out a call for action Tuesday morning, urging residents on Facebook to “just go out and paint.”

“What can they do? Arrest us?” Wagner stated in the post. “The police don’t want to. If they do arrest us, the prosecutor isn’t going to want to prosecute us. If they do prosecute us, I would demand a jury trial.”

“Can you imagine the bad publicity crashing down on Newton,” he added, “and the expense to Newton?”

Wagner told the Herald on Wednesday that he woke up to a phone call from Italian neighbors that residents went out and painted overnight, to his surprise. In the afternoon, he added a fresh coat of his own.

“I don’t believe anyone is going to arrest me,” Wagner said in a phone interview, “and if they do, everybody around me is going to see that it’s a joke. None of us understands why the mayor even did this. What was she thinking? It happened in a vacuum.”

Wagner, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1981, vividly recounted how he woke up in the middle of the night late last month to a large grinding machine ripping apart Adams Street before another apparatus placed down what he describes as thick, rubberized yellow lines.

The action, which has even pitted the entire 24-member City Council against Fuller, has stolen a mark of the neighborhood’s Italian character, Wagner said. He added that all neighbors are feeling the pain.

“When the rest of us look at those colors, red, white, and green, we see our Italian neighbors, our wonderful neighbors,” he said. “It’s not about paint. It’s about erasing a real symbol of what this neighborhood is and is all about.”

On Monday, Fuller admitted that the city “missed the mark in communicating” ahead of time about the controversial decision, while acknowledging that the “tricolor center line has been an important and meaningful tradition.”

Before the city painted the reflective yellow center lines, Fuller said the city gave the OK for Festa volunteers to repaint the tricolors on Adams Street — moved over by 12” or 18” next to the double yellow center lines.

The mayor also stressed that the decision for yellow lines on the two-way street was for public safety, citing a 2024 citywide analysis of traffic volume and vehicle speeds that revealed Adams Street as most in need for traffic calming measures.

“The volume of traffic here,” Fuller wrote in a memo to the community, “coupled with the road width being greater than 20 feet, requires double yellow center lines per federal and state regulations; this is mandatory, not optional.”

Third-generation Italian Fran Yerardi, who owned a restaurant in Nonantum for 20 years before opening a real estate investment company, isn’t buying Fuller’s reasoning. The City Council and the former secretary and CEO of MassDOT, Gina Fiandaca, aren’t either, each writing open letters criticizing the mayor.

Speaking to the Herald, while on Adams Street, Yerardi said he had noticed dedicated police patrols every 30 minutes, making sure no one repainted the road red, white and green, just hours before the four-day Festa kicked off Wednesday evening.

“They’ve pulled police officers from throughout the city to come by every 30 minutes and drive the street,” Yerardi said. “That’s not safety because it’s failing public safety elsewhere.”

“They’re definitely going to keep the patrols out there,” he added. “This neighborhood is the blue-collar neighborhood. This is where all the public safety people live. What are they going to do? Arrest their grandmother because she’s out painting the street? It’s difficult for everybody.”

The Newton Police Department told the Herald that patrol officers spotted “fresh red, white and green spray paint on the double yellow lines” near Watertown and Washington streets, around 2:30 Wednesday morning.

The department is seeking complaints in Newton District Court against a 54-year-old city man allegedly responsible for defacing the property.

The mayor’s office declined to make any new statements, referring the Herald to Fuller’s email memo from Monday.

Virginia Gardner, who lived in Newton for 67 years before moving to Wayland a handful of years ago, is the president of the Italian American Alliance National Council. She recruits people across the country to join the organization, which defends the Italian culture, language and traditions.

Gardner told the Herald that she had hoped this fight would have been resolved by now, but Fuller’s decision to remove the Italian colors from Adams Street remains very much contentious.

“Is it some kind of prejudice? Is it racism? Why would you have to be the first mayor in 90 years to question this tradition?” Gardner said. “This isn’t a rookie mistake. She is a seasoned politician. That’s what baffles and troubles me the most.”

Fuller alerted residents in her memo that the city is allowing red and green paint between the white lines in crosswalks on Adams Street between Watertown and Washington streets. She also stated that fire hydrants can be painted in the colors.

“Let’s make Adams Street safer as we celebrate our Italian heritage,” she wrote.

Nonantum resident Al Ceccinelli, a mayoral candidate, is pointing to how Fuller previously replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day and forced firefighters to take down an Italian flag in the Nonantum fire station.

Fuller has announced she is not seeking a third term.

“It was disrespectful what was done, the manner in which it was done, and the reason for which it was done,” Ceccinelli said of the yellow lines on Adams Street. “This seems to be a trend in trying to disrespect the traditions of the Nonantum area.”