Support permit parking for Grovers and reduce exploitative tourism in our town:

By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.   Re-post from January 01, 2020 in light of the BPA’s planned town meetings. (see their flier Feb  22, 2020)

In October we reported on the new Better Parking Alliance  (BPA) and we said, “This group says it is an independent activist alliance that represents the residents of Ocean Grove.  If so, this is truly an inspiring and much-needed first, and deserves a standing ovation”

But after that, after much hopeful publicity, the BPA fell on its face,  its proposed parking plan squashed by the Township Committee and the Camp Meeting Association.

It found itself being forced by ex-Mayor Rizzo to give up its independence and join with the CMA, the Township, and the Chamber of Commercials to come up with a workable plan—-obviously an unworkable situation.

In the December 19 edition of the Coaster, the Coastericans reported that the Chamber of Commerce has decided to change the subject:  Instead of helping to shape a plan that would help all the residents of the Grove, it is proposing an idea that will help only itself by limiting parking at the business district to 3 hours.

Aside from the fact that this Chamber proposal is old news and has been a failure in the past, the Mayor dumped this in the laps of the Chamber, the CMA, and the residents’ “independent” alliance—the BPA.

How did the Chamber’s problem become the new main focus of parking solutions in the Grove?  Not only shouldn’t the BPA and the CMA be part of this diversionary tactic, but this scheme is obviously a solution for businesses to wrestle with and should be worked out between the Township and the Chamber of Horrors.

I call them the Chamber of Horrors, because they have never done a thing to help or support the historic town of Ocean Grove or its residents. They are a terrible neighbor, and our representatives, the BPA, should not help them.

We need representatives in this town who work for the residents only. The Home Groaners are useless as advocates for us, in fact they have turned against us, with the prime example being their unyielding support for the North End Redevelopment Plan including forced censorship at a recent public meeting with OGNED.

There are some time bombs in this Main Avenue parking plan including concerns about where residents who live there will park, where employees will park, and who will enforce and pay for it.   And this only benefits the businesses and does nothing to reduce crowds of tourists or increase parking availability all over town. In fact it may increase the numbers of shoppers on Main.

The BPA, our representative in the parking wars, has been hustled and manipulated to turn away from its stated mission to help Ocean Grovers get a break with their parking distress.

The Blogfinger muckrakers will continue to stir the pot and make waves at the beach.   And let’s organize a demonstration downtown and get 100 people to do the “stir the pot dance” because we are mad as hell and we’re not going to take this anymore.