I’m Sorry But No, Beach Parking Should NEVER Be For Residents Only

If you appreciate the quiet, I would take in every silent moment while you still can.

We are less than three weeks away from Memorial Day Weekend and that is when the chaos will officially arrive.

Listen to Nicole Murray middays on 94.3 The Point and download our free 94.3 The Point app.

And once it does....oh boy.

Get ready for our roads, our beaches, our boardwalks, our restaurants and our bars to be PACKED!

However, I saw an article on APP.com about new parking rules that could possibly be passed for the five beachfront streets in Deal beach. It is being considered that non-residents may not have access.

Um....what?

Okay....okay.....okay......let's take a moment to dissect this here.

Can it be obnoxiously overwhelming when our towns are ransacked by visitors? Of course and I am one of the first to admit it.

But the Jersey Shore relies and thrives off of one of main thing: tourism.

Get our free mobile app

What do you think would happen if you started banning visitors from any tourist-centric location at the Jersey Shore?

We would be in trouble....that is what would happen because no matter how you look at it, you are chasing away revenue that our towns need.

There are two types of Jersey Shore towns as far as I am concerned:

1. Our well-known Jersey Shore towns who are designed to draw in a massive amount of visitors. For example, Seaside Heights, Asbury Park and Point Pleasant just to name a few.

2. Our smaller, lesser-known shore towns who also attract a lot of visitors.

Rules like this are not feasible in our massive towns.

But, if you start to restrict visitors in the smaller towns, everyone would flock to the massive Jersey Shore towns.

These beaches and boardwalks are already crowded enough without adding additional out-of-towners into the mix that would have otherwise gone somewhere else.

If you make the visitor experience even more dog eat dog with parking and finding space on the beach in towns like Asbury and Point Pleasant, people would eventually give up on visiting the Jersey Shore.

It is not cheap to visit down here and to a certain degree, people know what they are walking into before they arrive.

But who on earth wants to pay a few grand to have two feet of space on the beach and a two hour wait for dinner?

My whole point is that we cannot start to limit our visitors anymore than we already have. To some, it may just be a parking rule but to others, this is where it starts.

The Jersey Shore gets very crowded and we need to be able to use all of our beaches, boardwalks, parking spaces, restaurants, bars and who knows what else that are at our disposal because our livelihood depends on it.

The aftermath of these restrictions wouldn't be apparent right away....or even this year. But trust me, the overflow will trickle down and we want to accommodate as many visitors as possible EVERYWHERE.