“In response to people’s requests that the BPA provide more opportunities for in-person discussion of parking challenges in Ocean Grove, we’re offering the following Open Forums for discussion.
We’ll start each session with a review of the BPA’s proposed pilot program designed to alleviate growing congestion on the north side of town. We’ll then transition to exploring group ideas to improve parking for all who live, work, and visit Ocean Grove. We invite you to help us find viable solutions to this growing problem.The Forums start Saturday, March 7. Details follow, and you can sign up at BetterParkingAlliance.EventBrite.com.
Thank you again for your interest in improving parking in Ocean Grove. We hope you’ll be able to join us at one of the sessions on March 7, April 4, or June 6.
The mayor told the BPA to form a roundtable with other factions to come up with a plan. Fat chance! BPA loses.
We first became suspicious that the BPA was too full of itself when it took a survey and asked respondents to choose between its plan or nothing at all. We realized that it had come up with a rigid plan on its own without offering discussions about options for Grovers to participate in.
Instead they hoped to take their flawed survey “data” and use that to push their plan through without the need for in-person resident input.
The BPA introduced itself as a grass- roots group of citizens, but it became clear that it was trying to please all factions in town including those that could care less about the residents and their parking problems. Their stated goal was to try and satisfy everyone, when we residents needed someone to advocate specifically for us.
Its main idea was a cockamamie scheme to help the North End, but only at night-time. It did not seek professional help with its plan, and it seemed convinced that its slick presentation would reveal that they, a bunch of amateurs, were capable of solving the Grove’s most vexing problem by itself.
But they failed to do the parking math where there are often more cars than spaces in season. How can you have a parking equation when one side, the glut of cars, was not considered, and only the number of spaces was paramount.
Once the public saw the basics of their plan, the enthusiasm was subdued. At the Committee meeting half maybe liked it, half didn’t like it, and as Yogi said, “the other half didn’t care.” The fact is that the night-time proposal won’t do much to help the residents during the days when an invasion blitzkrieg of tourist autos would be coming into town.
When the BPA went to the Committee Workshop on Dec. 9th they evidently expected that the Committee would fall all over itself to congratulate them for their brilliance. Instead, they did not even know the name of the group that they were addressing, calling it the “Planning Committee” and they seemed to have no insight regarding the complicated historical and political dynamics in the Grove.
They left the meeting empty-handed as the CMA, the Committee, the Mayor, and the Groaners failed to raise them on their shoulders for a parade around the room. But they should have known that in advance. Their name should be “The Beginners Parking Alliance.”
The next day they complained that the BF report on the meeting was inaccurate, so today they sent out a glossy summary of how they think the Committee meeting went.
Talk about a play on words! The BPA seems very good at spinning the truth in their direction. Read it yourself.
Committeeman Brantley is quoted by the BPA as saying, “This is the closest any of the concerned parties have come in trying to help make the situation better with the Township’s leadership.”
This bizarre statement is celebrated by the BPA—-there goes their credibility.
Now they will have to change direction and get together with the Chamber, the Groaners, the citizens, and the CMA, although the latter will be doing their own research on parking. What will emerge at the other end? What do you think?
“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
PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ BAND “The Bucket’s Got a Hole in It.”
Parking in OG–so far, an exercise in stirring the pot. Keep on dancing.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.
The Better Parking Alliance (BPA) is conducting another survey. This was announced in an email today:
“Thank you again for completing our earlier survey in August/September 2019. We received 622 responses and shared the survey findings with the community on various online forums in late October. Since then we’ve researched parking solutions implemented by other Jersey Shore towns, and we’ve met with key stakeholders in Ocean Grove and the Township. We’ve been busy!
“As we narrow in on a proposed pilot program for summer 2020, we ask that you take this short follow-up survey. Your feedback combined with the responses from other concerned community members will help guide our approach with the Neptune Township committee.”
Editor’s Note:
Although it’s good to know that they are moving forward in a positive direction, this BPA survey of your opinions doesn’t offer much wiggle room.
You can choose an “overnight permit parking plan” or nothing, and there are no details as to what such a plan means or why they chose this approach which seems significantly less than ideal.
If the special reserved spaces are not available until, let’s say, 6 pm, then we will have already been struggling all day during grid-lock to find parking.
So by 6 pm, this plan will be too late, as most of us will have found overnight parking somewhere by then. It’s not clear why this is the best the BPA could come up with, but I imagine they will offer more details in the future.
The survey does offer a place to put your comments, so even if this plan doesn’t sound so interesting, it’s probably best if we continue being supportive. But being cornered into voting “yes” or “no” on a pilot plan seems manipulative.
However, it is wonderful to see some citizens take an activist position in this town. It is the first time since Herb Herbst and his band of brothers (?and sisters) pushed for solutions to help the residents of our town over 30 years ago.
Here is the email of the BPA—-They say, “Please feel free to email us.”
