Main Avenue in the commercial area. Diagonal parking, an eyesore, is offensive to anybody’s sense of beauty. Blogfinger photo April 2017.
Firemen’s Park. Two truckers stop for a rest along the edge of our park on Main Avenue. The openness is welcomed, and only parallel parking should be continued there. Imagine how this airy view will be when the Neptunites install diagonal parking. Blogfinger photo April 17, 2017.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor, Blogfinger.net. April, 2017.
As I drove along Main Avenue a few days ago, I saw a bus resting along the edge of Firemen’s Park. It is not an uncommon sight, as drivers seek a respite—one of the few such places in Ocean Grove. In addition, from a beautification point of view, the vista across Firemen’s Park towards Main Avenue is beautiful and is enjoyed by all who live around the park, visit the park regularly, or just walk there as part of a strolling experience in that part of town.
For those who drive into Ocean Grove, it is the first scenic view they have, coupled with the historic architecture in that neighborhood. It is also the last scenic event as they drive out of town.
Soon the Township will add a significant dose of ugliness by placing diagonal parking along the Main Avenue edge of the park. Ugh!
Why do we allow those Yahoos at the Mother Ship, in partnership with insensitive Grovers on the Parking Task Force, to make our picturesque town progressively repugnant-looking, one inch at a time?
Send an email, an old fashioned letter, a phone call or even a fly-over banner drone addressed to Mayor Michael Brantley* and tell him that we want his support to stop the vilification of historic Ocean Grove.
His administration refers to us as the Neptune “Historic District.” Since when is diagonal parking historic? Tell him that in 19th century OG even the horses could not be parked that way.
This ongoing indifference to the beauty of our town must be stopped or we will look like another crappy shore town clogged with cars, dumpsters, crowds, and ugliness.
drmbrantley@Neptunetownship.org*
p.s. Jack Bredin says,
“The lyrics from the song by the Eurythmics tells us ‘Some of them want to abuse you, Some of them want to be abused.’
“They could be describing Neptune’s relationship with many apathetic OG property owners.”
THE EURYTHMICS “Sweet Dreams Are Made of This.”
Totally unattractive and unhistoric. And I’ll add a few more negatives, all very incremental as this is just a puny effort to address the town’s parking problem:
Dangerous. Having cars moving diagonally from the normal flow direction of traffic is dangerous for bikes and pedestrians.
Slow: More cars means more traffic. And when I bike past diagonal parking I need to be further out to be safe, so I bike in the traffic lane and thus block traffic. I personally bike 20mph, which sometimes is felt by a driver behind me to be too slow. But just the other day I passed a biking father and daughter, hugging close to the mismatched sized diagonal cars- can they bike down the middle of the road, to stay safe? Will you honk? Somebody hit their horn behind me, though I couldn’t tell why.
Dave. Please take a walk over to Firemen’s Park and look towards Main Avenue where there currently is parallel parking. Then let’s return after diagonal parking is instituted and compare the visuals.
As for fussing about small issues diminishing the effectiveness of fighting big ones, check out the policing concept of the “broken windows” theory where fixing small problems helps prevent bigger ones.
And yes, the diagonal parking currently proposed is a “bandaid” on our parking problems. It has been proposed just to mollify those who want to get at more creative solutions.
What is less historic about diagonal parking than parallel parking? Also, is parallel parking more pleasing from an aesthetic point of view? Is there a chance that railing against every Township suggestion that protest of real issues becomes less effective? I just don’t understand the objection here other than it is it a bandaid on a major wound.
OhGee, I think that outlined parking spaces will reduce the number; now on our street we pack them in bumper to bumper. Each space will have to be 3 feet bigger than a giant truck/suv. My Miata or my son’s MINI would use only 1/2 of that!
I hope they add diagonal parking all the way down Main Ave. to the entrance gates! Cheap & easiest way to achieve a large number of new parking spaces. Hopefully next thing the township will do is outline parking spaces on EVERY street. That way each block will achieve the maximum number of spaces. No more one car taking up two spots. Belmar has this on every street in town & it’s fine. Let’s quit complaining, NIMBYing*, enough already. Bite the bullet; let’s do this.
Editor’s note: All the new diagonal parking will yield just 18 new spaces; not a reasonable return for the visual losses. NIMBY* means’Not in my backyard.”
David: I didn’t know that we were rating issues in town by size. Discussing a problem such as diagonal parking doesn’t diminish any other problems in OG.
Instead of responding to the issue presented in this post, you would rather quibble over which matter is most important.
The fact is that there are many concerns in town, and Blogfinger would be willing to present any reasonable ones that come our way.—Paul
Trash blows everywhere in our town. The lakes are clogged with weeds and trash. The road crews on Central Ave drop their trash at the curb daily. Asbury Park visitors steal our parking spaces and now will do so till 2 AM.
Developers appear to be expediting projects through arson.
And diagonal parking on Main is a big issue?
The lyrics from the song by the Eurythmics tells us “Some of them like to abuse you, Some of them like to be abused”
They could be describing Neptune’s relationship with many apathetic OG property owners.
The largest ugliness in the Grove is on every path, road and street and even in between, and only the birds and squirrels appreciate having it.
I will speak again about the utility wires and poles. Is this an accepted defacement of our town?
They say that the pen is mightier than the sword, except in a town like this when the entire citizenry seems to be comatose.
Somebody should place signs all over town to “Stop the ugliness. No more diagonal parking on Main Avenue.”