OK, maybe its a Hindu Temple but the idea is the same. The Temples in Parsippany, NJ, are up in arms because the local council is changing the rules and saying that Temples, in which people sit on the floor rather than in pews, should be required to have a "certain" number of parking spaces per "certain" number of square feet. There are 5000 Indians in the area and five or six temples and a couple of more are on the way. The local council think that "5 or 6 are enough." Don’t believe me, read the article here
The Hindu’s argue that they don’t need all that parking for normal services and for the big holy days they can bus people in from satellite lots around the area. Seems sensible to me.
Here’s the kicker. It seems that the Hindus are buying unused warehouses and turning them in to their temples. The City is stopping that horror since there’s not enough parking around the warehouses. This is classic anti-Shoupista rhetoric
Follow the logic — We have a bunch of warehouses that are sitting fallow and will eventually fall in on themselves. A local religious group wants to buy them, clean them up, make them in to a Church or Temple. But they can’t, because on six days a year there won’t be enough parking. A problem for which the temple already has a solution. So the city would rather ring its hands over the parking issue than turn empty space into something of use.
Although its hard to tell when the spokesperson for the council makes a statement like this…..
"The undertone of the letter is not right and, in my
heart, I know there is not an effort to restrict or
limit," he said. "Why do that? In a town with an
Indian population of 5,000, five or six temples is
good."
…..I think that locals aren’t prejudiced, just ignorant. I wonder if the speaker sets limits on bars, porno shops, or restaurants. This is all absurd.
Such limitations based on parking destroy redevelopment, hurt businesses (and religious groups), destroy tax bases, and simply make no sense.
Just my opinion.
JVH
