Delaware Avenue, south of Main. Parallel parking is an adventure. Click to Seymour. Blogfinger photo 8/19/17 ©
By Paul Goldfinger, MD. Editor at Blogfinger.net. Articles about parking never grow old on Blogfinger. They tap into the fabric of life in the Grove, and they bring the residential community to the surface for a gasp of fresh ocean air:
Summer, 2017:
This photo is at Delaware Avenue, just south of Main Avenue. Ironically, there is a funeral home to the right. This street here is very narrow, as are many OG streets. It’s a sunny Saturday in August, and there is gridlock. About 60 seconds before this photo was taken that parking spot was vacated. The prior occupant pulled out of the space very slowly.
30 seconds after that, this vehicle showed up. There was room for parking, but parallel parking in a place like that always feels as if you would hit the car on the other side. You have to have faith in the Lord that you will not do so, and almost always you don’t. This driver must have been sweating this experience. Behind his car is another car waiting.
But why should parking be a frightening experience and why do we allow our town to overflow with cars—many more than there are spaces?
NJ.com June 2016: The Neptune mayor was interviewed about OG parking. “We have to take a look at the proposals that do what’s best for the greater good,” McMillan said. Bull!!
This is double talk for “we are not going to seriously look at the OGHOA permit parking proposal.” This also is fake news because he doesn’t tell us what “greater good” means. He certainly isn’t giving the residents any advantage.
Parking should not be an absolute democracy. Permit parking works in many other towns which recognize that their residents are special and need assistance. That is the greater good! The objections mentioned by the CMA earlier this week (Aug. 2017 ) are bogus.
In that 2016 NJ.com interview, McMillan said, “There’s no easy solution to the parking issue, and the best way to address it is to let the political process play out.” Is he serious?? We cannot trust the “political process”in Neptune. Ask them what happened to the revised HPC guidelines——MIA.
And he said, “We’re not going to run away from the problem.” More gobbledygook! Look what happened over the ensuing year—-nothing but poppycock. Our local government specializes in poppycock and they should hang a banner to that effect in front of the Mother Ship.
And now, 2017, Mayor Brantley tells the Coaster (but not the citizens of OG) that permit parking is dead.
Consider Belmar: In 2015 they closed down the entire town when the number of cars exceeded the number of spaces during a seafood festival. But the official Belmar stance on parking, as stated by their mayor, is that they place the interests of their residents first.
Their online site says, “Belmar’s leadership and citizenry always understood that lack of parking is a serious problem here and that increases in the availability of parking must accompany any increased development.”
Do you think the Neptune leadership ever had this thought in mind when it approved condos without parking?
Paul Goldfinger Editor @Blogfinger.net
MARLENE DIETRICH. She sings this to the Neptune Committee on behalf of OG residents: