“The people have their say,” Parking Authority Executive Director Carmine Venezia repeated several times at a special community meeting held Thursday night, hinting that his agency would do what the residents wanted – and ultimately, the people did have their say. The people just said “no” to a proposed parking permit program for certain areas of Jersey City Heights. More than 100 residents attended the community meeting in the P.S. 8 cafeteria. It had been called by the residents to decide if their neighborhoods wanted a proposed a parking permit plan that might help alleviate congestion on their streets. After an hour-long question and answer session with Venezia, residents voted on secret ballots whether they wanted the plan or not, and if so, what time of the day they would want the permits to be enforced. The plan was narrowly voted down 30-27. Before the vote, Venezia fielded questions about the policy and the success of other neighborhoods in creating zones for permit parking. “I’m just here to give you the facts,” Venezia said. “I have no opinion one way or the other.” But apparently, Venezia’s facts and figures were not enough to sway the crowd for a majority “yes” vote. After the meeting, residents cited a variety of reasons for opposing the plan. The permit plan originally called for residents in the Heights, parts of which would have zoned parking, to purchase stickers for their cars for $5. The sticker would reserve the resident the opportunity to look for parking on their streets, rather than having to do battle with commuters who have been known to overcrowd city streets with their parked cars, from which they get on a bus and head for New York for the workday. According to some residents, just the $5 fee merited voting against the plan. Many in attendance on Thursday said that there should be alternatives so that Jersey City residents can get a permit for free. Ideas had the City Council raising the price of out-of-town permits from $250 to $255, or for the city to use the residents’ taxes towards the sticker prices. “There’s nothing for free,” Venezia told the people, citing the different expenses that paying the $5 alleviates. “The money goes to places so you don’t have to pay out of your own pocket.” For example, he said, if residents didn’t pay for the permits, they’d have to pay for something else in that their taxes already cover, such as the court system. “If you have a parking problem, $5 will buy you the chance not to have the same problem,” Venezia said. According to the Parking Authority, if the plan was to have passed, cars would be monitored for permits. Without one, an automobile would have been logged, run through a computer at the agency’s Central Avenue headquarters and checked before any ticket would be issued. It was described as a lengthy process and had many residents shaking their heads at why it would take so long to ticket a car. Residents who live only on Webster, Ravine and Booraem avenues and Abbett Street were asked to vote by street on their ballots. Votes were quickly tabulated and announced to a rather stoic gathering. There were no cheers and no jeers as the final vote was announced. Residents were given the option to pick the times of the day that the permits would be enforced. Recommendations on the ballots were between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. or between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. For some, this was also a negative impact of the program. “At 6:00 everyone comes back to their little world,” said Peter Lytwynka of Booraem Avenue. “No one ever calculated the number of cars that don’t leave Jersey City. We all leave during the day to go to work and come back at the same time. That’s when there’s no parking.” The Parking Authority conducted four separate studies of the parking dilemma in the Heights. Others did not want to worry about forcing visiting friends and relatives to get visitors’ permits. Susan Smith of the Ravine-Booraem Block Association helped to organize the information session and subsequent vote for the parking plan. “I really feel for the people,” Smith said. “It’s a democracy. This is what they want to do, so that’s what’s going to happen.” Venezia said that the cars being chased out of downtown and other permit zones of the city will come to the Heights and make the problem even worse for residents. In addition, this summer, Palisade Avenue will be re-paved by the Department of Public Works, contributing to the daily parking problems that already exist in the Heights.
Free parking; Residents vote down parking zone
