Clifton considers next step toward paid parking in commercial districts

It's no secret that residents in Clifton believe the city has a parking problem. Parking situation actually sucks, honestly. There was one night that my brother stayed out for like, I think it was like four hours, just looking for parking. You park on the street here, you get a ticket. I've gotten three tickets already. We've gotten several tickets since we've been here. A case of too many people, too little space. I know my building has four apartments alone and there's multiple buildings here. So you have, you know, two cars per family, two, three cars. It's just, there's too congested. A lot of these streets here, people just park their cars and leave them there for days. They don't move. But how do you get drivers to spend less time parked in one spot? Clifton is planning on charging them. City Council considering a consulting contract worth almost $25,000 to assist with putting in paid parking machines in commercial shopping districts and public lots throughout the city. I don't think that's good. It would generate good revenue. It would be good just for us to have. According to the consultant's proposal, the city wants to leverage the paid parking to improve regulation, increase turnover, and make sure there's parking for employees at local businesses. However, the proposal doesn't identify which streets or lots would be affected, or when the paid parking would begin, and how much it would cost. Before I even stepped foot in the store, I already spent like, what, five bucks, ten bucks, so I'm already down. And that's including the gas prices that are high now, so that's just adding on top of that too. In Clifton, Christine Qualey, News 12 New Jersey.