Dear Editor:
No, not the long lines everyone in this area is used to but a way to increase the amount of street parking in an already overcrowded city. I hesitate to call this a “solution” because that would mean having enough parking spaces, for everyone with a parking pass, at all times. It would, however, establish many more parking spaces than what is currently available.
I have been a resident of Hoboken since 2001 and have had to deal with street parking and the difficulty of it for long enough. With an Engineering background I have been problem solving this issue for years. I’ve seen quite a few mayors and city council members try to tackle this issue by changing the rules every few years but never really fixing the problem. Some recent rule changes have even decreased the amount of available parking.
I work at night and find myself returning home late to begin the unenviable task of trying to find a space to park my car. Some nights it can take up to an hour with no guarantee of success. Sometimes, I have no choice but to take unwanted risks with my car bumper sticking into a driveway or into a yellow or red zone. I’m not trying to break the rules or upset a neighbor I’m just trying to park my car. But with the way the system is allowed to function there is too much allowance for inconsiderate and selfish parkers. An “Inconsiderate” parker is a person that does not minimize the space their vehicle occupies so a fellow neighbor can park their vehicle on the road as well. A “selfish” parker is a person that takes up two spots so a fellow neighbor is unable to park their vehicle next to them.
The problem is…no structure. There is no structure to this parking problem when their absolutely needs to be structure. On any given night I can count on my block and the surrounding blocks, on average, two to four parking spaces per block that would have been available if people just used common sense and cared about their fellow parkers. Every night when I am trying to find a suitable parking space I have to drive by cars at the end of the block that didn’t back up to the line that signals the end of the parking area and at the beginning of the block where they didn’t pull up to the line that signals the beginning of the parking area. If cars did this then it would maximize the space in-between so others can park as well. There are also countless times when I see one car taking up two spots when two cars could have fit in the space they are occupying. Please look for Part Two in a future issue, “The Remedy.”
Sincerely,
Darren V. Cellemme