A Lovely Lunch , An Empty Freehold

It is Tuesday, April 9th, sunny and warm and the perfect day to dine outside in downtown Freehold. I encouraged my friend to meet at 12:30, as I thought parking might be an issue. Today was my first day back to Freehold in quite a while. I have to admit the metered parking was a deterrent. I did download the app but there were times my lack of technical ability made me attempt the transaction repeatedly. I am not alone: when I arrived at the parking lot, it was empty. The metered parking is on hiatus till May 6th, but it did not seem to matter. In the months where parking became a business, people must have found other places to go. My friend told me she had not visited downtown Freehold "since they instituted those annoying fees. " We reminisced about all those perfect days in the Spring, Summer and Fall where we decided to escape spontaneously to a wonderful outdoor lunch. On those days, the restaurants were all filled, and the customers were content and smiling.

I remember reading an article in the Patch about how detrimental the parking fees would be to small business owners. I read in that article by Anna Mayer that Freehold was best served when it welcomed all of our eclectic population. Our seniors came for the music and events, our marrieds came for the fine dining and atmosphere. Meanwhile today FEW PEOPLE CAME and it's because of the parking fees, of that, I am sure.

It's NOT TOO LATE TO REINSTATE FREE PARKING and put back the FREE in FREEHOLD.