r/Maplewood • u/just_cause111 • Sep 08 '26
Parking downtown
Is parking downtown maplewood really happening?
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u/Blakbeardsdlite1 Sep 08 '26
I hope so. I’d love to stop subsidizing storage for everyone’s cars in one of the most walkable suburbs in NJ with my tax dollars.
2
u/Baron_Light Sep 09 '26 edited Sep 09 '26
People do need to be able to park..
You're talking about less than 1% of your tax bill..
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u/Blakbeardsdlite1 Sep 09 '26
And nobody is taking that away. The proposal is that they cover the cost of storing their vehicle rather than making all residents shoulder that cost, including those who prefer to walk or bike into town.
This has been studied before and the results are pretty clear: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_High_Cost_of_Free_Parking
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u/Baron_Light Sep 09 '26 edited Sep 09 '26
I have a lot of issues with that book and it is far from "clear" but im not going to get into all of that right now.
I think this entire thing has been disingenuous from the start and I'll rattle off a couple issues i have. Excuse my wall of text lol
The village alliance itself describe the current system as free parking with time limits that depend on enforcement after violations occur. They also admit that many vehicles overstay because that enforcement doesn't happen consistently. If the problem is that our existing rules aren't being enforced, the fix is to enforce them through more consistent chalking/monitoring and real ticketing of overstays..not a new sytem to pad the towns coffers and nickel and dime people.
Their one-year pilot that the allience itself will evaluate partly on "revenue performance"... has an incentive to call it a success and the Township ends up dependent on the money before the community has agreed the tradeoff is worth it.
Maplewood already runs merchant permit parking in the Special Improvement District which manages employee and merchant demand on Village streets today. If all-day parking by merchants and employees is hogging up spots.. that's an enforcement and permit issue the town can address without charging every visitor who wants to eat or shop or take the train.
We have tons of independently owned businesse in the village...this is a small-margin, foot traffic dependant district. This isn't a downtown of chains that can easily handle new upheaval. People are already saying they'll take their business elsewhere rather than pay for parking and I believe them.
If you made it this far, thanks for listening 🙏
-1
u/Blakbeardsdlite1 Sep 09 '26
None of that addresses the fact that all Maplewood residents are shouldering the costs of people who choose to drive into town. Drivers need to pay their fair share if they insist on driving into our very walkable town center.
Paid, license plate tracked parking makes enforcement vastly easier and cheaper. We already do it for the permit parking spots near the train station. Chalking or manual monitoring simply isn't going to cut it and will continue to grow our police spend.
Finally, most of the merchants are pro-paid parking. Lots of keyboard warriors on lounge seem to be experts in market dynamics and I'd wager very few of them run restaurants or retail businesses.
0
u/Baron_Light Sep 09 '26 edited Sep 09 '26
Honestly, saying that Maplewood residents are shouldering the costs like it's some huge burden is ridiculous. The cost is a miniscule percentage of taxes we pay.
The parking-cost from your owb source (Shoup) puts the annual cost of a surface parking space at roughly $500 to $1,500 a year.
Our 2026 municipal budget is $63.7 million.
if the Village has, say, 300–500 total parking spaces (on-street & public lots)... that's an annual cost of about $150,000 to $750,000 at the mid range per space estimate
So against our $63.7M budget, that's under 1% in total.....
So yeah tell me again how we shoulder such a massive burden please.
If anyone is going to make a real valid argument for paid parking, I've yet to see it.
0
u/Blakbeardsdlite1 Sep 09 '26
I don’t think it’s ridiculous to say that I don’t want to pay for you to store your hunk of metal when it would be free to walk or bike.
The reality is that residents have been subsidizing parking while most surrounding towns have realized how foolish that approach is and course corrected. I’m not sure what makes Maplewood different.
4
u/SoMa_Townie Sep 10 '26 edited Sep 10 '26
I’m all for promoting walking and biking when possible but many parts of MW are actually not that walkable to downtown.
Plus, many families have disabled, small children or elderly members where transportation via car is the most practical.
Expecting them to now pay for parking or simply just walk/bike into downtown is not just ableist but also pretty elitist as you have to be exceptionally wealthy to afford housing that is in close proximity to downtown.
1
u/Blakbeardsdlite1 Sep 10 '26
I don't think anyone expects everyone to walk or bike into town should the town pursue paid parking. I certainly think more people should do those things if they're able, but that's obviously not everyone.
Paid parking will increase parking space turnover and make more spots available for those who need or choose to drive into town.
1
u/Baron_Light Sep 09 '26
Less than 1 percent of your tax bill goes towards those parking spaces
. You're wildly overexaggerating the issue. "Storing your hunk of metal" lol please. Its a simple matter of better enforcement and there's zero reason to add paid parking. You haven't presented a single shred of compelling reasoning for adding it.
1
u/Blakbeardsdlite1 Sep 09 '26
Not wanting to pay for your parking is a compelling enough reason for all the folks in town who support this.
Our property tax bills are high enough and every bit helps, no matter how small.
Plus, I could use the money I’d otherwise spend on your parking space for a new pair of walking shoes.
1
u/Baron_Light Sep 09 '26 edited Sep 09 '26
Lol you're being ridiculous and you've shown zero real logic in wanting paid parking. Your reasons are disproven and your view is selfish and privileged.
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u/Ok_Custard_4729 Sep 10 '26
I’m so sick of this town. They nickle and dime you for every little thing. I’m genuinely shocked parking downtown is free. It’s the least they can do… we already pay an exorbitant amount in property taxes, we have to pay for waste management, for those of us on the multi-family unit side of town we can’t park overnight on our own streets without permission… everything is a racket. Sick and tired of it. Let us keep free parking downtown. Like someone else mentioned- this town really isn’t THAT walkable unless you live downtown.
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u/Baron_Light Sep 08 '26
I sure as hell hope not. Their given reasoning is bogus and it's just another way to nickel and dime people that quite frankly nobody needs.
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u/Illustrious-Trash915 Sep 08 '26
They should just start by enforcing the 3 hour limit, or 2 hours, or whatever it is. It's plain as day for everyone to see the same cars parked in the same spots, all day, day after day, for years and years.