“This news article, about the increased number of storefront vacancies in an “upscale” Bergen County downtown, may be of interest to many of you, particularly since Joseph A. Banks Clothiers shut their store on East Ridgewood Avenue last week.” Boyd Loving
Editors note : “I am a Joseph A. Banks customer , yet I never set foot in that store , always shop on line ” PJ blogger
By Fausto Giovanny Pinto | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on January 22, 2017 at 7:30 AM, updated January 22, 2017 at 7:32 AM
ENGLEWOOD — Signs that advertise available space are prominent on the windows of empty storefronts along Palisades Avenue in the heart of Englewood’s downtown shopping district.
A man walks by two empty storefronts on Palisade Avenue in downtown Englewood.Fausto Giovanny Pinto
Officials and realtors say the changing landscape of retail shopping has affected this area, filled with ritzy boutiques, chain stores and a host of eateries.
“Englewood is not the only one with empty stores,” said Carol Rauscher, president of the Englewood Chamber of Commerce. “Two things have contributed to the decline, online shopping and off-price stores, and that’s something we don’t have and won’t get.”
Recent departures from downtown include Victoria’s Secret, Chico’s, Nine West and Wendy’s. The downtown currently has a 5 percent vacancy rate, according to recent survey by the city’s Economic Development Corp.
Those who attended the hearings could easily reach the opinion that Arohnson sold the Village out to the developers. He pushed for a a formula where the Village allowed land speculators and developers to build 85 regular market units for every 15 coah compliant units. Do the math – – under the Aronson Plan, if the Village was ordered by the Courts to build 150 units, then the developers would be allowed to build 1000 apartments in town. And because the Village may need to build as many as 500 coah units (or even 1,000 according to some attorneys) then under the Arohnson formula, the town would have to let the developers build 5,000 to 10,000 units in total. Think about it, that’s 5,000 to 10,000 new families moving into town. The developers were licking their chops over the stupidity of the Aronson formula and the opportunity to start to apply it to properties throughout the town.
The new council quickly moved to kill some of the enabling legislation behind the Aronson plan. But, frankly, its not clear they have done enough to prevent developers from continuing to buy up property and make the argument that they need to build, build, build in order to enable Ridgewood to meet its coah requirements. Our Council needs to take bold action to meet coah requirements while not allowing developers to re-make the Village.
A lot needs to be done and the process needs to be started quickly. The Council cannot ignore this issue. They need to starting acting now.
Ridgewood NJ, Monday 10.45 employee parking lots aside Town Garage extremely underutilized. These same spots held train pass holders who were moved into center crowded area of this same lot.
PSEG – CONSTRUCTION NOTICE UPDATE JANUARY 21, 2017
Updated: January 19, 2017
PSE&G ELECTRIC RELIABILITY INFRASTRUCTURE UPGRADE
UTILITY UNDERGROUND INFRASTRUCTURE UPGRADE
WORK SCHEDULE UPDATE: January 23, 2017 – January 27, 2017 VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD
January 23, 2017 – January 27, 2017
Underground Manholes & Pipe Installation
South Broad Street
(Hudson Street & E. Ridgewood Avenue)
Road or Lane Closures
(7:00am – 5:00 pm)
Monday- Friday
Ridgewood NJ, As part of our electric reliability improvements in Bergen County, PSE&G will be performing utility underground work in the Village of Ridgewood. As of mid-January 2017, PSE&G will beperforming the following activities in your area:
Safety is our primary concern. PSE&G will work with the Ridgewood Police Department to minimize any traffic concerns or inconveniences to the public. Please be advised that Ridgewood Police Department may close additional spaces to ensure public safety. In addition, during construction, please refrain from going near our construction work zones.
The upgrades will enhance your electric capacity, system redundancy, and service reliability within the Village of Ridgewood, as well as surrounding communities. If you have questions or concerns, please call our toll free number at 1-877-678-5784
Ridgewood NJ, Parking Update, the Village Council continues to react to residents concerns and improve its parking allocation strategy.
The Village Council has implemented a reallocation strategy, based on supply/demand, for various Village-owned parking lots throughout town to give a few extra spaces to CBD patrons. In response to commuter concerns, additional spaces were restored back to commuters in both the Hudson St and Prospect St lots – amended Ordinance 3572 takes effect 1/28.
Commuters continue to press for the return of the 12 hour meters , if you work in the city there is just no other way.
“I have commented many times The ridiculous loss of former 12 houred metered parking even for village residents/ only in cottage place was in place for years and the change to max 8 hours was protested and those protests ignored and that gave birth to the annual parking pass rip off.;the store owners were bitching about those more than 3 hours meter sitters for their crappy business plan. while their early arriving employers we sopping up street parking every day on arrival to their place of work”
Parking lot commuters buy food/ Drug store items Coffee and Wine and take out food before after a long day .We all win..we get value for our high taxes when we don’t have big brother down our necks .Bring back 12 hour metered o 12 hr Parkmobile parking for village residents( with Window Resident stickers). NOT ROCKET SCIENCE. too many employee only spots allocated to employee parking. many not VOR residents.”
Mark Krulish , Staff Writer, @Mark_Krulish4:29 p.m. ET Jan. 18, 2017
Testimony continued Tuesday evening in front of Ridgewood’s Planning Board regarding an application to build a mixed-use project at the former site of Ken Smith Motors.
Experts appearing on behalf of the developer, KS Broad Street LLC, spoke about changes being made to the site in the proposal and answered questions raised by village professionals.
If you voted for Obama or any Democrat in New Jersey it is your Agenda
This is such bullshit. Why all of a sudden this hysteria of pushing for affordable housing. Whose agenda is this? Why stuff nice towns and villages with buildings that are out of character? Why force villages that people have worked very hard to build and live in to bring low income families who will certainly affect the quality of life? Why urbanize beautiful places that residents are so proud of and care so much about ? This will destroy these places and will provide no value to anyone. If you want affordable housing build in places that are already messed up such Hackensack, Rutheford etc. I am sure I am not the only who is stressed out about this nonsense.
Kala Kachmar , @NewsQuipPublished 3:03 p.m. ET Jan. 17, 2017 | Updated 14 hours ago
A Monmouth County judge has ruled in favor of a Howell resident who challenged the zoning for a controversial affordable housing complex, but the setback doesn’t necessarily spell the end of the venture.
Judge Jamie S. Perri ruled that the town didn’t give sufficient public notice for two key project ordinances, one creating the required affordable housing zone and the other applying that zone to the parcel where Howell Family Apartments would be built, at the intersection of West Farms and Fort Plans roads off Route 9.
The $21 million project would help the town fulfill its state-mandated affordable housing obligation.
Ridgewood is a walkable, commuter town and has always been that way. Buy a home near town and you walk to your commute. Many do live within walking distance but choose not to for a variety of reasons.
When I moved to town it was a known quantity that parking near the train was limited, get there by 7 or walk. This was when the car dealerships were in business and there was no parking in Hudson street lot for commuters.
Lastly, even garagzilla would have been very very limited in number of commuter parking as it was always intended for shoppers and diners to support the CBD. The fact hat it could support many commuters would only be relevant if store employees and shoppers were unwilling to park 3 flights up to grab a coffee. And even then commuters who are so rushed in the morning would have to park on the highest level and walk over.
I continue to believe that Mayor Knudsen, Deputy Mayor Sedon and Councilman Hache are decent, reasonable people who want to do what is right for the village. Here is my appeal to them.
Please do not assume that the few loudest and most frequent voices you hear from are representative of the entire village, irrespective of what they say.
I, and a lot of people I know, did not vote against the previous council and for the current one because we had much of a view on the Valley expansion, Graydon, Schedler, or the parking garage. Neither did we vote because of those loud voices. What we voted against was the dismissive attitude of those council members against residents.
Now I do not believe that those council members were very being dismissive on purpose. They did very much want to win elections. However, they kept hearing from a specific group that their actions were popular, and that those opposing their proposals were a vocal and disruptive minority.
Unfortunately, I get the sense that the new council has become beholden to a different coterie with its own agenda. That coterie is openly dismissive of regular residents in extremely caustic terms. It is as if we have traded the tzar for the politburo. Questioning actions of the new council is dismissed as the handiwork of the Aronson crew.
I urge you to work for the wider village, and not just those voices and their interests. For example, on this issue it appears that the lack of commuters and abundance of casual diners in the coterie has led to this disastrous decision. I urge you to reverse this decision and in future, think about the outcome for all residents based on wider feedback, and not just based on what you hear from a few.
Ridgewood NJ, Jeff Voigt missing in action (most likely because he knew room would be filled with commuters who were pissed off at the price increase for commuter parking – a plan developed & supported by the FAC, of which Jeff is the Village Council liaison).
After listening to all the comments, we do believe a 1000 dollar premier parking permit is too much. In two years it has gone from 600 dollars to 750 to the current 1000. Glen Rock was said to be 150 dollars and HoHoKus was around 375. 1000 dollars seems pretty steep
photo by Boyd Loving
January 12,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, wednesday night Village of Ridgewood Council meeting :
1. Councilman Jeff Voigt was noticeably absent. No explanation given.
2. The State Champion RHS Maroons football team members and Coach Chuck Johnson were presented with certificates of recognition and many well-deserved accolades. A huge round of applause to all of them.
3. There was public comment as well as official discussion about the new parking-space allocations. Some commuters complained passionately about increased difficulty finding designated commuter spots unless they get to the lot/s early. As a result, the Village Council on the spot changed the Ordinance to increase the number of spaces for commuters. Just like that, feedback was responded to. It was clear that the VC members had been looking at the lots this week, fielding phone calls and emails, and were very open to making adjustments as needed. They also made it very clear that they will continue to monitor the use of the spaces and make further adjustments as seems appropriate. There are early indications that CBD employees are continuing to feed the meters and take the prime spaces, rather than go to the designated CBD-employee spots. Too bad Mr. Tony Damiano, he of the loud and nasty complaints, was not there to hear how all those spaces he asked for (in his position on the Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce) are going unused. Some members of the public complained about the steep increase in the annual parking pass; too bad Councilman Voigt was not there since he was the biggest proponent of sticking it to the well-heeled commuters who ride to NYC every day. Yes, he did say that to some residents…..Councilman Voigt feels that those who make the big bucks will not feel the pinch of $1000 a year. Guess he was wrong. He missed out on their indignant remarks. One resident righteously stated that commuters who go to the city and work all day should get priority over shoppers and diners who are leisurely heading to Raymond’s for lunch. One resident felt she had to put in a plug for a parking garage. Really? There is an abundance of parking, it just has to be spread out more evenly. Several commented that parking for shoppers was very available this week, a pleasant situation. Mayor Knudsen made it very clear that all citizens are created equal, and the Village Council is working hard to strike a fair balance with the parking to ensure that everyone gets to park where they most need to. Kinks are being worked out.
4. Gary Cirrilo, who heads up Project Pride, stated that funding for Project Pride has dropped drastically. He would very much like sufficient money to cover beautification of the downtown, including flowers as well as wreaths to replace the aging kissing balls in December. To this point, Councilman Sedon said that a tree farm is being planned for the Village, and that the tree wells in the CBD are going to be altered and improved so that the trees can thrive (currently they pretty much die).
5. The “Air-BNB” ordinance passed. Short-term rentals cannot be for less than 30 days. This ordinance is meant to prevent a frequent turnover of rental homes by out-of-town visitors who just come in to town for a few days or a couple of weeks. Some residents had observed this going on in their neighborhoods and had expressed concern…..once again the Village Council stepped up and developed a reasonable set of guidelines.
6. Not every vote was unanimous this evening, and there was some disagreement~discussion among elected officials on the dais. But, there was no animosity, no nasty exchanges, no crude language. Civil discourse. And why was this? Hmmmm…..could it be due to Councilman Voigt’s absence?????
By Greg Adomaitis | For NJ.com
on January 10, 2017 at 11:48 AM, updated January 10, 2017 at 4:47 PM
CHERRY HILL TWP. — A Connecticut woman is suing Cherry Hill-headquartered TD Bank over its allegedly “unlawful” overdraft fee that charges users who don’t replenish their bank accounts within 10 days.
Per the class action lawsuit filed Jan. 4 on behalf of Shaina Dorsey by Marlton-based lawyer Stephen DeNittis, the sustained overdraft charge of $20 is imposed after an initial charge of $35 for the overdraft itself and exceeds the limit permitted by the National Bank Act.
“Unlike an initial overdraft fee, the Sustained Fee for Overdrawn Accounts is an additional charge to a customer for which the bank has provided nothing new in the way of services,” the lawsuit reads. “The charge is based solely on the alleged indebtedness to the bank remaining unpaid by the customer for a period of time.”
According to the suit, Dorsey’s checking account went into “overdraft” status in Aug. 15, 2016 and remained that way until Sept. 8, 2016. The $20 fee on Aug. 26, 2016 was in addition to six other fees totaling $210 “for transactions that created her ‘overdraft’ status in the first place.”
Ridgewood NJ, An overabundance of open parking for shoppers/diners and for CBD Employees on Monday mid-morning and again on Monday mid-afternoon in Prospect, Hudson, N. Walnut, Cottage, and Chestnut lots.
