An OG giant flea market where only a few select tourists should be allowed. Is she the Coaster reporter? Please! Paul Goldfinger photo

By Paul Goldfinger,  Editor Blogfinger.net.   1/26/23

In a front page article today, Coaster reporter Carol Gorga Williams took a fresh look at the topic of OG’s parking mess in preparation for yet another Township meeting to address parking; this time, once again, a proposal for residential parking permits in town.

She said, “The Neptune Township Committee will convene a special meeting Sat, Jan. 28 to discuss a proposed pilot program for residential parking permits in Ocean Grove, where narrow streets and summer-season overcrowding have long creating frustration.”    That one sentence is a breath of fresh air even if it is not totally accurate.

Let’s consider her point of view.

a.  The result of our parking problems in season is “frustration.”  I don’t think any prior news report has used that word.  Why is that important, well it is because it reflects what Blogfinger has been saying for years:  This is a QUALITY OF LIFE ISSUE involving most importantly the community of Grovarian residents. It is the residents, home owners and renters, who have been ignored and “frustrated” by the blind-sighted officials and organizations in this town.  The mobs of tourists in season should not be given top priority in any proposed plan. Let’s give our citizens top priority.

b. Ms. Williams spoke in terms of “summer-season overcrowding.”   YES!  Those of us who live here are drowning in tourists, and it is the equation of too many tourists overwhelming too few parking spaces that is the fundamental problem.  Blogfinger has been saying that for years:   reduce the number of giant tourist events, as is done in many shore towns, and the problem will be over.  The Township has control over permits for events that bring out-of-town folks here by the thousands on summer weekends, causing  “FRUSTRATION” for our own tax paying townies.

Let the mega-events be held in some huge space with excess parking like the Monmouth Country Fair Ground.   The giant flea market does not have to be held in our small residential town!

c   And finally the Coasterican reporter decides that that one of our main problems is “narrow streets.”  Well, la-de-dah!   That may not be true, but it is marvelous to contemplate because it is a new idea, and we sure can use new ideas in the Grove.

The meeting will be held at the Arts Center at 9 am this Saturday 1/28/23.   After a stultifying presentation of plan details you will hear questions that will indicate yet another failure to solve the Grovarian parking mess, but I sure would like one of those permits.  And let’s put Ms. Williams on that committee!

LEON REDBONE: