Paul Goldfinger, MD, Editor Blogfinger.net
Many of you have received an e-mail evaluation regarding OG parking by the “Better Parking Alliance” who have recently evaluated Kimley-Horn’s professional (paid by the CMA) analysis.
Blogfinger remains focused on residential parking issues—-but there also are concerns about the merchants, the CMA, and the oceanfront condominiacs.
The BPA is enthused about the consultants resident permit parking concept, but if taken seriously by the Neptunites, won’t achieve pilot status until 2022.
Permits are not a new idea—just read prior Blogfinger posts or ask Joyce Klein of the HOA Parking Committee, and these opinions have been free. But the BPA love affair with the complicated K-H permit system sounds like a distracted infatuation.
But now, with the complex Kimley-Horn consultation open to daylight scrutiny to be digested by the Neptune Comedy, we may have gone from the virtually impossible to the totally impossible.
The BPA seems to be adopting the jump-on-the bandwagon approach while turning a morass into chop meat. Here is a quote from the BPA regarding resident permits:
“Embrace Resident Involvement in a Solution…We support the concept of allowing residents to determine if they want permit parking in their own neighborhoods and the 60%/70%/20% framework that Kimley-Horn recommends. This requires that 60% of households in a given area indicate that they want resident parking permits, 70% of the total available spaces to be occupied during a proposed parking period and 20% of vehicles during this period to be from outside the affected area. The 70% and 20% criteria would be tested via independent study in the summer of 2021. Several important details need resolution, however this is a solid framework.”
As Ray Charles once said, “Baby, what’d I say?”
I’d rather hunt for parking than try to wade through these tortured analyses.
And as for “total available spaces,” how can any calculations be accomplished based on baseless numbers unless a truly professional study tries to COUNT the number of spaces. That has not been done! The Groaners once tried, but their methodology was less than useless. Such a count probably can’t be done for a variety of reasons which only our researcher Jumping Jack Bredin can explain. But, we already know the answer: too many cars; too few spaces!
And none of these analyses takes into consideration State laws regarding parking in New Jersey’s municipalities. For example, the laws talk about visibility if one tries to enter an intersection. Most of you have tried to pull out from a side street onto Main Avenue. You know how dangerous that is because you can’t see what’s coming due to parked cars illegally blocking the sight line.
And how about parking on top of stop signs? Or those dangerous diagonal parking spaces which the consultant wants to increase—big vehicles stick out and create a hazard. Would you stick your butt out into traffic? Then why do it to your Escalade?
You can do some minor cutting and pasting, like limiting shopping times downtown, but lets face it—-forget trying to shuffle the same deck and instead do something wonderful like banning all mega-events in season. Find a permit plan specifically for residents during the prime season including shoulders.
Discourage all events that do not improve the life styles of our residents. If we are to have a glut, at least confine it to beach goers who are the natural glutnicks and are historical. The Calusa and Leni Lenapi Indians enjoyed going to the beach and they did not bring a single car into town. Invite them back but skip the casino.
Ray Charles:
“See the girl with the red dress on.
She can do the Birdland all night long.”