July 19,2018
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, after years of debate ,last night the Village Council in a 5-0 vote approved a $12 million bond ordinance to construct a 240-space parking garage on Hudson Street .
Parking meter rates in the Central Business District will be increased to help fund the garage. As of September 4th ,Fifty-cent hourly meters will be increased to 75 cents and the $1.25-an-hour meters will increase to $1.50.
Place your bets now on the total quantity and total dollar amount of change orders for this boondoggle.
Always remember the village hall renovation fiasco. Final cost was over twice the dollar amount bonded. This garage will be a financial nightmare extraordinaire.
When Hache said we have to “dig a little deeper’ about the raise in meter rates, was he including senior citizens on a fixed income.
Does he really think I shop local. I shop Macys in paramus park Mall.
Does Hache really think I am going to feed the meter up until 9 p.m. to eat in Ridgewood, Oh, I mean DINE. shit. NO, i will eat in Ho-ho Kus or Glen Rock or further away.
And hell when the council said the parking was in line with other towns not true, only two towns, Morris town and Montclair , Radolph?. You take many many other towns in NJ and there is FREE Parking. Just like GLen ROck And HO HO KUs. Notice Susan and MIke and Ramon didnt mention our neighboring towns. What a bowl of crap they are feeding us.
The garage will have a police presence , which will cost A LOT, no one spoke about that. and of course it will go over budget and be expensive to maintain and will cost the taxpayers a fortune. AND above all there will never be enough parking, there is not enough parking anywhere at any HUGE MALL at CERTAIN TIMES. Most of the time there is. Ridgwood will become a garbage dump with apt. buildings and many more people and narrow streets super crowded, Hache is a very simple mediocre man as are basically the whole council even though I praised Knudsen for her performance last night.with BOE. The council has NO APPRECIATION for the character of RIdgewood, of course the previous didn’t either, they have no aesthetic appreciation for what is precious about Ridgewood and what should be preserved, what constitues the feeling when you drive into CBD that you are driving into a painting created by a first rate artist. THAT is what is being detroyed. The whole council, they are basically standardized fast food people. How shall i put it. Mass media commercial taste Well, the next step is to destroy the islands at the train station. I am still crying over Schedler development. It is time for me to leave this town. It is becoming a hell hole. Too ugly and crowded for me.
oh Joy the wrecking ball neighborhood buster shall be born
you bunch of fools ..cost overruns once they find Jimmy Hoffa and his caddy underneath the firehouse foundation . SUMMER SPECIAL AND THE TAXPAYERS ARE ONTHE MENU TO pay then Pay then pay forever
complete mismanagement VC and their enablers developers and town business Mafia
time to sell
continued from 9:51a.m. When Hache said only way for property taxes to go down is the CBD storekeepers have to rake in millions each year.
That is a load of crap.
I have lived here since 1978 and every damn year the taxes went up and up regardless of how CBD did.
the only way property taxes will go down is up to Phil Murphy and how much I pay to support the school teachers health benefits. And other union benefits, like transportation etc. It’s also up to Trump how he will not let NJ deduct property taxes.
The only way property taxes will go down is if we start LOWERING BIG TIME the BOE budget. Bells and whistles do not an inspired child make.
Remember Joyce Carol Oates and Jonas Salk and many others did not go to school in material luxury . Just the opposite. We need a whole other mentality and value system in BOE and THAT will NEVER exist in RIchwood. where material ostentation is THE ONLY VALUE. we practically. the only value.
Alas, the Village is in the parking garage business. The Village’s record on capital projects and business investment is not inspiring. Our VC should put everyone on notice that the general obligation bonds to be used for the garage’s construction will create additional yearly tax burdens for all Villagers.Increased parking rates and garage revenues will not cover this project’s operating and debt service costs. Therefore, we will be forced pick up the deficits over time in the from of higher taxes. To counter such, I would advise that when higher tax bill come to pass, we Villagers sponsor our own study, for the benefit of the then VC, showing tax revenue projections that justify a tax reduction.
After the dust settles, only commuters will benefit from a town garage. Business owners and landlords will have to suffer through three major construction projects but, in retrospect, they wanted the garage and will have to deal with the financial consequences. We taxpayers will also have to deal with this decision. I guess what we want out of our elected officials just doesn’t matter. It just doesn’t matter…….
Wonder if tbe increase in parking fees to cover the garange will reduce demand for parking enough so that no garage is needed …irony abounds..
thanks Brian ..unlike the business owners and households with kids in town schools the rest of us will move and say good riddance to awful tone deaf management..also a billion dollar a decade school tax liability is another of the many town jokes ON Taxpayers total mismanagement
unsustainable …
garage will be a slum within 5 years of its grand opening..like celebrating a towns funeral with a marching band of fools behind..
drug dealers need a shedded hand up ..winters colder here and the transit bus leantoo was getting a little too Randy for the crack heads to cop a rock or bag of dope..movin on up..the block..police don’t patrol anything difficult so why should this be f
different..rent a cop and cop a bag of dope the new Mo up there
a sin…this is…
I never got the feeling that I was driving into a lovely painting going thru the CBD. Its so crowded, narrow, roads are bad and I’m afraid to divert my eyes from the road for 1 second in fear of hitting someone walking without looking. There are nicer looking downtowns…
The law of demand states that, if all other factors remain equal, the higher the price of a good, the less people will demand that good.
The WRONG PEOPLE are happy about this. Those with a longtime vested interest in historic, charming Ridgewood know this is a big mistake. UGH. I’m not going to pay a fortune to feed meters. Farewell, CBD.
Waste of money,this garage is not needed. Council take your heads out of the ground.
Let’s see – ‘We can’t afford to build and sustain the garage, so we will make the ENTIRE CBD meters to fund the project’. It’s a genius move, VC. Glad that Ramon is such a financial whiz.
Yrly permits will def go up why not
They think we are sheep
We can’t afford to move but this means that we will never shop anywhere in Ridgewood again. Kings at least has its own parking. Our taxes have more than quadrupled in the time we have lived here. Now I assume they will quadruple again in the next 2 years. Ridgewood will soon be a town of only million dollar incomes because no-one making less will be able to afford to live here. Not only is the garage a financial disaster but the new apartments will require much more school space for all the children who will arrive with them. The quotes of”‘little or no children” were based on the one tall apartment building at the corner of Franklin and Maple. None of the garden apartments were surveyed at all. Why? Because children live in those. And, as someone said before, if you believe no children will fill those apartments, I have a nice bridge to sell you. Our council seems to have believed the hype that they will only be filled with hundreds of very very rich people who either have no children or are retired with a huge pension and who also don’t even have one car per apartment. I guess they were testers of the marijuana product before it comes on the open market. I hope they are planning to greatly increase the police budget because the garage and apartments will require many more police responses than we have police to cover the calls.
2:09 why not ? case of Other people money obligation they will have notched the sapps of ridgewood belt club where is roberta when we need her to think small then get even..this crew needs to Go
Roberta lol
We are running scared and coucil
smelled the skunkworks of summer and cashed In on our future
Mnt st carmel can you ever speak up. Devils at the door hes a knockin
the CBD needs far more diversity of stores
Tisk Tisk… I don’t understand all the fuss. You know our VC listens to all of the residents, does their due dillegence and follows thru on execution and comes in on time all the time. Right. You all voted for them. You get what you deserve
This decision for a garage that non taxpayers will primarily benefit from is irresponsible, plus meddling with a complex BOE budget, plus bad services, plus a stupid field at schedler before you even have a plan for the house, plus no master plan or vision.
The angry 10 loud residents and the VC rule here.
3:18 ref to Reference data Re Trying to put the pumpkins together again..
That ship has sailed …Amazon has taken all the sweet middle markets that kept the lights on and gave the employees one week in the Catskills with the kids when Donna Reed was calling the shots..latest victim whole foods RIDGEWOOD ..those blue signs with deals are not for the unwashed anymore..pay your 130 .00 for your cheap bananas from Guatemala or get shunned at the Cashiers those poor folks have to upsell you at every ring of the register .,a lot of good people there at whole foods too
We picked a real estate guy for Mayor at the worst moment. You see how now everything is moving faster? A lot of $$$ at stake for real estate. Push, push, push baby. Nueva Hackensack is in the works. Us residents are being shown the big middle finger. James will still say it is all Aronsohn’s fault.
love you losers , loved the garage when Aronsohn was going to build one twice as large lol
Ridgewood will pay for years for voting for the 3 amigos , actions set in motion consequences , cant wait for Paul Aronsohns “no flush Friday”
Hey we all hope the village sweepers can get all the dirty garbage that people are going to make.
How come the sweeper doesn’t go down my block I live on Stanley place dead end.
Thanks!
Cut deal with Enterprise or budget car rental now as town will be raked over the coals on lowball rents om commercial business
That is inevitable for this slum
Uber will be staging up there once they take over Drug dealers wont help the town make their Nut revenue wise. VOR commoners on Hook When the new amigos make it to farmville or wherever selling us out gets them they can Ask Paul …
We have a new 3… Blind mice
Are we going to have a gate keeper at that site , or is going to ba cop hideout.
Jerry ..the sweepers are quite busy sweeping up our retirement cash down here in Somerville and hauling it away like bandits all over town…
they spend like it’s like ITS OTHER PEOPLE MONEY..and it is ..it’s ours..
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towns a joke …planning boards …Iike a Mafia here …refer to Its a wonderful life..average citizens getting Ass kicked by so many great deals
hatched by the VC ..
On 17 This morning on and off ramps are filthy.
Follow the money…VC members got greased, no other explanation
when the Aronsohn crew pushed ‘Garagezilla” many I suspect were offered below market rate apartments for friends and family
I hope the VC are reading this and celebrating how we are all overjoyed by the news!
So glad they listen to us all….and these were the good guys???
The new mayor decided to join the CBD owners cabal. Let the peasants pay for the garage in not one, but two ways, old meters and new taxes. It seems like ever time a new little fish gets on the VC, he/she gets fed $$ and thinks that suddenly, they’re a big fish. Very disappointed.
F U
R W
Another “follow the money” stupid comment.
Ever wonder why good people don’t run for office?
Because of stupid innuendos like that.
I seriously do not believe that our present council members are in it for the non- existent money that they have pouring in for their votes. They are actually forfeiting time that could possibly be used to earn money instead. I’m afraid I can only say that about this council as prior ones had too many commercial supporters and buddies to really know what was going on.
Google Prime just had it’s biggest day EVER!!!!! Main Street retail is over. Big head Vagianos and all of his flunkies on the Chamber of Commerce are vastly mistaken. Parking will never rescue downtown retail, anywhere.
“Google prime.” Another genius comment from a well informed Ridgewood voter.
many of the comments sound fake , almost like when Valley had people guys from India post pro expansion stuff on here , Aronsohn must have his buddies on here