By Eileen and Paul Goldfinger, Editors at Blogfinger.net
Scene: It is a stifling peak-season sunny July Saturday afternoon. The Grove is crowded and there is nary a parking space except for one across from where we are standing.
Eileen and I are gardening on the Delaware Ave. side of our house. A car pulls into that sole remaining space, and a young man emerges. He looks around and then walks over to us.
He: Can I park here?
We: Yes, but be sure you are close to the curb.
He: Checking his tires. “I work at the Brick Wall in Asbury, and someone told me that I can park in Ocean Grove for free.”
We: It’s not only the workers who park here, but your customers as well, and we’re not happy with the idea.
He: Oh….I’m sorry.
We: No need to apologize. It is legal for you to park here.
He: I’ve been paying over $100.00 week to park for work.
We: Wow. (We felt bad for him….he obviously is a “working stiff.”)
He: Well, thank you.
We: It’s OK. Bye.
He: Smiles and heads towards the New Jersey Avenue Bridge across Wesley Lake to A. Park.
We: We agree that A. Park is exploiting their workers by neither providing parking or paying for parking. $100.00 is a lot for this worker. We should feel compassion for these young people, but this is Asbury’s problem to solve, and it is a reasonable concern for Grovers.
The AP City Council refused a plea from Neptune to help us with this parking situation which is their fault, and now they demand that we open our bridge-gates.
Let’s hire an expensive consultant to create more parking spaces in the Grove.
Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.net
In the Feb 5, 2020 Asbury Park Press, CMA President Michael Badger gave an interview which explained his goals with respect to our parking problems. You can read it yourself (link below:)
He begins the video by comparing OG with every other shore town in this area. He said, “Parking is always difficult in a shore town.” But OG is different than other shore towns.
He said, “The association is deeply concerned about the struggles people are having. My hope is to make improvements that will benefit everyone.”
He wants a solution which is “equitable and fair.” But “equitable and fair” need further definition.
In fact, “fair” for the citizens of OG should be to place Grovers at the top of any priority list for parking. There is nothing wrong with favoritism for those who make this their home. Many communities believe in that—did he ever hear of permit parking?
In the video portion he enunciates the “microproblems” which we face in the Grove. He mentions beach goers and the Asbury Park overflow situation.
But he doesn’t want anyone to have to pay and he does not mention the residential community all around OG as being on his list of concerns.
He also forgot to include our other “microproblems” including too many secular mega-events in such a small town, too many large CMA events bringing in thousands of religious tourists, too many street closures, a North End plan which will exacerbate our parking chaos, and increasing numbers of short term renters.
Instead he expresses his compassion for taxpayers who live in Neptune. He says that “their beach” is OG, so we should find ways to help them have access to parking. After all, he said,” Do we want to say to Neptuners, ‘Don’t come to Ocean Grove; we don’t want you here? ‘”
He said that if we discourage Neptuners from parking in the Grove, then that would make us “elitist.”
But the problem for him is that no one in OG would ever discourage Neptuners from visiting here. He should apologize to all Grovers for his obnoxious implications.
What Badger doesn’t admit to is that his top priority has always been to provide parking for religious tourism in the Grove, a phenomenon which is actually growing. Instead he hides that concern within a fog of nonsense.
He plans to hire a “nationally known” consultant. The parking consultants which they have chosen are Kimley-Horn. Look at their website yourself. Is this the right company for the Grove? Will Kimley-Horn perform some magic to make even more parking spaces for tourists?
Mary’s Place did not have to provide parking. The BPA did not mention zoning and RSIS issues, so they need to consider the condoization of the Grove, the North End, and other related topics.
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
I don’t know of any prior poll in the Grove that had this many participants. Blogfinger surveys have rarely reached 300. Of course, the methodology of the BPA survey leaves open the possibility of some fraud, but probably not much. Many years ago there was a referendum asking if OG could leave Neptune and form its own town, and that probably got a bigger turnout, but the Grovers lost that battle. We placed the link to the BPA survey in yesterdays post (scroll down to that post) and we generalized the conclusions. Congratulations to BPA on completing a survey with such a high percent of citizens participating.
We know that the survey produced some interesting data, but as far as doing anything about our parking distress, the ball was not yet moved up the field—this is a first step.
But that survey report does contain some interesting information which is not exactly data, but is opinion, and we should look closely at that. After years of smoke screens emanating from developers, Chamber, HOA, and Neptuners that sit high above us in their meeting room, let’s hope the BPA stays transparent and keeps us well informed about their activities.
The quotes below are from the BPA documents so far:
a. Mr. Andrew Levine, President of the BPA, hopes to obtain a “pilot program implemented in time for next summer.” But who will design such a program, and will the self-interested players in town go for it, including the CMA which threatened to sue the town over merely mentioning permit parking and the Committee which has been dancing around this subject for years?
b. “There has been a rise in incivility which can negatively affect resident and visitor perceptions of OG as a place where all are welcome.”
Where is the data to support this statement, and how important is this factor?
c. BPA mentions the “removal of ‘warehoused’ vehicles after 30 days. ” But they evidently did not discuss this with the Neptune PD Traffic Department (we have) because that new ordinance is impossible to enforce, so forget about it.
d. “Periodic conversations with, and actions of, CMA leadership on the issue.” Really? What are these conversations about? As it is, the CMA rarely shares what’s on its mind, and that makes it hard to understand them, so let’s hear about those “conversations.”
e. “Addition of 18 new parking spaces on Central Avenue. ” But they might have also mentioned that those are diagonal spaces, as are the new ones on Main Avenue. If the BPA plans to suggest more unsafe diagonal spaces, they might consider letting the public know.
The BPA needs to change the subject, getting away from more spaces and getting into the supply side: numbers of tourists, numbers of cars, and numbers of big events. They should exercise their “independence” by demanding that our residential community get top priority on parking.
f. “Ocean Grove is significantly denser in housing units than surrounding towns. Ocean Grove is only .372 square miles of land.” This, they say, “creates an especially volatile situation.” What is meant by “volatile” ?
This topic of density goes to the obvious idea that we need a larger number of reserved spaces for residents per square mile, compared to other towns. What is wrong with asserting that the residents should get top priority in dealing with the ugly parking wars in town? The Mayor of Belmar said that for his town.
g. 58% of responders identified as year-round residents spending more than 6 months in town. That seems surprising and further identifies this town as being a small residential community which should be treated as such, as opposed to a venue for interminable tourist events.
h. “77% said that parking is a seasonal problem (summer only”) This stat raises the question of the sanity of those who participated in this survey. Our parking problems occur from May through October. We don’t need frequent parking problems to say that a month should be included in the count.
Today, Saturday October 26, there was a Halloween festival in Firemens Park, and that whole part of town was clogged with cars. And, Asbury Park Saturdays always stress parking here at least during the 6 months mentioned. It only takes one crowded Saturday in a month to critically upset the life styles of residents. OK, November through April could be excluded as problem months.
Parking glut around Firemens Park Saturday 10/26/19 Blogfinger photo.
Crowded Halloween event on 10/26/19 Blogfinger photo. It doesn’t feel like the “off-season.”
i. “69% of respondents believe residents should receive resident parking permits.” OK, sanity prevails.
j. 98% of respondents gave their names. I wish more would do the same when commenting on BF, but we will continue to accept anonymous inputs.
So, the BPA has done a great service by giving us information worth discussing in the future. They have revealed how complicated this problem is, and good luck to them in pursuing answers. It is reassuring that quite a few Grovers offered to lend a hand in the process.
As they used to say in Star Trek: “Space— the final frontier” But here in Ocean Grove it is parking spaces—-the final frontier :
In Ocean Grove it always comes down to parking and land usage and abuses. On our block on Main and Beach, The Henry Richard Inn is now being remodeled and converted into a single family home. Along Main Avenue, Mary’s place is now chock-full of volunteers’ cars and resident cars.
Yes, even after Labor Day, we can look west down the block and see no spots available on the south side of the street and some have even migrated onto Beach Avenue, making it a bit more challenging for the folks on Beach to find spaces in front of their own condo. So, while we have lost the Henry Richard’s parking challenges in the summer, we are now looking at folks finding spaces when we ordinarily could park without a single thought after Labor Day.
If we add to this the family on Main next to the old Henry Richard, we are now getting one or two of their fleet of cars now parking on Beach to add to our agita. Of course, that is the family and house that at time commandeers more than five or six spots on the south side of Main. The ritual of pulling out cars and replacing the space with motor bikes and schoolers is most entertaining on a summer’s day.
Ocean Grove has always been described as a “quirky” place. The owners of Mary’s Place along Main on the south side I do not think ever contacted or considered their new neighbors to be; instead, we saw the full use of those two building lots right to the very edge of the property lines.
It’s a done deal for a good cause, but those who objected to the aggressive use of that property were characterized as heartless and uncaring, and so it goes in Ocean Grove. Neighbors were worried about trucks, but what has happened is that parking in the usual Ocean Grove way has become a real issue for many.
All this, while there are spots galore on the north side in front of the convent and across the street in front of the Majestic, After all it is autumn in Ocean Grove and the streets are emptier as usual, but somehow, the big house that is Mary’s Place continues to add to our parking woes.
When will we get “residential” parking permits for people who pay taxes in Neptune and who pay the outrageous ground rents to a non-profit authority?
JESSE
Ocean Grove, N.J. Sept. 26, 2016.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Below is a quote from our article about Mary’s Place dated September 19, 2014:
“When people walk by Mary’s Place, they won’t admire its beauty; instead they will ask, “Who was responsible for allowing this out-of-place building to be constructed in this quaint, historic, residential town? ” They will ask why two fine Victorian single family houses were not placed there instead, like we now have on the Pathway. And they will see the parking problems and congestion due to the 10 clients staying there, the staff who will be needed to maintain the place, the visitors, and the rest of the support team who teach yoga, etc. Then there will be the deliveries, laundry trucks, garbage pickups, etc.”
And yes, we did get hate mail over our opposition to the Mary’s Place zoning decisions. But we also received support from commenters to that editorial.
The Township Committee established a, Parking Task Force in response to the O.G. Home Owner/ Condo Owner Assoc. suggestions on how to cure our parking problems. The voting members of the task force will be the Stake Holders.
However, there are two sides to this Stake Holder coin, with each side of the coin having different aspirations of what the Task Force will recommend to the Committee.
On the head side of this coin is the Township and the OGCMA; with both having a financial stake in shoehorning more condo units into our small Historic District without parking, where parking conditions were already bursting at the seams by the early 1980;s.
The Township, the OGCMA, and the OGHOA do not want to solve our parking problems; they just want to treat the symptoms.
On the tail side of this coin are the rest of us, that just want to preserve Ocean Grove and have a place to park our cars, but we don’t get to vote.
I predict, when the task force flips this coin, it will always come up heads, on the side of making money—–over the historic preservation of our town.
A few months ago, at the public portion of a Committee Meeting, an attorney advised the Committee that “A historic district is a detriment to development.”
