Feb 1, 2023 corner of Main Avenue and Beach. Paul Goldfinger photo. Cone and scooter occupy a space. There may be a new ordinance afoot regarding those scooters. You may not block a parking space with some object such as a garbage pail or a cone.
OG photo. Senior saves spaces for himself and his wife.
Schemer: paint your curb yellow. Or put pails on the grassy strip. . Cones would work also. These measures may fool or intimidate a potential parker, but they do not obstruct a parking space, so they are legal. I don’t know about the yellow curb.
Saving a space after shoveling or paying to shovel seems OK to me. Internet photo.
Put a wheelchair, pails, cones or other objects to hold your parking space. If someone calls the police, they would remove the object or you can do so…Would you call the police for this?
And then there are those who simply park illegally.
By Paul Goldfinger. Editor. Blogfinger.net. August 2021-2023.
People who save spaces by placing cones or other obstructing objects are rare in the Grove. Very often they are seniors who have to go out for a short while and who want to reclaim the spaces near their homes. I see nothing wrong with that on ethical grounds because we need to cut our neighbors some slack who are looking to gain a bit of advantage when the town becomes gridlocked.
Grovers pay taxes, and they rightfully feel entitled to give themselves a small advantage during the parking wars since the Township, the HOA, and the Better Parking Alliance have accomplished nearly nothing to help them. (But recently the BPA and HOA have been promoting a trial of parking stickers for residents.)
And as for those gridlock events, no other Jersey Shore town burdens its residents as much as Neptune- in-the-Grove by allowing unbridled tourism, and we have the added situation where a growing Camp Meeting Association floods the Grove with their events (hundreds of them) all through the summer season and even onto the shoulder months.
So let’s allow our neighbors to use their cones/objects for short stretches of time, for example 24 hours, so that they can enjoy their OG lifestyles. You can be sure that it is unlikely that the police would punish or investigate Conehead residents unless someone complains. If you must take action, then move the cones and take the space.
We have a Conehead senior citizen neighbor who regularly saves his space with cones while he runs errands. The police and no one else have ever bothered him. He tells us that the transient Airbnbers on the block also use cones with great success for parties. And he is willing to be interviewed about his cone use. Many Coneheads can defend their actions.
I also saw a woman put down a chair on Delaware and then sit down and read a book until her parker shows up.
Why doesn’t the BPA leave the Coneheads alone and focus instead on the much greater issue of saving or creating spaces due to contrived trickery such as:
a. The biggest occurrence is when an owner of two cars creatively parks them to hide a third space which they can then mobilize as needed. Or how about neighbors who get together to create extra spaces? One car can park creatively using the hatched area as part of their scheme, parking a few feet from the hatch and also a few feet from the car behind—voila: a space to be created for a small car.
b. Then we have the Vesparicans, especially seen near the beach on Main. They park their scooters, operational or not, to take up a prime space. When someone comes along that they prefer, the scooter goes into the alley or backyard, and their brother in law gets the space.
c. And then we have those who park cars at the beach and warehouse them there to use as beach lockers.
d. Also there are part timers (second homers usually) who get a handicapped space and then rarely show up to use it. Should second homers be allowed handicapped parking, especially the kind that keeps the space for one special car?
e. Block a space with a wheelchair.—Who would move a wheelchair?
g. If you have a driveway, leave it empty and park on the street. That gets you two spaces including the driveway. By the way, those with driveways will not be eligible for a parking sticker.
h. Then there is the increasingly popular shtick where you get grandma with her knitting or a book to set up a chair and occupy a space. This is illegal but who would call the cops on granny?
And there are other tricks which we have documented as “games people play.”
So for those who are irate at the Coneheads, few in number, how about being fair and going after the “legal” tricksters* too. The parking issue here is not only what’s legal, it is who is gaming the system.*
THE DUBS:
Paul Goldfinger, Editor Blogfinger.net
Here in NYC, the fancier buildings on the Upper East Side would try to prevent parking in front of their entrances so residents could more easily reach taxis, etc. in the street. The city cracked down on this with a $10k fine for painting the curb and this put an end to the practice. In the past, some buildings went to the great expense of having the city install an extra fire hydrant by their door.
No. I am not advocating a law that exempts anyone. I am suggesting that we do not call the police on our Coneheads; unless we call them for all violations.
Paul
What you are advocating is a subjective system of enforcement. The first thing the state will do before agreeing to resident only type of parking is see that existing laws are in place, and adhered to. While we all know the Neptune PD will only enforce certain laws when called to point out certain violations, we can’t have a system of “cones are OK if it’s an older resident”.
The current statute reads that it is illegal to place …”any object on any road, highway or thorofare.” It doesn’t say ‘except for older citizens, or people who are only gone 10 minutes’. Every MV Statute is written to apply to all drivers, unless there is a statutory exception
Just to be clear: I don’t fault people who find ways to save spaces. Ocean Grove is famous for its parking problems, even more than for its history.
I know tourists, contractors, renters and others who won’t come here because of parking.
Whether the schemers create contrived spaces or not, the real problem is the tourist glut. None of the planners including Andy and his merry “better” parking band have addressed the basic equation: We often have more cars than spaces in the Grove. And the North End Plan will make it all worse–a big ripple effect.