Blogfinger

“It’s easier to fly than to find parking in this town.” *

Since October 25, Blogfinger has posted 4 articles about the BPA–Better Parking Alliance. We have celebrated the grass roots that this group represents, but we have not been enthused with what we have heard so far.

Despite the hoopla and confidence contained in the BPA pronouncements, the parking problems in OG  still seem insoluble.

Our approach to this story is to remain available to report the news to our readers, because parking issues in the Grove remain vital, and to give Andy Levine and his band of brothers and sisters some breathing room to move their plan forward.

However,  the BPA itself has already made their plan’s details public, leaving themselves open to preemptive criticism and room for some debate now, perhaps before they are ready.

To quote Andy Levine, “The stated goal  (of the plan) is to pinpoint and implement a parking solution that balances the needs of Ocean Grove’s diverse constituencies.”    But for those who have been here for many years, this sounds less like a doable goal and more like a fatal flaw.

Our skepticism comes from a variety of sources. In our October 25th post, we said,

“If they had read the Blogfinger articles they would have found our discussions about a very important variable which they don’t mention, and that is the recurrent town-clogging, tourist-multiplying events which occur much too often for such a small town.

“They need to look at other Shore towns and compare our tourist burdens with theirs. And they should look at the CMA’s religious tourism as well in terms of parking impact, because they are increasing their year round programs.

“And not to mention these mega-events is a major defect, because it is on those weekends where we suffer the most parking trauma. Just imagine a summer Saturday without a mega-event, and Ocean Grove gets transformed into real small town America with parking.”

Also we wonder why they aren’t pushing for a current parking study by an expert. This BPA group consists of well-intentioned amateurs who are sticking their necks far out, and they will have their hair mussed over at the Mother Ship.

And this proposal contains some wishful thinking that somehow Grovarians would offer to bring less cars into town.  Really?

Another puzzling claim by the BPA is that “the program will maintain day-long access for visitors. This is important for the character of the community, to local businesses, and the the Camp Meeting Association.”

They make that claim because they are proposing a trial permit parking plan at the North End only, and only after 6 pm. This seems to be because they want to satisfy the Camp Meeting and the business community. How that helps the “character of the community” is murky at best.

If you are going to represent the citizens, then you can’t be all things to all factions in town.  And,  if relief is only after 6 pm, then the locals will have very little relief.  This plan may prove to be all smoke and mirrors.

Of the various stated objectives, the one that seems to have the most promise is to deprive spaces for the night crawlers going to Asbury who park on the north side of town, but if I were an Asburian invader, typically 20 something, than I would park on the south side of Main and walk or bike the rest of the way. The parking virus will spread across town.

So these are just a few issues which already have surfaced, but for now, the Better (but not best so far) Parking Alliance, will present a specific “pilot proposal” to the Neptune Committee Workshop on December 9 at 6 pm.  The public may go but not say anything.  For that they must wait hours for the Public Portion of the open session that begins at 7 PM.  And then, a speaker only gets 5 minutes.

We are purposely not posting the pilot program details before the BPA gets a chance to run it by the Neptuners next week, but their own leaks have opened some critical doors.   And  don’t hold your breath for a joyous reception at the Municipal Building to any idea that would help OG with its parking.

It’s amazing the CMA isn’t filing suit already, but perhaps certain promises have been made to mollify them.

When there’s more news on this, we will let you know.

Contact the BPA by email:  betterparkingalliance@gmail.com

Paul Goldfinger, Editor.

Jack Bredin, researcher/reporter.

* Cartoon by Sue Gioulis for Blogfinger.net

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