Who would have thunk it? Asbury Park brought in over $100,000 in parking costs alone in the last three months. The Asbury Park Press reports:
The city brought in close to $1,200 a day in three months of the new paid parking on the waterfront, City Manager Terence Reidy said in a recent report to the City Council.
Reidy said the system of parking pay stations using numbered parking spots brought in a total of $105,000 from the first two months of enforcement last summer and one month this summer.
For some reason that number strikes me as amazing. It’s the result of both people coming back to Asbury Park in the summertime and the town actually preparing to host these people in the proper way (which does include paying for beachfront parking). Also, this story is complimented by the fact that the downtown merchants have prepaid for consumers to use one of the city’s parking decks – free of charge – for the summer.
Asbury Park is putting together the right mix in their downtown and beachfront area. I hope the momentum continues and the City keeps bringing in more tourists and more dollars!
People coming back! Do you know how many people they lost because of these annoying meters. They’re also incorrectly ticketing people because their “machines had a glitch” – I had two friends each get tickets and the spots were clearly paid for. It was such an annoyance for them to get it settled — I guess it’s good they kept their receipt.
Asbury Park’s beach is the best. You might want to look at an article I just posted on the subject at http://www.littleviews.com/home/newyork/jerseyshore.cfm.
I got a parking ticket there today. The payment machines are garbage and take 5 minutes to process a payment made with a debit card. I entered space #319 at the machine but the ticket says space #819. I made a point of checking the space number when I parked but maybe I was wrong or maybe whoever wrote the ticket entered the wrong space number. The only way to know would require a trip back to Asbury Park. If I’m right then I’d still have to go to court to fight this or just give it up and pay the $30. What a system!