Cape May Tourists Dig Deep: Raise Bar on Honesty

Parking is always  a sore subject with Cape May tourists and locals. Not just with finding spaces, but with the functionality of the meters. The zero tolerance of local law enforcement toward expired meters leaves lasting impressions too. Expensive impressions!

Not for the tourist parked in this spot with a failed or jammed meter. They could have flagged down a cop or a meter maid and complained about the inoperable meter. They could have driven around the block in search of a meter that worked. Instead, they left a little note on the windshield.  This tourist didn’t stop there. A neatly stacked pile of quarters was left on top of the parking meter,  in good faith, to go along with the note should anyone stop by to fix the meter.

This was the scene on Congress Place, in Cape May during my afternoon dog walk yesterday. I couldn’t resist snapping a couple of pictures to document the level of sincerity. To me it demonstrated the quality of tourists/visitors or resident that we have in Cape May.

Sure, they didn’t want to risk getting a parking ticket. Of course they could have claimed the ticket wouldn’t have been their fault-after all the meter was jammed.

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In case you didn’t know it, Cape May has free parking. That’s right, free parking exists at the Cape May elementary school on Lafayette street. Cape May merchants on the Washington Street Mall, in cooperation with city and a few hotels along Beach Avenue even throw in a shuttle bus to pick you up at the free lot and bring you into town. Did you see the sign that says FREE?

This is one way to avoid not only finding a failed or jammed meter, but a parking ticket on your windshield-after a day or night of spending your hard-earned money in our lovely town of Cape May.

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4 Comments

  1. Jean Smith
    July 10, 2014 / 8:05 am

    I stupidly left my old parking stub on my dash and the metermaid only saw the expired one. The new one was purchased 3 minutes before the other one expired. I was so upset about the ticket and had visions of coming back down spending $50 bucks in gas to fight it. I decided to call on Monday morning and talked to a nice lady and she told me all I had to do was send the ticket along with the 2 stubs and a note and they would dismiss the case. I did ….and it was!

  2. Hugh Murray
    July 10, 2014 / 10:11 am

    A couple of summers ago there was a defective meter on Decatur Street. It would take my money but not put time on the meter. So I gave up. After dinner at Cabannas I came out to find a ticket. I also spoke with a very nice lady who explained the process of appealing the $35.00 parking ticket. I still had to send the money in but was pleasantly surprised to learn that the city was able to check it’s electronic files and found that meter was indeed malfunctioning on that date and returned my money. As a person who worked in local government for years I must say I was impressed with the technology. I didn’t know about the free parking at the Elementary school. Thanks John.