Parking scam 101:

Get a 'friendly' doctor to fill out a form for you to state you are handicapped - some of the medical conditions to qualify are easy to meet.
Having an old handicapped relative at your address will qualify too.
Get the application and look for loop-holes, as there are many.

With that form, you will get special signs infront of your home that allows only your car and permit number to park there.

This is happening, just take alook at the physical agility of those with the permits and often they will say they transport a handicapped relative.

Then again, those 'suction cup' police fraternity / supporter window badges works a treat!

I have to agree with ian here. Street parking is not a right, and you are no more entitled to the space after the sweeper drives by than any other person, regardless of where their plates are from. If they don't have a permit, and it's during permit hours, and they stay more than 2 hours, then they get ticketed. If it's after permit hours, they don't. Your permit gives you the right to stay there all day, which, considering what you pay for it, is a pretty hefty value. But i don't think overnight permit-only parking will solve any problems in the long term.

Like it or not, the neighborhood is getting more and more crowded. The crowding brings a lot of good things, such as gentrification, restoration, new shops, etc. You have to learn to accept that all aspects of gentrification and development are not going to have a positive impact on everybody. The parking situation is an example of this - it's the price you pay for the return on your investment.

In the grand scheme of things, i think it's an entirely reasonable price.

While I respect your opinion the point still is that I, like many residents, do have a car and I am not looking to get rid of it or relocate. I also understand some of the folks parking here are residents who do not have permits. This one shocks me because it is not difficult at all to acquire a permit. And, once you have it, you can renew it through the mail. So to me that excuse falls flat as well.

Even if those are valid points it still doesn't say anything to the fact that a large majority of the people parking on our street are not residents. Look at all the construction and renovations. As I stated, my block is ridiculous right now. And, on top of them parking haphazardly, they are rude and inconsiderate of us as residents. Especially when it is street sweeper time and I am actually home to wait and move the car. They will shoot right in there and leave you spot-less.

I appreciate everyone's input, this has been my biggest aggravation living in JC. I love it here and I do not wish to relocate, but I also will not pay for parking when I have a permit.

I lived on Montgomery just off grove up until 4 months ago. I always found parking when I needed to with a few exceptions, and I was fairly particularly about what streets and what blocks of those streets I parked on. I usually only parked on Montgomery between Grove and Barrow, Barrow between York and Wayne, or Mercer Between Grove and Jersey. Despite not wanting to park on other streets I rarely had a problem finding a spot on those specific streets. I guess what I'm saying is, I don't think its that difficult to find a spot, even when you are being anal retentive about the blocks you park on. There were a few occasions when I avoided trying to find a parking space. Sunday night after 8pm. Friday night between 7 and 9pm. Otherwise, I felt as though it was pretty easy finding spots.

Now that I'm in Harsimus Cove I think its generally even easier to park, and now I'm even more obsessive about parking on certain streets and not on others.

Now as far as the suggestion as to remove the non-residential over night parking, this is a fundamentally bad idea. Right now the parking authority makes obtaining a parking permit difficult. So a lot of people with cars who are legally entitled to permits don't even bother getting them because they know that after 5pm (well, 3pm), they can park on the street until the following morning when they drive to work. I for one lived downtown for nearly 2 years without going through the trouble of getting a permit. BUT as soon as you require parking on the side streets to be permit only, all those people who are entitled to a permit, but don't have one now, are going to go ahead and get one. Now, if you don't have a permit, its probably because you drive to work, and on the occasional day off you park in a pay garage. Not a big deal to spend a few dollars to move your car to a garage once every few months. But once these people get permits-- and if they need a permit overnight, you can be they will get the permit-- there is no incentive to move the car to the garage on their days off. So all of a sudden they aren't moving their cars.

Second: Right now there is a relative cost to driving places downtown. That is, if you have a nice spot in front of your house, and you drive over to say the diner, eat dinner, and drive home, the sweet spot in front of your house will likely not be there when you come back. This is a cost of driving. Now at the same time unless you are an invalid (and thus entitled to a handicap reserve space), there is no reason why you can't walk from anywhere in the downtown to the diner, be it the Brownstoner or the Flamingo or Hard Grove. Walking might take a few more minutes of your time then driving. But if you drive you risk not having a place to park when you come home. Meanwhile, if everyone else is also driving to the diner (or whatever business they are patronizing), then there is increased traffic from people driving to and from various places they would have been better off walking to. Jersey City is a city, and cities are for walking.

In short, changing the parking permit situation is not going to solve any problems, and may in fact, aggravate other problems like traffic congestion. Cities are for walking and its perfectly reasonable to live downtown without a car; anyone looking for free and easy parking should consider the suburbs where cars are king.

There are a lot of visitors taking up parking, but I think some, if not most, of the "visitors" do live in the area. They just drive to work each day, which is sometimes easier than the whole re-registration, proof of residence process that JCPA requires. I know for the first few months I lived here, I drove to work each day, came home at 5:30, and parked my car (I don't work in NY, but nearby) because the re-registration of my car to Jersey City took forever.

If the streets were made into all resident parking, all the time, as Kabukiman suggests, it would light a fire under the new residents who haven't changed their registration yet, but I'm not sure how much it would change the parking situation. I have a feeling a lot of the same cars would be there.

Just my 2 cents. I too wish the situation was better. I'd love to be able to come home after 11 and not know I'll have to drive forever trying to park.

Paying for parking is the kind of thing I am trying to avoid. It irks me to no end that I, as a resident, end up paying to park while my street is filled up with CT, NY, PA, MD, etc. plates and I am stuck paying for 24 hours in a lot. I know there are certain things that come with city living, but why should the folks living here and paying Jersey taxes be forced to shell out tons of money for parking spaces so that visitors can park for free?

I am writing another letter as I speak, hoping that if I hammer Fulop long enough it will get looked in to. Thanks for replying everyone.

Do you really need a car? If you work in NYC I suspect not.

I survived just fine for 10 years in the area without a car, finally got one a month ago and now I'm always using it. - If you have it you'll find ways to use it - if you don't you will rarely miss it.

If you must have a car, and parking is as bad as you describe, then pay for a parking space.

Robin.

Ok - I had to write because this is a pet peeve of mine. Im so sick of the parking situation! I live in the Heights by Christ Hospital. And let me tell you that the PA must make their quota on my block!! There is no parking! I've had to "eat" a few of those damn tickets myself! The only time I basically move my car is on the weekends and EARLY. Im a prisoner basically because if I move during the week I will spend up to 1 hour looking for a space. Im sick of these HUGE old cars or vans always hogging up the space. Im tired of seeing people park so ackwardly that nobody can use the space in back or the front.

I literally have to make sure that if I go out during the week that I dont return till after 1130 or close to it because then I could park on the corners! And even then I worry about the cops giving out the tickets!

How do we get relief? Im seriously looking to move because I cant take it anymore. Im paying high car insurance because of the area and now Im paying parking tickets because I cant get a decent spot because of the area. sheesh!

I feel your pain and I do hope that someone soom comes up with a solution!!

All I can say is "You ain't seen nothing yet"

If you think it is bad now wait until people move to the monstrosity known as Grove Pointe. They will be "Residents" so your plan will be to no avail with them. Yes they will have parking but they can still get a sticker for when their friends come to visit, not to mention all the other units going on line.

I think it would be a good idea for those living in the high rises to be prohibited from applying for permit stickers, since their buildings provide parking. But how do you do that?

Greetings everyone. I have been living in JC for 8 years and only recently stumbled upon this site, so, this is my first time posting.

I have noticed over the course of about the last few years the parking situation around the Grove St. area has gotten absurd. For 5 years now I have owned a car and up until about 2 years ago I haven't had alot of problems parking. With the influx of people coming over to the area parking is at a premium and it is getting harder and harder to park near my home. To make this even worse, I am finding myself having to eat street sweeping tickets more and more often because I cannot find a space the night before to put my car in.

I have written Fulop about this in the past. It seems that since side streets allow non resident parking after a certain time the parking spaces are jam packed with people who do not live here. I try to move my car and I cannot find a space within 5-10 blocks. This has gotten ridiculous. And, what worries me even more are the new buildings going in it will become impossible to park.

My suggestion was to remove non resident parking from side streets and make visitors use metered parking and after hours parking on main streets so that residents aren't forced to eat tickets. On my street alone there are 3 renovations going on and each one is using 3-4 vehicles. I am lucky if I can park on my street during the day. I plan on writing Fulop again but it seems like its fruitless. Does anyone else share this concern? If so are there any suggestions on how to get something done about it? Thanks.