A typo on a street sign spelled trouble Monday for the city of Portland.

The spelling police took to social media to criticize the city for misspelling a day of the week that appears on several No Parking signs that line a stretch of Commercial Street along the city’s waterfront.

A person who tweets under the name of Wikibleedia @green_i_girl posted a photograph that shows a bright red-and-white sign on Commercial Street that reads, “No Parking This Side of Street 11:30 PM Tuedsay thru 7:00 AM Wednesday. Vehicles Will Be Towed.”

She asks if anyone has noticed what she called “the new signs up and down Commercial Street.”

Oddly, the No Parking signs on Commercial Street are not new, said city spokeswoman Jessica Grondin. She estimated that they were installed about one year ago.

“They are old and we thought we had replaced all of the ones with the mistake,” Grondin wrote in an email Monday night.

Wikibleedia also posted a photograph of a sign in East Bayside that highlighted another spelling error. On that sign, which was intended to inform passers-by about an Anderson Street construction project, someone wrote “City of Portand.”

“Oh hey, @City Portland, at least you’re consistent (ly bad at spelling) … is there no one proofreading anything at the city?” the tweet asked.

John Nolan, in a Nov. 7 post on his Facebook page, published a photograph of the messed up Commercial Street signs and wrote, “Dear Portland, Maine. This is not how ‘Tuesday’ is spelled and you have like 15 signs that say this. Fix please. Literally all up and down Commercial Street.”

One woman, who commented on Nolan’s post, said, “Hmm who’s in charge of spelling for the city of Portland??” Another person added, “This means you can park there whenever. Since Tuedsay doesn’t exist.”

“Isn’t that the day after Modnay?” a third person commented.

WJBQ, a Portland radio station, threw another log on the fire Monday when it mentioned Nolan’s Facebook post and wrote on its website, “Apparently there’s no spellcheck when you’re making street signs. … So since there is no such day as Tuedsay, does that mean we don’t have to worry about getting towed on Tuesday? Your move Portland. (Just to be safe I proofread this article 10 times.)”

Grondin, the city spokeswoman, responded to the city’s critics on Twitter.

“Thanks! We’re already in the process of fixing these. We totally agree that spelling matters,” Grondin tweeted Monday in response to Wikibleedia’s tweet.

In her email Monday night to the Portland Press Herald, Grondin said the East Bayside sign has been taken down and the project it was intended to explain – Phase 2 of the Anderson Street Neighborhood Byway – has been completed.

“That picture is not even current. Plus the contractor was responsible for the sign,” Grondin wrote.

In her tweet to Wikibleedia, Grondin said, “So this sign isn’t up anymore, thankfully! But we’ll make sure to remind folks to proof better in the future.”

As for the No Parking signs on Commercial Street?

“Since the Facebook post, a few city employees saw it and took action to get it corrected,” Grondin wrote.

She said the Commercial Street signs were manufactured by an outside contractor.

“The ones that went up with the error were done by an outside vendor,” Grondin said.

She couldn’t say how much it would cost to replace the signs, but said the project would be done “in-house.”

Dennis Hoey can be contacted at 791-6365 or at:

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