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Central Business District its time for drastic action in the face of new realities

ridgewood idea

April 2,2018

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, well what do you know ,Anthony Damiano‎ from the Ridgewood Guild on the Facebook page ,It Takes a Ridgewood Village

“Just for the record, I am in favor of a garage that fits comfortably on the lot. As for the current parking situation, currently you can find parking on the street because the town is not performing. If the merchants were all doing the business that they should be doing, you would not be able to find street parking. With the closing of Pink Bungalow, we now have over 20 vacancies in town. We have 5 locations that are 3000 feet and larger, most of which have remained vacant for guite a long time. No retail anchors in town because of lack of parking. The majority of cars on the street are employees. I watch them feed the meters all day.”

It appears that Mr. Damiano is reacting to public pressure due to the total lack of participation of local retailers in any attempt to alleviate the parking issue.

The brick and mortar retail environment is hurting due to online shopping. That’s not going to change if we build a garage. While Englewood and Montclair downtowns also have many empty storefronts and so do many local malls with plenty of parking.

Some are suggesting the De blasio approach of a ‘vacancy tax “.

A smaller garage may alleviate some issues when the Village hosts major events like the 4th of July parade ,the car show or even Saturday’s Easter event.  The fact is its time for drastic action in the face of new realities .

Its time for Ridgewood to become a leader once again and get connected, plug in . Every store or restaurant in to must have a vital Ecommerce platform and the Village should blanket the Central business district in Wifi making it as easy as possible for retailers , restaurants  and business to do business off of mobile devices .

 

16 thoughts on “Central Business District its time for drastic action in the face of new realities

  1. The majority of cars on the street are employees. I watch them feed the meters all day
    The majority of cars on the street are employees. I watch them feed the meters all day
    The majority of cars on the street are employees. I watch them feed the meters all day
    The majority of cars on the street are employees. I watch them feed the meters all day
    The majority of cars on the street are employees. I watch them feed the meters all day
    The majority of cars on the street are employees. I watch them feed the meters all day

  2. I read an article here two years ago, that Tony lied to HPC in his letter. Now another attempt in his interview with Ms Johnson.
    Some people never change.

  3. The simple truth is that we can’t use tax dollars to bail out businesses that fail. We can’t afford the construction costs nor the aesthectics.

    I am sure these are all hard working folks, but while we wish them all well, the fact is that some stores are going to make it and some are not. But you can’t be a business and go into a town with demographic or geographic conditions that won’t allow your business to thrive and then turn around later and complain about whatever that pre-existing condition.

    Perhaps something other than stores and resttaurants are what we need. Law firms? Doctor offices? Other professionals? The types of businesses that attact different people at different times each day. Not restaurants that serve the same people at the same time.

    And until they get it through their head that the town is not going to use tax payer dollars to bail out the businesses they rent to, landlords are going to continue to try and charge non-market inflated rates. And if they are not careful, those same landlords are going to face the prospect tht the two socialists running for office come in and impose rent control or other regulations to try and solve the “problems.”

  4. Our retailers are struggling with sky high rents, new taxes, and higher fees. Our shoppers all face new taxes and higher fees everywhere. Why would Ramon and Jeff be pushing more fees and taxes with $1,000,000 a year in new meter fees now? Aren’t we having a hard enough time drawing people from neighoring towns with low parking fees? The failed valet program shows we have loads of parking, just poorly promoted and poorly priced. Higher parking fees mean fewer shoppers. Where’s the logic in that?

  5. Hey, I am thrilled that the CBD is getting vacant. Why, because there will be tons more people when the four apartment buildings are built. It will be overcrowded. But if the stores are empty it won’t be overcrowded. Because people aren’t shopping. Pray they stay away. Hey hey.

    And hey, I don’t want polluted streets, do you? Or a parking garage. Particulates from cars cause lung cancer, major contributor plus other respiratory problems, not for me, hey hey. I, a longtime Ridgewood resident do not want a parking garage. Besides getting cancer, I don’t want to pay for it with higher taxes; why, because it is not needed. There is enough parking. So what if a few days a year it is crowded. Is that a reason to build an 12 million dollar garage.

    And hey , hey, more face to face communication time is needed and real connection, not that shit wifi artificial tawking to a cell machine. Bull shit . How could you guys get so addicted to those shit smart phones. I know why, because you are idiots. That is what Alan Turing said when he said artificial intelligence could possibly equal human intelligence. He said most people were not intelligent , meaning couldn’t think an original thought and he was right. And communicating into phones all the time is a perversion of human communication.

  6. Mr. Damiano’s article is more than a little self serving. Stores sometimes fail because people just don’t want to buy what the store is selling – not because they had to drive around the block to find a parking spot. Local businesses cannot expect taxpayers and local government to support their entrepreneurial ventures. It actually works the other way around – businesses should be contributing to the local tax base by selling things that people want to buy. Nobody said this was going to be easy Tony.

  7. In 2009 the proposed budget for the renovation of the Ridgewood Station was $24 million. Once complete, the final cost was $41 million dollars. Using the same price inflation (because we all know the same group of contractors would be running the construction) that $12 million budget becomes $20 million. For a garage.

  8. The majority of cars on the street are employees. I watch them feed the meters all day
    The majority of cars on the street are employees. I watch them feed the meters all day
    The majority of cars on the street are employees. I watch them feed the meters all day
    The majority of cars on the street are employees. I watch them feed the meters all day
    The majority of cars on the street are employees. I watch them feed the meters all day

  9. In 2018, a store dedicated to selling tchotchkes is a failed business model. Time to move on rather than argue that there aren’t enough parking spaces to have shoppers flood into your store.

  10. @9.16PM. What do you think would be successful to sell at a CBD store? To me nothing expect for food can be sold in small stores anymore. Maybe bigger box stores like GAP, Talbots (already in place) can be opened. They should be able to succeed as they replicate their mall setup. In any case a garage would be a horrible step.

  11. Do what Manchester VT did – turn the downtown into outlet shops.

  12. Is the garage going to shop?

  13. Great question for the candidates. Why are businesses failing and how do we attract people to the CBD. Is not because of parking,

  14. I’m sure if you ask any commercial real estate broker, they will tell you that if a particular store is not a ‘destination’ (anchor), the others rely upon ‘foot traffic’ generated by those ‘anchors’ for their success. For those of you newbies here, we lost many ‘anchors’ years ago, despite their size. McHughs, Sealfons, Winchells, Drapkins, Bobby Knapps, Purdues, and lets not forget Al and Harrys’. Whether due to pressure from malls, rising rents, or changing shopping habits, these were all stores that attracted my family members to come into town. None of them remain, so our shopping takes us to a mall, and I can’t recall the last time I went into town to purchase anything other than an occasional meal. Its a sad commentary on how a CBD has evolved into its present state. Years ago there were gas stations on every corner of Franklin Ave. The only one remaining is getty. We had mobil, Sinclair, arco, Phillips 66, Texaco, amaco, exxon, , and a few more that I forgot. (11 total). On Ridgewood ave there was a liquor store on almost every corner. Now we have banks, that I’m guessing will vacate upon lease renewals leaving more space. (its a lot easier to use a drive-in bank) It’s anyones guess what the future holds, but these small shops ‘treading water’ to remain in business are looking for taxpayers to subsidize their failing business models. Its no different than re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Fix/change/adapt or fail. A garage won’t bring shoppers to town if you don’t have a product they desire. Take a walk in town on recycling days. At least half the homes have cardboard amazon boxes waiting for pickup. Another HUGE factor.

  15. Well put 7:55. The banks are a very good example. I can take a picture of a check with my phone and deposit it and take care of most other chores on-line. The CBD functioned well throughout the 20th century and remains very similar in layout today. The parking was the same back then, however shopper habits are different. A merchant vetting a site in Ridgewood would be advised to look at Westwood where there seems to be a good balance of merchandise, personal service establishments and restaurants which seem to exist in harmony. Oh, and at much lower rents.

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