Paul Goldfinger. © Ocean Grove tent colony. Toss the residents a life preserver.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.net
One year ago, June 14, 2016, in an article for NJ.com by Alex Napollielo, the headline read: “Residents, Shore town at odds over parking issues.” (Link below.)
In the article, “Joyce Klein, Chair of the Ocean Grove Homeowners Association’s parking committee, said she would like to see the township run a test period of parking permits from Aug. 1 until the end of the summers season.”
The Home Owners, in a rare case of speaking out for the residents said, “The Homeowners Association submitted a proposal to the Neptune Township Committee, the governing body in Ocean Grove, in April, that suggests reserving one side of the street for homeowner permit parking. Each household would be given one parking permit free of charge, the proposal states. And a household with a driveway is not entitled to a permit.”
Believe it or not, the HOA vowed to fight for resident permit parking. The Mayor stalled, and after that, somebody must have had a back-room discussion with the HOA because, as you all know, they later applauded the Township for adding more useless diagonal parking in town and they never publicly resumed the conversation about resident parking.
Well, regardless of the gutless HOA, the idea of residential permit parking is still alive on Blogfinger, and we will see if the Township and/or the HOA actually look into the possibility. They really should do this for the residents of the Grove.
www.nj.com/monmouth/index.ssf/2016/06/residents_shore_town_at_odds_over_parking_issues.html
Here’s a song for the OGHOA who need to dissolve their group to be replaced by a citizen activist organization which Blogfinger would vigorously support:
DINAH WASHINGTON
Long Timer ; I said Cambridge MA not Camden NJ . In Cambridge MA there are parking permits required for either side of streets . If a visitor, your host would get you a temporary,(think it’s 3x days) permit .
To adequately protect our residents from those using our “free” parking and walking to neighboring towns, I think we need to have June through August requirements to display either a resident permit or a meter receipt everywhere at all hours. Perhaps 2/household. I noticed while at a conference in Wildwood that the beaches may be free but parking is expensive and the motels have a limit of one car per room.
Editor’s note: At the present time we are seeking to popularize an “out of the box” idea which we understand could be feasible in Ocean Grove.
We are not at the point where we would want to discuss the intricate details of such a proposal.
The next step should be for the town or HOA to bring in consultants to advise on the feasibility of a resident permit plan. So, for now, please do not send us rules and regulations. I see no point in allowing a free-for-all to develop over the details.
Thanks, Paul, Editor @Blogfinger
I’m not talking about why a plan would fail, rather just setting expectations/explaining realities when discussing parking in Hoboken, Jersey City & Camden (the cities Frank mentions):
1) In Jersey City and Hoboken only 1 side of a street is designated as “resident only’ parking, The other side of those streets is available to anyone to park, anytime (except street sweeping). By so doing both municipalities meet Federal and State requirements.
2) All other streets, especially those in commercial or tourist areas, are metered parking, whether resident or not.
3) In both cities there is only 1 permit per household – not per driver.
4) In Camden there are approx. 32 Controlled Parking Zones (CPZ) each with specific days and times for residents only parking. It should be noted that in many of these CPZs there is no restriction on weekends (in tourist and transportation areas, esp.). As the Camden Parking Authority states “A residents’ permit does not guarantee you a space to park in your street,” By so doing Camden meets Federal and State requirements.
So in getting to 1st base, and taking an optimistic POV, some things we need to consider: Do we want, or how do we deal with:
– One side for residents only?
– One permit per household?
– Metered parking for everyone?
– Unrestricted parking in commercial and tourist areas?
– Unrestricted weekend parking?
Cambridge MA , Jersey City NJ , Hoboken NJ , etc. , etc .all have resident parking permit programs . They work fine . Perhaps someone in charge of one of these programs should be contacted and queried as to how to run such a program . I feel residential parking permits are long overdue in OG .
There are those who want to come on Blogfinger to debate the intricate details of a permit parking plan for OG. And most of those comments want to explain why the plan would fail. We need optimism here.
We need to get to first base before figuring out how to make third.
Blogfinger is about ideas, and wondering about details would be the job of whichever group decides to look into the idea in detail.
It’s like complaining on BF about taxes and then wanting to discuss the budget at this site.
One person was worried about where hotel guests would park. The plan that we suggested is one that concerns itself now with residents and only residents.
—Paul