Council President Denise Ridley has introduced Ordinance 26-013, establishing a new permit parking zone for streets adjacent to the Liberty State Park Light Rail Station.

Better Blocks NJ applauds Council President Ridley for introducing this much-needed ordinance. While this ordinance is likely a response to NJ Transit limiting overnight parking at its nearby park-and-ride lot, a new permit parking zone for the Communipaw neighborhood is long overdue. Paid permit parking is a critical way for Jersey City to regulate the demand for limited on-street parking spaces and improve parking enforcement.

Creating a new Zone 20 to cover areas of Communipaw near the light rail station is a good first step in resolving residents’ high demand for on-street parking, ensuring residents who have access to off-street parking are not taking on-street spots, and raising (some) revenue for the city by better recognizing the costs of “free” on-street parking.

If this ordinance is passed by the city council, the city should proactively advertise that a change in on-street parking rules is coming. Recent events have shown that some residents vocally protest any changes to our city’s streetscape and parking situation (no matter how badly needed) causing tempers to fray [Jersey City Times]. In a city where most people do not use cars daily, the city council should work aggressively to reexamine how much free space we give to parking and proactively communicate the benefits of all proposed changes. 

We hope this ordinance is the first of many to come that will address parking in Jersey City. While Better Blocks has not yet spent much time on the topic of parking, Jersey City could benefit from increasing the cost of on-street parking permits in existing zones near train stations, returning to pre-pandemic levels of parking enforcement, and expanding permit parking to all publicly-owned streets citywide. 

There is a long-way for Jersey City to go in better managing its streets as a public resource but appropriately permitting street parking in more neighborhoods is welcome. We call on more council members to take up pricing reform next: 1) focusing on raising the cost of permits in existing neighborhoods and 2) raising the costs for violating parking regulations.

In the meantime, however, we look forward to the council unanimously approving this ordinance before them.