Tea time at Nagle’s. Open the bag and read the leaves, like Jack. Paul Goldfinger photo . Undated.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor, Blogfinger.net. 2017
Jack Bredin, Ocean Grove activist, sat quietly at the August 28th Neptune Township Committee Meeting while waiting for the boring endless session to begin. He knew that permit parking was not on the agenda, but that a stalemate had been reached and something needed to be done. Surely there must be a road map which would take this important matter in a productive direction.
He wrote into his legal pad: “5th time over the years…”
Former Committeemen Randy Bishop used to recall that the subject of a parking solution had come up seriously that many times in the past with no resolution, even though the matter had been studied by the Township, the HOA Parking Committee, the Parking Task Force from 2016 and, now again, it had arisen like some sort of recurrent crabgrass infestation.
Although there had been no past agreement on a solution, the idea of a permit plan was popular, and most all Grovers who weighed in felt that something should be done, especially now at the North End near Asbury.
Two weeks ago, the CMA crazily and irresponsibly announced a possible law suit over permit parking. Do they really have the standing to push the Committee around like that?
The Committee now seems to have no way to turn. The situation has run out of options—–the quest for parking relief for Ocean Grove had reached the end of the line.
Jack studied his pad and decided that the key to advancing the controversy is for the Committee to send the matter to the Planning Board.
Looking back, the matter never reached fruition because the HOA is not the Planning Board and does not have the resources to be one. They should have pushed the Committee to make a proper referral instead of futzing around with it themselves.
The Township is also not the Planning Board, so it just dithers around the problem and doesn’t refer the matter.
The Planning Board established a Master Plan for the town, but it pays no attention to it, and although it has resources to pursue parking, such as planners and lawyers, it has not done so. It doesn’t even do any planning. It has become a place where dubious site plans are approved.
So, after sitting through the agenda, the public portion arrived, and about 20 Grovers went to the microphone to tell their parking horror stories. They had been encouraged to do so by the cowardly lions at the HOA, who sees it as some sort of strategy: send emails so that sad Grovers can whine to committeemen.
The Mayor seemed sympathetic but promised no further progress.
Then Jack got up to say what he had been composing on his yellow pad. He suggested that the Township refer the matter to the Planning Board where proper experts can study the matter and then to hold hearings in Ocean Grove.
Stalling, snoring, dithering, tabling, thinking, looking into it, or just ignoring it are all moribund strategies.
At least Jack is pointing in a hopeful direction.
BEVERLY KENNEY Tea leaves for two. From her album This vintage now
Millie. You don’t get it. The problem for the residents are the consequences that are a pain whenever parking is tight in town.
Paul – I actually enjoy these small events that extend the season on both shoulders. I don’t find them inconvenient, distracting or uncomfortable at all. They have been a part of our town’s fabric as long as I’ve been here and I still enjoy them. Just a difference of opinion.
Millie: The reason why only a Grover can understand the need for permit parking is that they look at the issue in a micro way; not a macro way of dividing us into blocks: tourist, CMA, resident, etc.
If you live here you understand those relatively small events that can be so inconvenient and uncomfortable and distracting that occur all the time, even in the shoulder months. Residents in other towns don’t have that, and so why would you belittle those “stresses?”
It seems that you believe that “survival” is the gold standard. That isn’t the issue—-lifestyle is. And if you don’t worry about small pleasures and conveniences, then you would vote no to permit parking. —Paul
Blogfinger. Episodic stresses? Sounds scary. Or is it wanting to catch a movie or get out of town for a bite to eat? Or maybe having to miss Steinmart’s one day sale less we lose our parking space?
It was not that long ago when even having a car in the Grove was not permitted on Sunday. What ever did they do back then when they needed a medication or a visit to the doctor?
Oh wait…..they survived!
If the North End goes in as planned, we can kiss this town goodbye.
Mary Beth Jahn is the only member of the Township Committee since day one that voted to support our master plan and zoning ordinance that called for 25 detached single-family houses at the North End.
That is why the “Party” threw her under the bus, she wanted to obey the law.
FYI, I lived at 89 Main Avenue in the Grove from 1993-2006…
Editor’s note: But you don’t live here now and haven’t for over 10 years. Things change.
Mary Beth doesn’t live in Ocean Grove, so she doesn’t see why we care. She doesn’t understand the worsening of residential parking in the Grove in recent years and she doesn’t understand the day to day assaults on residents’ lifestyles whenever parking becomes tight.
And she can’t possibly appreciate the effects of the recent Asburian invasion. She is the only person from out of the Grove, so far, who tells residents on Blogfinger to butt out.
Her conclusion is just the opposite of what is necessary and she speaks the party line when she diminishes the importance of a plan for residents.
She, Randy Bishop and Jack Green (in Facebook,) among others, like to say that parking is only a problem for a few months each year. They minimize it because they don’t have to experience what the rest of us do. Some of them have conflicts of interest in saying so.
The “season” lasts 6 months and produces episodic stresses for residents. So, if there is trouble one weekend in October, for example, when the British invasion occurs, and Main Avenue closes, they don’t have to worry if a prescription must be picked up immediately or a visit to urgent care is needed, and parking is difficult.
Residents need to resist being diminished by other factions in the Grove and at the Mother Ship.
Mary Beth Jahn, since leaving the Township Committee, you’re knowledge about Ocean Grove, has been greatly missed, especially regarding the North End Redevelopment .
The 16-week-a-year parking problem is driven by and should be corrected by the core source: businesses. The OG beach, the Aud, the business district and Asbury’s south-end Boardwalk businesses and beach need to work together to figure this out and pay for it themselves, not the residents.