It wasn't hard to find visitors pumping coins into meters in Red Bank's White Street lot at lunchtime last Saturday. Above, Nicole Collman of Manalapan, left, with Rebecca Route of Jamesburg.
With some fanfare, Mayor Pasquale Menna announced at last month's 'Economic Summit' that parking in downtown Red Bank would be free on Saturdays and Sundays for the rest of 2009.
Never mind that it was already free on Sundays. The move to free slottage on the busiest shopping day of the week was welcomed by merchants as a small but significant move to make the town more competitive in a tough economy.
But one month after the meter moratorium was imposed, visitors to town are still feeding the meters on Saturdays. And some of them want to know why no one told them don't have to.
"Oh, that stinks," said Mirelynne Meiser of East Brunswick, when informed she'd just unnecessarily put six quarters into a meter. "That really stinks."
redbankgreen stopped Marla Bruce of Freehold before she made a not-so-costly mistake.
A number of merchants have posted brightly-colored notices on their doors and windows letting shoppers know about the change. But those are of little use to someone who has to park in a lot before getting a chance to see the notices.
Pointing to signs in the White Street municipal parking lot, Nicole Collman of Manalapan noted that they gave no hint of the change. Indeed, every
indication was that, if they failed to pay at the the meter, violators
would face one of the town's infamous $38 overtime parking tickets.
"It says you have to put money in the meter on Saturday," said Collman said. "I don't want to come back and not find my car here."
"Obviously, I don't like getting scammed," said Kristen Leonard of Bayville, who'd just dropped $1.25 in a meter enroute to a hair appointment. "You love to come here, but you constantly have to remember, 'I have to have quarters.' I've gotten the tickets before."
At least one visitor shrugged off the lack of notice.
"Is it troubling? Yes," said the woman, who declined to give her name. "But there's a lot worse things going on."
Prodded by redbankgreen, borough officials first said there were no plans to install new signs alerting visitors to the free Saturday parking.
But after last Monday's council meeting, Council President Art Murphy told us the parking authority would be buying decals, which will be stuck onto the meters themselves, notifying visitors of the additional no-fee day.
No sign alterations are planned, he said, but he believes the meter decals are the most effective way to get the message across.
The decals should be available within a couple of weeks, Murphy said.
All of the merchants at the economic summit applauded the idea of free parking on Saturday.
Now they got what they wanted.
If they were smart they would make more of an effort to let it be known that the parking is now free.
Here the town council worked with them. Let's see them get creative in getting the word out.
Now, if only they would teach the meters that 2 dimes and 1 nickel is worth the same amount as a quarter. Many of the meters give 5 minutes for a nickel and 10 minutes for a dime, but the meters say that you get 30 minutes for a quarter.
It has always bothered me that the adults who run the parking authority can't seem to master basic arithmetic. So, if you parking guys are reading this, please fix the meters to give 6 minutes for a nickel and 12 minutes for a dime. (And finally resolve one of my RB pet peeves.:)
Wow, i was there yesterday and i kept feeding the meter cause i was afraid to get a ticket. There should be a sign or bags over the meters to tell visitors not to feed the meter. What good is it to have a special if no one knows about it.
Publicize this somewhere….
Concerned,
It was a good thing you fed the meter yesterday - the only days that are "Parking Meter Free" are Saturday and Sunday.
I would submit that disinformation might in fact be a revenue generator. Consider when this gracious program ends, will “they” notify the public at large prior to the onslaught of $38 ticketing?
It's going to take more than free parking to make Dead Bank equal to the malls. Things like affordable stores and friendly shop keepers would go a long way.
I would think only residents get the $38 tickets. The Rumson / Staten Island crowd gets a free ride so they'll keep coming back.
I've said it before and I'll say it again . . . make parking FREE BEFORE 6:00pm and NOT FREE AFTER 6:00pm. Quite awhile back the comment was made that people eating dinner in the restaurants don't want to come out to feed the meters. Well, duh, I don't think daytime shoppers do either so why is it that one group of merchant patrons gets a free ride while the others have to pay the freight. Also a while back the argument was made that the meters on Broad and Monmouth were installed to keep parkers moving instead of staying in one spot for a long period of time. Well what the heck do you think the restaurant/bar/club patrons do? Come out and move to a new parking spot every hour or so? Gee I wonder why not as many people want to come to RB to shop? Could it be that they have to pay for parking? The Holy Grail Garage Idea will still keep the vast majority of shoppers away because they can shop elsewhere and park for FREE. Please don't think that todays current shoppers are going to WALK OUTSIDE from the proposed garage to whatever store. It's just too far for them in winter or summer along with still having to pay for the privilege of parking AND walking. Anyway, its just one of my continuing pet harangues.
If people have to pay for a meter one extra time before learning that they are entitled for free parking on Saturdays for the rest of the year, I think they will survive.
There are brightly colored signs in most store windows, and the stickers should help, too.
I think it is a nice move by the town to offer free parking on Saturdays, gotta start somewhere…
I spoke with a merchant when i was in town last weekend after I had fed the meter. He told me had had spoken directly to the mayor about this and he shrugged and said "oh well more money for the town" Typical but at least they are going to get stickers but lets see how fast they go up. I moved my office out of town because of parking tickets It's a real problem. God forbid they hand out loitering tickets at the wa wa and address a real problem Nah why bother
I will ask the question again ! Why do the daytime merchants customers have to feed the meters during the day but the customers of the bars/restaurants/clubs don't pay anything into the meters at night? A good portion of our police resources are being used a night (Chubby's / Ashes etc.) to monitor and herd their patrons. I might note that the night time police duty has a lot more potential for physical problems than the daytime duty of randomly running license plates for speeding or other violations that has now become a way of life for people who just drive through RB. At least night time metering would help pay for some of the police work at night just like the MV tickets help pay for some of the police work during the day.
The RB Parking Authority is not part of the RB police department.
Hey residents of RB, don't pay the meters by accident. If you do, you will be double billed because our municipal taxes will have to cover the revenue shortfall for all those shoppers who either remember or are aware not to pay the meters.
Last year the RB Parking Authority had a $1 million dollar budget. I wonder how the bonds issued to cover the costs of the meters, the salaries of the two department employees and everything else they dump into this budget is going to be paid if we are giving it away for free.
Hey Red Bank Residents dont worry about your taxes going up because of the free Sat parking. Instead, worry about them going up when all the downtown businesses start closing and the taxes that they pay (over 40%) aren't being paid.
Here is an idea get rid of the parking authority and the $1 million budget.
Stop crying about giving free parking on Sat, its a good thing to be able to come into town and not worry about getting a ticket.
The business' don't pay taxes. . . the landlords do (who happen to be some of the towns good old boys). Maybe they can apply for some of Obama's stimulus package since we are so, so populated with Democrats. We might get the stimulus to build the Holy Grail Parking Garage . . . sort of like getting the money to pay for the Alaska bridge to nowhere.
I've never had a problem with a parking garage, I just have a problem with such a thing being built with taxpayer money - that includes "economic recovery fund" money as well.
We should really be enforcing local employees taking up customer parking on Broad and the side streets. Does it really make sense for someone who works on Broad St. to be allowed to feed the meter all day and keep actual paying customers from being able to park? How can we not enforce something that actually KEEPS customers from being able to park? Mark the tires and give out tickets to local workers the same way you give them to people who try to put money into the town. If you got a $36 ticket, would you come back?
Kim you need an IQ checkup