PARKING

What came first the businesses or the residential homes in Red Bank? Well, the truth is that they both developed at the same time. In the late 1800’s Red Bank was a merchant town as well as a port for the farm products to go to New York. Homes surrounded the downtown district. As the town grew the merchants had their homes here and in the 1930’s many of our locally owned businesses grew up in town with the families living close by.

The Eisner manufacturing plant gave jobs to about 35% of the families in town and the homes on the West side developed. There was always a parking problem in downtown Red Bank even as early as 1921 when the Chamber of Commerce started to study the “Parking Problem.”

In the last ten years as Red Bank became "hiptown" there was a desperate need for more and better parking. The parking garage on White Street could have been a saving grace for the downtown. However it became a political football and it was obvious that the Republican where using it as a hammer against Ed McKenna and the Democratic Party. It turned the residents against the business community and everyone suffered. Today the problem has only gotten worse.

We are about to see the development of the Antique District and if we are not careful this side of town could have a major parking problem of its own. The Two River Theater has 100 parking places for 300 people but does not yet have overflow parking for staff and special events that bring in more people and cars. Bridge Ave has only 37 parking places and if we do not think through new development for this area we could have a major shortfall of parking. There are now 7 restaurants and numerous businesses in the area. With the potential development of condos, retail and additional restaurants it might be time to revisit the town’s “legal” requirements for parking.