[...] Marino hiked parking meter fees, an unpopular move among Romans who have abandoned the capital's strike-prone mass transit system in droves. [...] what has really poisoned the Roman mood is that after enforcing his big idea on parking fees, Marino was himself repeatedly caught in traffic violations with his bright red Fiat Panda — and allowed fines to pile up unpaid. Ordinary Romans can drive into the historic center only with an annual permit that costs hundreds of euros. Struggling to be heard, Marino struck a defiant tone: "I read about my resignation," he told the hearing packed with spectators, "and to tell you the truth, I smiled." The person who commissioned the survey was the head of Marino's own local Democratic Party, who then made public what were supposed to be in-house findings. Recently, Marino was blasted for being slow to visit the working-class neighborhood of Tor Sapienza, which had seen several days and nights of violence by residents opposed to a refugee center. In his City Hall speech, Marino linked his unpopularity to his willingness to take on special interests and fight corruption.