- Meg Baker’s CBS truck parked behind the Blogmobile on Delaware Avenue. Blogfinger spot-news photo. ©
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
Meg Baker is a reporter from CBS 2 in New York. She specializes in New Jersey news and she noticed the Blogfinger.net stories on parking in the Grove. In particular she was interested in how the tumult in Asbury Park has affected Ocean Grove’s complicated parking situation.
This morning Meg drove in from NYC to get a taste of porch life in the Grove where she got to interview me and then Joyce Klein, the Chairwoman of the OG Home Owners Association Parking Committee.
Meg and Joyce parked themselves on Joyce’s porch, a typical sort of place where Grovers hide out during sunny summer holiday weekends so as not to lose a parking space. She also spoke to me for a brief piece to be posted on Facebook.
- Meg Baker interviews Joyce Klein on Jersey Joyce’s porch in Ocean Grove. Overhead is the Bronx Botanical Garden. 5/26/16. © Paul Goldfinger photo.
Meg did not travel with a cameraman (or camerawoman.) Instead she shlepped a large video camera on a tripod and filmed the interviews hands free, on auto pilot.
- Meg Baker, a bona fide celebrity, performs an upstanding selfie video with Paul from Blogfinger. 5/26/16 Ocean Grove, NJ . Photo by Eileen Goldfinger
I tried to explain some of the special issues surrounding our parking challenges such as the lack of garages and driveways, the free parking which is so tempting to the A. Park crowd, and the fixed number of spaces in the face of bigger and bigger crowds in both neighboring communities. We told her about the residents who have been campaigning for free parking stickers, one per house, to give us some relief.
And we gave her some historic background such as how the Township was founded before the auto was invented and how President Grant had to park his horse and buggy outside the gates on Sunday and had to walk over to his “sister” who lived in the Grove. If Sis came here for peace, quiet and privacy, she may have found that to be a difficult goal in view of the President of the United State’s visit.
We don’t know what Joyce had to say, but perhaps we will catch the report on the news. Or maybe Joyce, a member of the HOA board, will make a comment on Blogfinger or, more likely, Ocean Grove will secede from Neptune ( the town, not the planet.)
But, as I told Meg, writing a story on parking in the Grove is truly headline news, at least to those who live here. However, a solution to the problem, if Joyce can find one, will be difficult—a bit like dancing in the dark:
TONY BENNETT
LINK: SEE THE VIDEO. Joyce and I get our 15 minutes of fame.
New Jersey Town Residents Concerned Streets Will Become Parking Lot With Memorial Day Approaching
Reblogged this on Blogfinger and commented:
CBS came to OG to discuss parking in the Grove . The sent a beautiful reporter to speak to two Grover’s. Play it again, Sam. Nothing has changed, but the article still has legs.
Great to see you on the news! Here’s the video. http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2016/05/26/ocean-grove-parking-memorial-day/
…..and nothing can be done anyway. Ocean Grovers themselves are rude at parking etiquette. They have no clue how to “tighten up” the parking. Instead they put out cones and pales to save themselves a spot. or they park in such a way to take up two spots. Then when their honey shows up, they move forward or back to allow their honey to park.
THERE IS NO RESERVED PARKING IN OCEAN GROVE, EVEN FOR PRESIDENT GRANT!
Summer’s here. Start parking like you mean it!
Paul – looks like you are the new face of OG. (model search for your replacement to commence immediately). Great job articulating the parking plight of OG.
Good job Blogfinger and Joyce. I hope it brings more attention to our parking plight. Felt bad for Meg Baker…no camera person? A huge network like CBS cheapens out & forces TV reporters to double up as A/V specialists. Sheesh. Did she have to run back to Manhattan and edit her own piece too?
I interviewed one of those employees last week over on Cookman Ave, and the OG secret is already known on the street.—Paul
Good Job Blogfinger! Hoping we soon get to sing the song, “a change is gonna come”. !
I hope the Asbury visitors/employees – who weren’t aware of the free parking in its neighboring town – will not now follow suit.
A star is born…and it’s not you Cuz.