Following through on complaints about downtown employees hogging primo parking spaces all day, Red Bank officials last night moved to double the hourly fee for metered parking on the street.
The measure, which also increases annual charges for permits used by business owners but leaves the rate for metered parking in municipal lots unchanged, is also intended to replenish coffers hit hard when the town started giving away Saturday parking a year ago, they acknowledge.
“The other reason, frankly, is that because of the elimination of Saturdays, we do have a substantial shortfall,” said Mayor Pasquale Menna.
The proposal, introduced as an amendment to borough law by the town council, marks an official abandonment of an earlier plan to extend weekday hours of meter enforcement by two hours, to 8p. It also leaves free Saturday parking intact, Menna said.
Street-meter rates would double, to $1 per hour, while metered parking in municipal lots would remain at 50 cents per hour.
Full-year permits to park in those lots would cost $800, up from the present $600.
Borough Administrator Stanley Sickels said that even with the 33-percent increase, the new permit fee is still at a significant discount from the $1,040 one would pay to park in a lot all day, five days a week.
Since the start of free-parking Saturdays, parking authority revenue has been down an average $10,000 per month, Sickels said.
Revenue projections based on the $1-per-hour street meter rates have been completed but were unavailable last night because of the absence of borough CFO Frank Mason due to illness, Menna said.
I get most of this, except for the full year permit rate going up.
Many of those spots in the White street lot, sit empty. I would think they would lower the cost.
Extending the enforcement by 2 hours…
Hmmm…Who is going to enforce it? Are they going to create a split shift? Will it cost the town more money salary wise to have someone on the clock until 8PM?
METER RATE TO DOUBLE AT CURB, NOT IN LOTS
However, you will be able to park cars twice as big.
Then at this point it would be proper to put stickers on the meters informing guests to our town that the meters take nickels and dimes also. If you’re just running into a store for a minute you don’t more then a nickel because there is a 15 minute grace period at the end of the timer.
How about a simple 2 or 4 hr limit on meters? That would solve the problem without raising rates…oh wait, the council only knows how to raise any fee it comes across
This is flat out absurd. I suspect that some new ordinance will be passed every 6 months concerning the parking situation and its revenue generation or lack thereof.
Parking in a lot really isn’t a big deal. Lets be honest, most people are lazy and could use the extra exercise. The ones getting hurt are the businesses and their employees. As someone pointed out, enforcement occurs when most people are at work. By increasing fees (regardless if it it only on the street), the town is discouraging people from shopping. In turn, struggling businesses will struggle further and employ less people.
Will the town do away with permit only spaces? Perhaps they are hoping to trap more visitors into $38 tickets because they failed to observe those not terribly obvious signs in the lot?
The bottom line is that Red Bank is not moving forward, it is going in circles with these political hacks in charge and we only have ourselves to blame. So continue discussing parking rather than searching for real solutions on how to survive and thrive from our current economic woes.
Now, please excuse me, I’m going to the mall.
well that will sure make Red Bank more attractive to shoppers. For years, we had no meters, but in the Town That Couldn’t Stop Spending, more revenue is always needed. I would love to know how a town with this much empty retail space benefits from becoming more expensive to visit. A quarter to run in for a cup of coffee to go at NoJoe’s? See you at Starbucks in the Grove.
By the way, did the Rivercenter shill have a comment or is she only qualified to talk about transit villages?
oops,
You can find street parking in front of No Joes? The few times I’ve tried to find parking on Broad north of Canal, I’ve been unsuccessful. On the other hand, the Linden lot, a short block from No Joes, always has spaces, and will still cost the same.
And what if employees continue to pay double the meter price.
You’ve doubled the rate.
Still blocked customers from parking.
Everyone is annoyed.
Why don’t you designate a part of the parking garage “free” to employees, give them a card that they swipe when the leave the garage? For every day they park in the garage they get a sticker..100 stickers wins them a gift certificate to something in town?
I am being selfish, but I think they should run the meters on Saturday. I loved popping into town for my coffee, bagel, newspaper, bank, haircut, etc. When the weather is right or I don’t have to carry much, I still walk into town or have no problem with parking in a lot and walking a bit. But otherwise, I go elsewhere. All of the prime parking spots seem to be taken on Saturday mornings. The meters generated the type of parking spot turnover that was conducive for my type of weekend morning mission.
I am actually not complaining because I don’t mind my strip-mall alternatives at all. I just like the idea of giving business to downtown Red Bank better.
Every single comment here has merit. What is wrong with this township leadership. Next election get rid of these people and this TRIPLE DIPPER administrator.
Okay, let me get this straight - the town wants to raise parking on the streets to a $1 an hour which are usually prime spots at the convenience of a customer? Do you HONESTLY BELIEVE that this will get the employees from parking there and make customes come into Red Bank and shop more often? Did it occur to the people who make these decisions that if a customer does feed that meter a dollar every hour then runs short to getting back to their car and gets hit with a $38 ticket is likey to shop in RB frequently? Hell no, especially when there is many other nice communities around offering fine other shops, boutiques, restuarants, etc.. You are going to honestly make this parking nightmare even worse!
I just don’t understand why you can’t just leave the normal rates in place but only make STREET parking for short term parking only (i.e. 15 minute clips instead)
My take is that most people coming into town to “shop” are going to spend a few hours browsing around to many different establishments, getting a bite to eat, etc.. These types of customers can be designated into the larger, public parking lots that can be designed as “long term parking”. However, residents of RB or passing motorists who just need to “pick up that one thing” from a specific shop, would have the street parking spots open more often because of the short, limited time on those meters. Getting a quick AM coffee at their favoriate cafe can do so and get a nearby parking spot, the woman who needs to run into the jewelry store to get a battery in her watch can do so, the family that needs to drop their dog off to the grooming shop or pick up that pizza pie for dinner can ALL DO SO WITH EASE! It wouldn’t then be such a hassle (in my humble opinion) to patronize RB businesses because of the fast turn around times of the “prime parking spots” found on the streets.
Now, if you recalibrated the meters on the street to only go up to 15 minutes or a half an hour (the most), most employees who have been using the street spots would now find this as a BIG INCONVENIENCE as they would have to run to their car every 15 minutes or 1/2 an hour to feed that meter! This in turn would give them no option but than the “long term parking lots”.
Listen, it’s the loyal and frequent customers to RB stores that make Red Bank what it is and keeps the busineses alive. We need to make it easy for those more frequent shoppers or they will start to get more annoyed and go elsewhere. Having this or a similiar LOGICAL PLAN IN PLACE is making this parking nightmare a win win situation for EVERYONE - the businesses who have more, frequent open spaces in front of their stores, the customers who don’t have to walk a long distance just to get that “one thing” and the township who can praise themselves that Red Bank is thriving rather than losing a great community filled with great shops!
If you raise parking rates, extend hours to pay up to, etc.. you are just going to push out more potential customers again and the regular shoppers that are getting fed up with this whole parking situation! Let’s be realistic, people are just going to find similiar places to shop who don’t have to hassle with this bulls..t!
I really believe this is a REAL & EFFECTIVE PLAN FOR EVERYONE INVOLVED rathar than what it seems to me, the pockets of the politians who run this town. You might as well just say “go f yourself” to all the businesses that have made Red Bank a staple in the community!
The Red Bank Government does NOT care about the downtown!!!!
Our tickets are WAY to high!
Raising the permits from $600 to $800, who came up with that beauty!(are you kidding)
Just put another nail in our coffin.
And if you think that Saturdays and nights are not coming don’t hold your breath.
Want to SAVE money,fire the meter maids and make the cops write the tickets.
And here’s a tip for our government in general,STOP SPENDING OUR MONEY!
Biggy
Here’s one for Danny,
How come there aren’t meters on the West side?
Maybe if the meter maids spent some time on the West side we wouldn’t loose ALL our customers.
I hope that, finally, the meter people will realize that 2 dimes and a nickel is worth the same as a quarter. Being a math-inclined person, it has always bugged me that 2 dimes and a nickel gets you 25 minutes, while a quarter gets you 30 minutes. Maybe when they re-program the meters, they can fix that little annoyance.
My Two Sense,
You really have something there!
Here’s another way for the town to SAVE money.
Have the couple of council members who take health benefits (that we pay for) GIVE THEM UP!!!!!!!
If they REALLY care about RED BANK-THEY WOULD!!!!!
The irony here is that the only revenue from the meters will be from the employees because at the rate stores are closing no shoppers will be coming, then there will be no employees left to feed the meters. At that point the wondrous council will say hmmm, why is this happening….we have to raise taxes again. Sorry to say it, lay off the meter police, have the RBPD enforce it and save money on vehicles and staff. there are 23 empty stores council members 23!!!!!! River center is a laughing stock, after your done playing the violin could you turn off the lights…..the party is over. There is being done by this council almost irreparable harm. You are responsible for the closing business’s and vacant homes. You, sadly to say are the ones entrusted by the people to ensure that this wouldn’t happen. You should take note what happened in MA,NJ,VA and what will happen in PA. The tide is changing. Lead, follow or get the hell out of the way (the latter would be better), raising meter rates shows just how unimaginative this council is. Their only answer to anything is raise taxes. Mike, take control of this ship and do somthing
Who’s on the Republican (or better yet, independent) ticket this year? I have a donation for you.
Two cents,
As I take a virtual walk down Broad St., I come to very few stores that anyone is going to “just run into.” (No Joes, Starbucks, the bank, Haagen Dazs; where else?). But most of the street is restaurants and stores where people want to browse. If we go to 30-minute parking, it will hurt those places.
Gary,
I don’t believe cutting the cost of parking would revitalize Broad given the state of the economy. And it won’t lower taxes if we use highly trained, armed and well-paid cops in police cruisers to do a job that can be done by low-wage parking enforcers in their little buggies.
Dan, Are you kidding? Let’s see we overcharge for permits,we raise the meter prices,we ticket(the highest tickets around,not counting beach towns).
Look we need those highly trained armed cops to do something,they don’t catch anyone damaging the downtown thats for sure! And if you don’t think Red Bank was in trouble before the economy turned you’re dreaming.
Again it’s time to look what all this ticketing has done to the downtown,made the government money chased the shoppers away.
I run into NoJoe’s in the morning on my way to work before retail activity picks up. There is usually parking right on Broad and yes, when I’m headed to work, convenience is a factor and I am looking for a quick run in. It’s the lack of convenience (digging for more change - what a pain) more than anything that will drive folks like me to stop elsewhere.
While meter raises may not kill the downtown, it certainly won’t help. It’s an additional challenge to struggling merchants. Why is the solution from this council always more charging and never ever ever less spending?
I agree that if we had unlimited free parking on Broad Street, it would help merchants on Broad. We don’t. So how do we most effectively allocate a scarce resource?
If the cops we have aren’t doing anything, let’s get rid of them, not assign them to parking tickets or sewer mainteance or whatever.
15% cuts across the board is not less spending?
You know I’m going to stop commenting because this government does NOT care about the business district at all!
Just raise the tickets to $75 and the meters to $5 an hour and finish us fast!
If I overspend 50% cutting 15% is nothing.
Dan - 15% across the board? Not exactly - but keep towing the party line. Pretty soon, you’ll be the only guy left in town to pickup the tab.
First and foremost I wanted to thank all for the humorous, well thought of and outside the box suggestions to help our town. Contrary to a few comments the Mayor and Council do care about the whole town and the downtown. Both are necessary and make Red Bank a wonderful place to live. The Economic summit was for the whole town.
A few things to note our Total debt has decreased by 1.1 million. Our cost savings measurers are having an effect but we also need to think about re-occuring revenue that is not the result of tax increases. Yes, there are areas that can be cut but we must get projects that are approved built and on the books. I do believe that our boro employees are doing more with less and wearing many different hats.
The finance committee has been offering ideas, that are outside the box, to the Mayor Council for the upcoming budget. I have received many good ideas from Red Bank’s residents and I encourage all of you to continue to respond even if some of you do not agree with our direction. I still listen and will respond. Yes, I do believe in Red Bank and its residents.Thanks again Mike DuPont
Mike,
Well the economic summit was a joke and you know it.
If we were about to ask our Questions from the audience all hell would have broke loose. You squashed that by having questions put on notecards and then picked the ones you wanted answered.
Come on! And if you did care about the downtown you would’t raise the permits to $800 and tickets wouldn’t be $38 (the most around, not counting beach towns)
Still love me!
If we were able to ask questions
Biggy, still love you and do agree that the fielding of questions should have been done differently. I was not able to moderate the Summit. Thanks Mike DuPont
Mike, We all like you and hope you continue in Red Banks Government.
We are getting beat up Downtown and we need all the help you can give us.
Don’t forget about the merchants.
Biggy
Mike, I have a great deal of respect for your dedication to this town. I still respectfully diagree with the ongoing ratables chase. It hasn’t been the solution yet. You have some tough choices ahead - all the best as you go about the hard work of balancing this budget.
In 2009, the Parking Utility had a budget of $1,115,800. Some of the expenses/revenue were:
$329,100 for salaries.
$400,000 for other expenses. Not sure what they were, just “other.”
$135,000 surplus.
Our outstanding debt to install the meters is $585,361.
That is a whole lot of spending compared to the debt.
What if we get rid of the parking utility, but keep the meters. Take the revenues we get from the meters and use it to pay for any electrical source and debt, that is it. How long would it take to pay off the debt?
The only maintenance would be collections and maybe that responsiblity could be filled by another department.
Once the debt is paid off, the rest is strickly revenue. You don’t have to worry about increasing rates or issuing fines. Red Bank would become a more parking friendly town like it was before the meters were installed.
it gets even better Someon easked me to meet them at star whore bucks the other night Its bad enougt for what they charge for a cup of coffee, but then they wanted 5.00 for an internet connection WHAT A FREAKING JOKE Fits right in with e mind set around here un real yea lets pay more to go to all the empty stores At some point these clowns in town had better get there Sh*% together I have to admit the free parking has been nice on weekends but then again half the merchants seem to be closed on Sunday go figure
$329,100 for salaries? what… is there 2 or 3 meter readers and one person over seeing them. if one meter reader was making $50,000 a year (which is a joke to even pay that much driving around in circles) that’s $150,000 for 3 employees. does that mean the “meter reader supervisior” is making well over $150,000 sitting in the office?
$400,000 in “other expenses”… wish they would elaborate on that!!!! that sounds like an over inflated number to me. is this number part of their medical benefits? I’m sure upkeep on those smart cars they have is part of that as well, but that is alittle excessive, to say the least.
CUT THE F’EN OVER SPENDING & STOP MAKING IT SO HARD FOR PEOPLE TO SHOP IN THIS TOWN!
Kim,
Like the way you think,but we don’t need to pay anyone to empty the meters.
There were two guys who had a set of keys that were doing it already.(they just didn’t work for Red Bank,on their way to prison soon)
Instead of the parking utility being used to move traffic downtown,it has become a CASH COW for the Red Bank government at the expense of the Merchants downtown!
As the merchants fail and the stores close the value of the buildings downtown will drop.
Then the property owners will fight their taxes and Red Bank will lose big time, alot of empty stores,less tax revenue.
I think it’s a good idea.
Will SOME people stop driving in to downtown RB because they now to have to pay $1 instead of 50 cents per hour?
Of course, but more shoppers will focus on how many more street spots are available.
Will SOME store employees who park on the street every work day pay $16/a day instead of the current $8 to keep parking on the street?
Of course, but enough should give up their street spot ot significantly increase the spots available to shoppers.
So what if the council has to pass a new Ordinance six months from now because the projected Revs don’t materialize from thse price changes?
New ordinances cost virtually nothing.
And new Ordiances should be used to improve Rev flows in numerous areas by allowing RB to raise and lower fees when Revs are higher or lower than projected.
Currently the worst things about RB meter parking isn’t the cost.
It’s the inconvenience of having to use coins.
I bet a fair number of the people get tickets because they forgot to make sure they had coins for the meter.
And currently RB just kicks away Revs with our old style meter which clearly display the time left on meters where drivers leave early.
I say rip out all of the existing coin meters and replace them with the new machines which take coins, bills or credit cards and then have the driver enter their space number.
Of course the new machines will cost a lot.
But they will not only be more convenient for shoppers who don’t have to worry about having change to feed them.
The new machines will undoubtedly increase Revs by allowing RB to double or even triple bill for spaces where the drivers leave with time still available.
Of course the space numbers will have to be well marked and there have to be plenty of WELL MARKED parking machines.
Uniformed River Center employees could help guide shoppers on using the new machines (and offer shopping advice) during peak shopping hours paid from a percentage of the parking Revs.
Raising the permit parking $200 is ridiculous. How can they, on one hand, say that all of this is to keep local employees from parking in prime spots, and on the other hand raise the price for employees who have followed the rules?
Kevin,
I’m not sure if you have been around long enough to remember, but the town had the very machines that you suggest about 10+ years ago.
This was before the streets were metered and it was only in the lots between Mechanic and Linden.
These meter boxes were ripped out and the old meters were put back in. It was a costly with the back and forth.
Not much has changed over the years. Rather than seeking real solutions, the town farts around with the same ideas. The parking deck by the hospital was built in the 80s and then leased to the hospital because it was deemed too far from the downtown to be of use. The perpetual talk of a deck in the White Street lot. The leasing of spaces to RBC, Merril Lynch, etc.
Honestly, even when I moved away from Red Bank, I’ve never had trouble with parking. The only time the lot on White Street is full is when there has been a big name at the Count Basie or some special event such as the Fireworks.
The biggest problem seems to be the permitted spaces that are not actually in use. Why not do away with permit only spaces and just have parking permits that are good either anywhere or in specific lots?
Has there been a study done on weekday parking vs. free weekend parking?
I’m sure some of the salary budget is for benefits and not just salaries directly, but what are these “other” expenses?
There must be further transparency with what is going on in town. We’re all suffering in some very difficult times that seem to be made worse every week. Home owners, shop owners, renters… folks who make this town what it is are being squeezed out and something has to give.
Joe:
Time will tell if the $200 increase for annual premits is ridiculous.
By increasing the street meter rate, they’ve automatically increased the demand for the discounted annual permits.
And if they lose annual permit Revs because the increase is too high they can always roll it back.
Or they migh decide that looking for people to pay even $600 upfront is a bad idea.
Instead the might want offer monthly permits wit an automatic renewal option for those who pay for it with an automatic montly bank draft automatic credit card payment.
Wally:
I like your idea on eliminating the permit spots entirely. But they may be needed to satisfy some of the businesses’ minimum parking spot requirements.
I do remember seeing some in the Muni lots and the mix of permit/puublic spots may have been part of the why they were taken out.
I’m guessing they were ripped out because the Muni lots are confusing to use because of there were too few machines, the spots were poorly marked, and there were no clear easy to understand directions on how to use them.
I don’t believe they took credit cards or bills either.
Finally, no matter what, the Muni spots behind the stores are always going to be underutilized.
If ONLY the new machines were made avaiable on Broad St. people would use them as long as the machines, spot numbers and directions for using are made very visible.
Of course some people who like the coin operated meters will stop coming into RB. Much like their great grandparents who stopped taking their carriages in becasue the cars scared their horses.
The number of people who prefer to use a debit or credit card for all purchases is growing. And these people have a better sense of how to work these machines.
I’m sure the parking enforcement readers allow more vehicles to be checked for violations and they should be able to automatically print parking tickets for violations.
All I know is that I went downtown today and had to feed a parking meter.
In order to get to the meter, I had to climb on to an ice/snow pile and almost broke my @$$.
Dan:
I think you’re missing something when you think it’s inefficient to have the RB Police issue parking tickets.
When it comes to keeping crime in check I’m reminded of a lesson I learned in a book by a Harvard educated NYPD officer.
He realized that often the best crime figthing approach is for to have assign some individual officers to:
“Don’t just do something, stand there”.
It’s not possible for all of our officers to spend every working minute responding to crimes in progress or drive around constantly.
They have to be deployed properly and remain “on their post”, to be able to repsond timely when something bad does happen.
If you get rid of officers because “they’re just sitting around” you’re degrading their safety and ours.
So when a few are on their post waiting for trouble, it’s more efficient to have them writing parking tickets than “just standnig there”.
With you facility with statistics I’m sure you’d agree that we’d need only a few officers writing a few tickets to maintain compliance.
They key is to have their Supervisor assign the lucky officers to cover all parking spots every few days by having them issue tickets at random parking locations and at random times.
I bet 3 offciers issuing 10 tickets each per day would be enough.
3 officers issuing 10 tickets five days a week is 150 tickets/week, or 7,800 tickets/year. At $38 a pop, that only brings in $296,400. And I think the town only gets something like half of the cost of a ticket, so we’re looking at maybe $150,000. That just about pays off the loan for the meters. Then we’d be able to pocket the permit fees.
It might just work out to be a wash.
But I don’t know about having 3 officers hanging around Broad St. during the day.
Kevin Donohue,
I want what you’re smoking.
You think Red Bank’s goverment is going to revert back to lower prices at the meters if it doesn’t work at the new price.
The Red Bank Government just takes,they don’t give.
They’re going raise the rates on the meters and bring back Saturdays and add night ticketing,just watch.
Dan,
Your wrong about everything!
There should be a police presence at all times downtown!!!!
Dan:
Of course the Revs from the tickets shouldn’t be ignored.
But the main purpose of the tickets is to make sure people feed the meters.
The less the enforcement effort the less the parking Revs.
And the way people howl when they do get a ticket issuing a few every day at random places & times will go a long way in keeping parking Revs coming in.
I know you don’t like 3 cops “hanging around” downtown.
On any given shopping day there probably are already 3 cops downtown talking to citizens or sitting in parked patrol cars poised to risk their lives to protect us (aka-hanging around)
And when they’re standing next to a vehicle wriitng a parking ticket they are not hanging around, yet they’re still just as poised to protect us.
Maybe some police officers can weigh in on how often they witness a crime or other emergency which takes place right in front of them or very nearby.
And how many times they arrested someone for a more serious crime when they take violent exception to receiving a parking ticket.
Biggy,
All of my ideas are “smoke free” believe it or not.
Some are even good ones.
But I guess a stopped clock is right twice a day too.
Thanks to you I now realize:
1. Everything in RB sucks
2. Everything in RB wil always suck
3. The Mayor and every RB Council member will never do anything right
4. Pissing and moaning is the only legitimate use of the RBG Comments Section
And since it appears you’re a RB merchant let me ask you a question.
Is there a friendly, courteous Biggy who deals with your customers?
Kevin,
Number 3 is correct.
Kevin,
Which of your ideas are good ones?
Kevin,
Not pissing or moaning, only telling it like it is!
Been in business for a long time in RB and continue to donate to the schools,Holday Express,the food bank,the libary and many other organizations.
Even with the town chasing all my customers out by ticketing.
Let me ask you something ever work 60 hours a week for 10, 20 or more years and have the town that you support chase your customers away?
Got an answer to that?
Biggy:
1. That it might make sense to wait to see if the annual permit price increase helps or hurts the Revs for these permits. It’s based on the uncontroversial idea that the demand for the prepay discount on the annual permits will increase when the hourly meter rate doubles. Tell us if you think it makes the demand for the prepay discount go down.
2. That it might make more sense to offer automatically renewable monthly permits for $60/mont instead of annual permits for $800 or even for $600.
3. That Revs with the new type meters will increase becasue they don’t allow new shoppers to get a free spot when another shopper gives up their spot early.
4. That the parking policy is doomed to failure if we take your suggestions and cater to the few people who are unable or unwilling to make sure they put enough money in the meter to avoid the $38 fine
5.. That if you use the same tone with your customers that you take with other posters maybe it’s not only the Mayor & Council who are hurting your business.
There was a time when Red Bank had 2 officers on downtown footpatrol 24/7, and in all weather conditions. Hell, back then you had to walk downtown for several years before you got in to a patrol car. They also had foot beats on the westside mostly in the summer months.
Bring them back. They had better control of the on street parking back then too. Even though they had a 1 meter maid,a Cushman Scooter and a marking stick. BTW, overtime parking on the street then was $5.00.
Kevin,
1. Will hurt everyone because i just talked to another merchant and he said he’s going to raise his prices to get his $ back.
2. $60 a month is $720 a year still to much!
3. Who’s buying new meters?
4. The town is doomed with the $38 ticket.
5. I didn’t say my business is hurting.
It only goes to show.
There is an endless supply of people who like to point out every problem, yet never suggest a solution.
If you don’t have an idea or a proposal for making something better, then you really don’t have a right to bitch and moan and argue with those that do….
solution
solution:
build a garage
major stores will come because of parking
smaller stores will benefit from added traffic
commercial property values will go up
commercial real estate taxes will go up
win,win,win
Biggy,
O.K. good, there is a friendly Biggy that is generous to the Community.
1. Are you serious on the $200 increase for the annnual permit?
everyone will “feel pain” because one merchant you know is going to pass the $200. along to all of his customers over the course of a year?
So if they have 1,000 customers per year they’re all be paying 20 cents more for this merchant’s parking.
Don’t you don’t think it’s a stretch to describe that 20 cents as causing pain (unless it’s a Dollar store)?
2. $60 month may be too much for you but it’s wouldn’t be too much for those who are currently paying $4 for 8 hours to park on the street and will soon be paying $8 for 8 hours.
3. If RB has any sense they will use our tax dollars to buy new parking pay stations, which will increase our parking Revs, and make paying for parking easier.
4. The $38 tickets would be the doom of RB if most people felt too incompetent to be able to put enough money in the meter to avoid a ticket.
I park downtown all the time without the slightest worry I’m going to get a ticket. And I’m sure that’s true of most people who park downtown.
5. I’m glad your business isn’t hurting. For your sake and for ours. I can’t imagine how much worse you’d be complaining if it was.
biggy,
There is no parking issue anywhere in town except on Broad St. Since the existence of a parking garage one block from Broad (at Globe Ct.) has not helped, the only solution is to build a parking garage on Broad. Actually, since people aren’t willing to walk one block from a garage, we’ll probably have to build a couple of garages on Broad. Which buildings should we tear down?
Oh, and the town has been trying for years to find somebody to build a garage on White St. (even though it would be as far from Broad as the current Globe Ct garage). Why hasn’t anyone come forward? Because a parking garage would be a money-loser.
So let’s see:
Build a parking garage on White St.
Shoppers will still complain about parking on Broad, so merchants on Broad will complain, so major stores will still see parking as an issue, unless they can evict Hobbymasters or the Dubliner.
Stores on White and one block of Monmouth will no longer hear complaints about parking. Instead, they’ll hear complaints about traffic. Oh wait, parking on White is already not a problem (http://www.redbankgreen.com/2010/01/stavola-planners-spar-over-parking-lot.html#comment-48948).
Commercial property values won’t be affected.
The taxpayers will be stuck with an empty white elephant, and taxes will go up to pay for the parking shortfall.
And White Street will have an ugly hulk of a building on it.
Draw, lose, draw, lose, lose.
Dan,
Look like I said I’ve been in RB forever and I know what I’m talking about.
Do you know that there are many private companys that have been trying to get a deal on the white st lot to build a garage with retail. One of them I can’t beleive the government let get away.
No cost to taxpayers.
Win,Win,Win,Win.
The garage will be a money maker and help the taxpayers.
RBC kids alone will fill a floor,they’re being chased all over town to find parking.
Major stores will come because there is parking and mom and pops will benefit from the added traffic.
Win,Win,Win,Win.
No problem in parking in RB Dan?
You are completely out of touch with RB.
Kevin,
I know you think $200 is not alot but you have to look at the whole picture.
The merchants just don’t feel like this government is behind us.
We’ll talk again in a year or two when the permits are $1000.
I was never opposed to a parking garage per se, few residents were opposed outright, rather what we opposed was a parking garage at public tax payer expense – if the merchant class wants a garage that bad, then lead the charge – get together via River Center (or something), pool your clams and build one – with private money on a private lot.
As it is there are two rather large underutilized decks in town already – one is leased to the hospital (a dubious deal for sure), and the other is newly created on Front Street – which everyone seems to forget about. Once the recently approved deck shows up from the Galleria, well that will make three.
In ten years, once the transit village MOM train line shows up, there’ll be plenty of parking decks and traffic for everyone.
“5. I didn’t say my business is hurting.
Posted by: biggy on February 12, 2010 at 9:59 pm | Permalink”
“with the town chasing all my customers out by ticketing.
Let me ask you something ever work 60 hours a week for 10, 20 or more years and have the town that you support chase your customers away?
Got an answer to that?
Posted by: biggy on February 12, 2010 at 8:51 pm | Permalink”
Biggy, I certainly inferred from your post that the loss of customers was hurting your business.
Once we get them in the door we have them,but any new customers are chased away by the hassle RB parking is,tickets etc.
We have a great base of customers and have increased that with internet sales.
A parking desk is totally wrong to solve Red Bank’s issues.
When they floated the parking garage idea I went through the numbers.
It does not work economically without public support, that’s why no provate investor has or will ever step up.
wrong,they are here now just make a deal!
Biggy,
“Make a deal”? What do you mean? Sell them the White St. lot? Lease the land? Subidize construction? Relax zoning so that they can build one floor of retail, 3 of parking and 3 of condos?
What is preventing a deal? The Mayor and Council seemed hot for a deal last time the garage ran into a public firestorm.
Why do you say I’m out of touch? I don’t drive into town a lot, but I never have a parking problem, except on Broad between Front and Harding, and sometimes English Plaza is full. I park on White St. all the time. There is *always* parking available within one block of Broad, no matter which part of Broad you’re going to.
I’m just saying there are people out there that will put a garage up.
But I think the town should put the garage up because the garage would be profitable and it could help the RB tax burden.
I think you are out of touch because you don’t think there is a parking problem.
The Mayor is not hot on a garage.
Or maybe he is. No,no he’s not.
Yes,yes he is. No,no he’s not.
Get it!
Biggy,
I saw the numbers the last time the garage was proposed. The garage would not be profitable. (If you make optimistic assumptions about occupancy, and ignore opportunity costs, you can make it look like the thing breaks even and earns a profit after 10 years.)
Of couse someone would put up a garage, given the right deal. Give $20 million to build it and free use of the land for 50 years and I’ll build it. Make me lease or buy the land, pay the full cost of construction, and limit me to a 3-story structure? No, thanks.
Under what terms are “people” willing to build a garage?
In the last 20 years, how many times have you come to Red Bank, been unable find a parking space, and turned around and driven home?
I agree with Dan, finding a place to park, within one block of Broad street is never a problem and I do, drive, downtown more often than not.
In the last few years, I can only think of one night that I actually couldn’t find a place to park and that was during this last holiday season.
A Parking garage would really be more inconvenient than anything. It would most likely triple the amount of time it takes to park your car.
The problem is the $38 ticket. Anybody who has ever taken longer than expected while shopping or accidentally parked in a permit spot and been burned is not going to want to come back.
Maybe the answer is setting up a tier parking system. For example, designate certain spots as “all day” spots and charge a flat rate for them. Lets say $5 or $6. These spots can be the furthest from Broad street. This way, people who work in town, or customers who plan on spending a couple of hours shopping, don’t have to worry about getting ticketed.
The second tier can be closer to the shopping area and can be 2 hour spots, priced the way they are today.
Finally the spots on Broad street can be the most expensive, with the strictest time limitations, in order to keep people from meter feeding.
There aren’t any clean solutions and whatever is implemented, will always make someone angry. I think that many people would pay a little more to park, if they knew they weren’t going to get nailed for an exorbitant amount of money, should they make the mistake of spending too much time in the stores.
Dan,
It will cost 10mil max to build a garage in this economy. Did you really think it would cost 20mil?(you’re still out of touch!)
Bill,
Yes the ticket price is way to high. I like your idea about tierd parking fees.
One way to increase revenue would be to enforce the on-street parking in the two-hour zones on the residential side streets off of Broad. I live on one such street, in fact, very close to Wallace Street Wally. The Parking Auth. does NOT patrol these areas. They used to mark tires with chalk and issue tickets for over-time parking. This hasn’t been done for years. Now a car parks in a two-hour zone ALL day and nothing is done. The only time a car is ticketed and/or towed is if the homeowner calls the police and the car is actually blocking a driveway. They even park in front of fire hydrants and nothing is done unless the homeowner reports it. They should try enforcing the laws already on the books, instead of making more.
And to Kevin D. - Those ‘new’ meters were at each end of the Linden/Wallace/Mechanic lots. They were easily accessible, and the spaces were clearly numbered. Their demise came about because they were not maintained and only worked half of the time. It was very costly to tear out all the coin meters and concrete and install new curbing, only to later reverse the process. The Boro paid big bucks for failure to maintain. What make you think that 10 years has improved their incompetency?
biggy,
In 2005, the official estimate to build the garage was $11.6 million. Using these inflation numbers (http://www.dot.state.fl.us/planning/policy/costs/RetroCostInflation.pdf), that comes to a current cost of $15.3 million.
I don’t trust the official estimate, so sorry, I’m not doing it for less than $20 million.
And that’s just for a 3-floor garage, with no retail or condos.
You can do a prefab garage with brick outside for 10mil no condo’s or retail.
(http://www.biggybuildsgarages.com)
Your out of touch-Dan.
No retail is in direct contrast with the zoning that they just patted themselves on the back for putting in place. Also, a garage without retail would effectively stop pedestrian traffic going west by creating what is, in effect, a big vacancy for a long block. Tiered parking is an excellent suggestion. Putting this bunch in charge of building and operating a garage doesn’t sound too smart - look at cost overruns on the municipal building and 55 Monmouth to see why they shouldn’t be in the construction biz and look at budget shortfall to see why they shouldn’t run a business.
Lodan,
Thanks for the info on the reliability problems with the “pay station” type meters we used to have in RB.
But it seems to me there’s no reason why a reliable meter of this type couldn’t be produced.
We definitely should not buy any which don’t have a proven track record of reliability.
Biggy,
Recapping your position:
1. $200 increase in annaul parking fee-too much money!
2. $38 ticket-too much money!
3. $10 million Garage-No problem whatsoever!
Kevin,
The ‘pay station’ meters probably had a very good proven track record. But, like any ‘machines’, they required maintenance. This is what was lacking. It was the Boro’s own fault that they did not work. That neglect cost them (us) big bucks. Over the years, this neglect has not changed one iota. The East side lots are typically undermaintained. Our last snowfall was Wed. — the first plow to touch the lots was yesterday (Sat.). They returned for touch-up today. The municipal sidewalks by the lots are never shoveled, and still aren’t cleared. Yet, homeowners are expected to have sidewalks shoveled within 24 hours or a summons will arrive in the mail. Ever receive a summons because ONE cardboard box was accidentally put curbside with the garbage? They even took a photo of the damn box. That faux pas cost $50+.
This ‘town’ is NOT pedestrian/shopper/homeowner friendly.
Kevin,
1,2,3, correct.
Don’t do it,watch as more stores close,landlords appeal their taxes and the taxpayers end up picking up the lost revenue.
Biggy,
You’re true to your name, you like big solutions.
But it appears you don’t really have a problem with RB spending our money.
You’re problem is with them jacking up prices and NOT spending a huge sum to buy you a garage.
We’ll see if RB goes down if they fail to buy you your $10mn garage.
Lodan, attitude definitely counts for a lot.
I think RB’s bad attitude (eg. fines for cardboard boxes & other citizen unfriendly policies, accepting fill for ballfield riddled with broken glass etc.) can be improved.
Most of what I see from our Public Works Dept. shows me they care about doing things right.
They work hard and fast.
Re the meters specfically, a maintenance/collection contract with outside professionals backed by a surety bond may be the way to go. If they can be paid soley by a percentage of sales even better since they’ll have an incentive to keep the meters working properly. We’d have to also make sure it’s difficult to tamper with the meter’s Rev recorder to fight any temptation to skim the meter proceeds.
Kevin,
Enjoy your higher taxes!
Pubic works-good job-JOKE!
While I agree with most of what Kevin says, I have to agree with Biggy: “Pubic works-good job-JOKE!” …I hope that was a Freudian typo slip
Even the name Public Works Dept. is an oxymoron.
Most don’t ‘work’…Ever watch them ‘work’?
One man actually works, while the others stand around and watch him. They simply ‘put in time’ to pad their pockets with the public’s tax $$$.
Lodan:
I see them all running from one garbage can to another at an ungodly hour in the a.m.
Public works,are those the guys that drop more trash than pick up.
And wasn’t the snow removal done well,KEVIN