photo by Boyd Loving
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Paul Vagianos is a candidate for election in November to fill the unexpired Village Council. term of Bernadette Walsh (who resigned due to a pending relocation out of state). Mr. Vagianos is a past president of the Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the Village’s Central Business District Advisory Committee (CBDAC). He owns and operates the It’s Greek to Me restaurant on East Ridgewood Avenue and owns a commercial property on South Broad Street that houses the Pearl restaurant.
During a recent meeting of the CBDAC, Mr. Vagianos offered his opinion of the current Village Council’s proposal to construct a new park at a Franklin Avenue property now occupied by a long-ago abandoned auto repair shop. Of the proposed park, Vagianos said this: “Putting a park there in that space is such a terrible use of that space. Pave over it and put parking meters there.”
The staff of The Ridgewood Blog wonders how Mr. Vagianos could not possibly be aware of the current glut of municipal parking in the Village’s Central Business District, including a seemingly endless number of empty parking spaces at the multi-million-dollar Hudson Street Parking Garage (which is immediately adjacent to the Pearl Restaurant).
Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead! Or, damn the open space, we need more parking! Hmm. Just what the Village doesn’t need at this moment in time; more parking and a loose cannon rolling around the dais.
We urge Mr. Vagianos to rethink his outcry for adding more pavement and parking “meters” to an already congested area in lieu of adding an additional parcel to the Village’s open space inventory.
Let’s not spend any money on a contaminated property. Let the speculators clean it up.
Bad food and service and now bad decisions. You get what you pay for Ridgewood. Fat and dumb are no way to go through life
Vote for Hooban and avoid disastrous & idiotic decisions in the process.
What would Becky say Paul?
Paul V should shut up. No one likes you.
Vagianos is a smooth talking smarmy liar.
Vote HOOBAN
Bottles are thrown at pedestrians?$@/!?!
Ridgewood’s purchase of the Town Garage will be a disaster. The environmental investigations will be well over $1 million (I have years of experience in this arena) and any clean-up costs will be significantly higher. The owners brought it as a spec property just hoping to get a big fat buy-out from our Village. The buyers knew about, and assumed, the environmental liability hoping they could create a profitable nuisance that we would all eventually pay for. Let’s not reward them for their bad investment and lets not assume that bad investment.
Who the hell us Becky and where are Cynthia Hallabie and Denise Lima, whi cried wolf for the park at the train station?
Why aren’t they concerned with this park?
How about replacing the windows at the train station.
Concrete Paul is above them all when it comes to ambition ,ego and plenty of gall!
Item above says Mr. Vagianos is a past president of the Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce. Why does his personal website say he is the current president?
Paul Vagianos makes Paul Aronsohn look like an angel.
His website is pure fiction
Conflict of interest should eliminate this restaurant owner and landlord from running for town council.
I hope he wins, then he will make the village the real joke of the county.
If you really want to piss him off go in and order chicken fingers and french fries. He will start throwing plates against the wall.
He promised a few years ago, that if the garage is built, all CBD properties valuation will increase and the CBD property owners will pay more in taxes? (I think his sidekick JJ quoted 13% in her podcast?)
Time for him to increase taxes by 13% for CBD property owners!
Paul Vagianos would be detrimental to the Village if he were elected to council. He has more conflicts and is being supported by developers seeking to add more density to the central business district. The amount of cars and people walking is already making for dangerous conditions downtown. His pave it over is a dangerous suggestion. his self interests would influence the direction and future of the village. It’s fascinating to hear his supporters, like Halaby, dismiss the idea of green space in favor of parking. Everyone should remember the desired addition of more density Broad St. The word is His push for the pedestrian street closure has hurt many businesses while enriching Paul Vagianos. Hopefully voters will recognize this candidate for what he is. He has to many conflicts.