11/26/22 meeting of the OGHOA. There are about 40 people in attendance. About 20 others were there via ZOOM. Total attendance about 60.
Joyce Klein, Chairman of the HOA Parking Committee, explains their tentative “pilot” permit parking plan to the HOA.
If those Neptuners mess with us, we have people. Paul Goldfinger at the Grovers Witches Convention. (no parking problems for them—broom sticks)
Paul Goldfinger, MD. Editor Blogfinger.net. November 26, 2022. Ocean Grove, NJ
The parking issue is old news, but below we have evidence of some progress. Here is a link to a fairly recent commentary on BF from last year:
According to the OGHOA theory of relativity, 60 people out of a population of over 3,000 in OG is a superb turnout, and all who were present today were congratulated by the organization. This article on Blogfinger will be read by thousands of people, at the rate of about 400-500 or more each day starting today.
A number of important topics were discussed at today’s meeting, but only 2% of the population were able to hear the information, and not all of them could understand all the details as explained by a lawyer/homeowner (Joyce Klein) who presented some complex material about parking and taxes. But the former is what raised eyebrows at this session because it is startlingly new, tangible, and original.
Something should be done, such as an online video, so that many more could hear the presentations. You will get more details in the Coaster, but the most interesting components were the questions and answers. On Thursday the Coastericans will present their report by the stenographer who comes to each HOA meeting.
Below we’ll give you an idea about the most important topic—permit parking pilot plan: (the 4 P’s. and we will add 2 more “promises, promises”)
You know what they say about decisions made by committee, but nevertheless, a”pilot plan” will be presented for residential parking permits to the Township. This plan was designed by a group consisting of the HOA parking committee, the Better Parking Alliance, the CMA (?) and the Chamber of Commercials. The pilot will last for one year.
It was difficult to understand the geography without a map, but the trial balloon will include mostly streets at the North End. One bordering street, Asbury Avenue, is so congested and compromised by A. Park employees, that they will be given permits, two per house, on one side of the street, for an entire year.
The other bordering streets include Heck Avenue to Pilgrim Pathway, and the enclosed streets will receive permits for May 15 to September 15. The plan will be enforced by The Neptune Police Department which will get to keep all ticket revenues.
Permits will be free, but having a permit would “never” guarantee a parking space according to Ms. Klein.
The devil will be in the details, but here are a few glaring issues evident already:
a. Neptune Township wants all of Neptune Township to be part of the plan, and the CMA has agreed with this idea. This is a joke! This plan has to be about Ocean Grove residents and their parking problems. The people of Neptune have no residential parking issues.
This should not be about who gets to park by the beach. The CMA would love this because it would promote even more beach goers.
Every shore town, including OG, understands that tourists will come to the beach and will find parking without any governmental assistance. This dopey idea is political subterfuge designed to sabotage any permit plan.
b. The Camp Meeting Association has long been opposed to permit parking for residents, and they probably still are.
c. The Neptune Committee will hide under their dais rather than agree to this plan, and many others will be opposed from the Grove. Committeemen Lane and York were at this HOA meeting. Is this political grandstanding? Let’s see how they vote at the Committee meetings.
d. As Ms Klein pointed out, and as Blogfinger has said for years, the main problem is that there are more cars than spaces, and that is a problem in season and especially when the CMA and the CC turn on their giant suction machines and fill our town with tourists all season long for 6 months each year robbing we-the-people from Ocean Grove of prime weekends in the prime months.
It would be a miracle if even a “pilot” plan gets off the ground. But if it happens, then every resident must be supplied with the details in writing and then public hearings should be held, but leave the Neptuner parkers out of it.
SEAN HAYES from the Broadway show:
AP workers and visitors do not need to confine themselves to the North End for free parking. They could park anywhere in town and walk, jog, or ride a bike into AP.
Some visitors going to Bradley Beach from our South End can do the same going to the BB beach or BB downtown. We need paid parking all over OG, and that should include exemptions for Grovers.
I live at the North End and watch the parade of free parkers walk by my house every weekend in season (6 months long). I try not to be annoyed because I can find something 4-6 blocks away and I don’t mind the walk, but some day I won’t be able to walk so well, and the parking mavens should remember the elderly who may not be officially handicapped, but whose lives are limited by the failure to recognize that real people actually live in the Grove and often do need some special assistance with parking such as permits.
We are taxpayers and that should be part of the equations.
Having the shuttle buses is a real improvement, but to get to the heart of the matter (I am a cardiologist). we should emulate other towns around here and severely limit the number of exploitive giant events that suck the oxygen out of our town on glorious summer weekends.
And, where is it written that no public events should be held on Sundays in our town? In 1980 when Neptune took over governance of the Grove, those Neptuners made sure that they kissed up to the CMA. They not only left a couple of blue laws, but they did not encourage the citizens of OG to make use of Sundays for anything including yard sales, outdoor concerts, programs for kids, etc.
This problem also explains why we have to pay for CMA lands including taxes, tree surgery, and sidewalk repairs. And it explains why Neptune never sponsors public events in the Grove. They save that for the rest of town, leaving the public presence here to the CMA.
Maybe the Neptune United would look into some of these issues. Choosing the pier as their prime concern makes them look weak like third string tight ends. (I did play third string end on the RHS freshman football team, which was before I found courage like the Cowardly Lion)
We ‘kids” always parked in the north end of Ocean Grove in the sixties and seventies when we went bar hopping and Ferris Wheel riding in the Palace. Asbury still had some functioning meters in those days though many were rusted and didn’t work. I don’t remember a lot of screaming from Grove residents.
When in middle age I moved to the second beach block of McClintock Street year around, I never had any parking problems. Being a New Yorker, I parked where I could in summer and walked home. When I was a child, one of my Manhattan uncles used to park and then hail a taxi to take us the rest of the way to the apartment.
My Grove neighbors, on the other hand, moaned loudly, wielded the orange cones and used precious gas circling the closest blocks, especially on Saturday entertainment nights. I’m betting parking permits won’t get off the ground in that square mile.
This is just a short list of why there may never be a permit program in OG:
First, there are a certain amount of parking spaces that Neptune Township would be required to provide in OG, like for bus stops,
and for people going to the beach, and Handicap parking, and about 6,000 spaces for its own residents.
Also, when issuing a parking permit it must be on a forty foot wide road, and there are no 40’ wide roads in OG.
Parking for any business, or residential property must be provided on the same lot. This cannot be achieved on a 30 x 60 lot.
A parking permit MUST NOT be in conflict with State Law, like 20’ from a stop sign, and room for a fire truck to enter and another fire truck to exit at the same time.
OG would need about 6,000 legal parking spaces, and all new roads.
The Township Planner reports “there are plenty of parking spaces in Ocean Grove or you can park in Asbury Park and walk home.”
Thanks David. That idea was presented before, but none of the players took it seriously. Some said it was too dangerous to allow heavy cars over there, but we have seen trucks over there.
How about a North End parking field, at least temporarily?