VALET UP FOR A VOTE IN RED BANK
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
There soon could be fewer cars circling downtown Red Bank in search of parking spots if the borough council gives the green light to a proposal by Red Bank RiverCenter Wednesday night.
The business promotion agency, in an effort to pull in more visitors, hopes to try valet parking on a trial basis.
“It’ll benefit anybody whose customer doesn’t want to drive around or park themselves,” RiverCenter Executive Director Nancy Adams said.
Motorists who covet the six spaces on Broad Street that will be dedicated to the valet service might have a different take, however.
If the resolution is approved, the agency has a parking service lined up to station podiums on the east side of Broad Street, from Mechanic Street north to the next fire hydrant on Friday and Saturday nights. For $10, its employees will park a customer’s car in a municipal lot on Mechanic, Adams said.
Mechanic is a one-way from the east toward Broad, meaning a ride around the block to Globe Court for the valet.
The service would run from about 5 or 6 p.m. until early the next morning, she said.
RiverCenter will place signs advertising the service on Broad Street and in the White Street municipal lot, which often can become a merry-go-round of visitors hunting for an open spot.
Customers “can pull up and go anywhere in town and not have to worry about finding a parking spot,” Adams said. “It’ll benefit all the businesses in the district.”
Adams said the service, if approved by the council, could go into effect as soon as July 22, and would run as a three-month trial. If it’s popular and well-received, it could become a fixture in town, she said.
“Maybe it’s just for the summer months or just the winter months,” Adams said. “At least it’s something different that the downtown district is offering to its customers.”
The council meets at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow. Here’s a PDF file of the draft agenda to download: 7-13-11agenda
Jul 12, 2011 @ 15:46:14
so is that going to interfere with public parking on Mechanic?
Jul 12, 2011 @ 15:55:15
Perhaps RiverCenter could contract with a Rickshaw vendor to then deliver the customers right to the door, or perhaps even their table?
Jul 12, 2011 @ 16:40:07
I believe that the article is mistaken. To the best of my knowledge, the lot is not a municipal lot. It is the gated lot that occupies the corner adjacent to the Riverview parking garage. It is owned by Riverview.
Jul 12, 2011 @ 16:54:39
Hasn’t anyone noticed that there is much more available parking around since RBC has let out for the summer?
Jul 12, 2011 @ 19:00:58
I am concerned about cars waiting to be valeted piling up on Broad Street if there are more cars to be valeted than their are valet drivers in the same moment. Indeed, there are certain hours of the day when everyone is coming into town, and a valet post directly on Broad Street may exacerbate the problem, instead of solving it. I would suggest a different location for the vehicle drop-off.
Jul 13, 2011 @ 09:39:16
I dont get this idea. Basically, we are saying that businesses are paying RiverCenter 500,000 per yr to not properly inform customers that there is parking available besides the White Street lot. Further they are now going to charge $10 for what should be free for 1 block.
I walk 5 miles a day in Red Bank. There is more parking in this town than we know what to do. The signage is a disgrace. The east side lots are hardly ever used. THe signs on these lots are so confusing that no one can figure out if its being used by anyone of the brokerage houses. There are only small signs on Broad informing about the east side lots.
Time ot look at what the town gets from RiverCenter. Would we be better off halting RiverCenter and using the money to remove the parking meters?
Jul 13, 2011 @ 12:00:57
So if you block off those 4 spots where is the guy from Coco Pari going to park his rented Ferraris & Rolls Royces on Friday night?
Who comes up with these ideas? Valet parking drop off at the busiest intersection in town. Genius!
Jul 13, 2011 @ 13:21:30
Maybe we can park people all over the county and fly them into town via helicopter? After all, Red Bank has time and time again made the attempt to cater to people with that kind of money.
With the exception of valet at hospitals, which I think is a good idea, I’ve always found valet to be not only a waste of money, but also to be a sign of laziness. Are people really that lazy that they can’t drive around, find a parking spot, and park there? I realize that Red Bank is horrible when it comes to parking, but that won’t change with valet parking.
Park your own car people, that’s what it’s your car!
Jul 13, 2011 @ 14:29:05
Oh, Brian, you’re so negative. How can you say that the signage is confusing? Just because the wayfaring signs in town that direct you to the Visitor’s Center all still point to the train station, while the Visitor’s Center has been located on Front St., then Broad Street, and now English Plaza and hasn’t been at the train station for 4 years… c’mon, that’s not confusing. Just because the two wayfaring signs on Monmouth that used to point to the White Street lot have been missing for 5 years – yes, empty poles in the ground for five years – well, that’s not confusing, it’s just.. well, missing. Just because the wayfaring signs that aren’t missing have most of their letters peeling off the nice brick red backdrop that was chosen for the original wayfaring plan is no reason to call them confusing. Peeling and tacky on what was once beautiful, yes… confusing no! And how dare you suggest we abolish RiverCenter when they’re holding 2 meetings to get public imput on streetscaping Monmouth west of Maple, Bridge and White – basically the areas that weren’t streetscaped in the first go round! It’s high time we supported RC’s efforts to bring the west side up to the same standards as the east side.. why should the west side have the monopoly on signless poles???
Seriously, Brian, can’t you see the glass as half full? A post with a missing sign is still, um, a post. That’s like a glass half full, don’t you think?
Jul 13, 2011 @ 16:28:50
The valet concept was brought to RiverCenter by several of our member businesses. As with many of the initiatives RiverCenter takes on, this one is in response to requests from those businesses. The 3-month trial will determine whether or not it’s a desired service to the public and how well it goes or doesn’t go will determine whether or not it continues. Since there is very little downside to trying it, we are doing just that. While many won’t use the service, perhaps there are customers who will, and if those are customers who currently avoid Red Bank’s downtown because finding a spot to park on at Friday or Saturday night is difficult, maybe just maybe they’ll come back. It, like many other initiatives, is worth a shot. The initiative costs RiverCenter’s businesses zero dollars, just the time of its staff.
As for the wayfinding signs, these were installed years ago by the Borough, not RiverCenter. However, we have been working on re-messaging the existing signs and hope they will be corrected as soon as possible.
Jul 13, 2011 @ 21:48:37
@ Nancy- Out of curiosity, what businesses came up with this idea? I don’t want to assume here, but I could guess that the businesses with this idea aren’t the affordable ones.
Given that this will be happening during the second-half of the summer, if this doesn’t work, it will be a disaster downtown.
Jul 13, 2011 @ 22:55:58
My concern with the valet idea (aside from flash backs of Buona Sera before they added the extra lot’s valet woes…double parked SUVs on the corner of Maple making it dangerous to turn off of Oakland and backlog of waiting people making it impossible to navigate the sidewalk) is that it undermines the idea of Red Bank as a walkable town. It discourages exploring down side streets, up Monmouth etc.