The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, The Village Council approved the funding and the proposal from Epic Management, Inc., to move forward with the Hudson Street parking garage. This will provide additional parking in the Central Business District for shoppers, diners, commuters, and employees.
Continue reading HUDSON STREET PARKING GARAGE SCHEDULED TO START JUNE 2019
August 11,2018
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Effective September 4, 2018, the following changes will be in effect for all parking meters in the Central Business District, both on the streets and in the parking lots:
Meter Times: Monday through Friday – 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Saturday – 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Meter Rates for All Meters: 75 cents per hour (including the Cottage Place CBD Employee Parking Spaces)
Duration of Meters: 3 hours for all parking meters, except the Cottage Place parking lot, which will be 11 hours.
CBD Employee Parking Spaces: These spaces require a CBD Employee Parking Permit and are located in the Walnut Street parking lot and the Cottage Place parking lot, and are delineated by signage. CBD Employee Parking Permits and monthly hang tags for CBD Employee parking may be purchased at the Reception Desk in Village Hall or daily parking may be paid for through Parkmobile or in Cottage Place, at the parking kiosks.
We are extending our Parking Kiosk Pilot Program. In addition to the Chestnut Street parking lot, parking kiosks will be placed in the following locations:
The parking kiosks will accept coins, dollar bills, and credit cards (Visa, Master Card and American Express). Parkmobile is also available to pay for parking, by downloading the Parkmobile app to your Smartphone.
Effective September 25, 2018, the new meter times for the train station parking lot and the Park and Ride parking lot will be:
Monday through Friday – 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (14-hour meter duration)
Saturday – 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (8-hour meter duration)
Overnight parking is available in select parking lots for residents living in the CBD. Permits for overnight parking may be purchased at the Reception Desk in Village Hall. Other than the overnight parking lots, parking is prohibited in all other parking lots, including the train station lot and the Park and Ride lot, from 2:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.
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 .
If we don’t get SOME form of parking garage, SOME housing on the vacant sites and help prop up the high street merchants you DO know what happens next, right? The main drag gets rezoned for mixed use, a la Bogota and Closter, and our commuter town (which it is, look at the town seal) has MORE rental units developed by OUTSIDERS and the usual mix of chain stores.. the combo of reasonable housing proposals and some form of business/commuter parking will give the town a boost. I think if the current housing proposals can be negotiated further, you get some desperately needed new blood in. And the tides lift everything up as well as down.
December 27,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, the Village of Ridgewood is currently executing a ticket blitz on employees that use street parking instead of the employee parking lots. After much effort was made by the Village to support the merchants and restaurants the employee parking lots have not been used and there is a resistance to use them from both the Chamber and the Guild . The ticket blitz is seen a way for tax payers to collect money and help mitigate parking garage costs .
photo courtesy of Councilmen Ramon M Hache
December 9,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Village of Ridgewood Councilmen Ramon M Hache thanked the Central Business District Advisory Committee and Ridgewood Signal Department for the new additions to downtown , “Thank you Central Business District Advisory Committee for the snowflakes and continuing the beautification of our Downtown. Also a big thank you to our Ridgewood Signal Department and to Gary Cirillo at Gary’s Village Landscaping. Truly a team effort.”
file photo by Boyd Loving
December 1,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Due to the Downtown for the Holidays event on Friday, December 1st, with the closure of several streets in the Central Business District, the Public Valet Parking will not be available. The Public Valet Parking will be available on Saturday, December 2nd, from 6:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. The cost is $5.00 per vehicle.
file photo by Boyd Loving
THE CENTRAL VALET SERVICE IN RIDGEWOOD CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT IS NOW IN OPERATION
November 3,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, A Central Valet service is available for all shoppers and diners in Ridgewood’s Central Business District on Friday and Saturday nights, from 6:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m., and running through December 30th. The location for the Central Valet service is Van Neste Square, opposite the bus station. The price per vehicle is $5.00, and some shops and restaurants will be paying that fee for their customers. There will be a listing of the shops and restaurants paying the valet service fee for their customers on the Village website, as well as being distributed at the Central Valet locations as they become available.
Central Valet Form
email address: optin@ridgewoodnj.net
Motorists MUST STOP FOR PEDESTRIANS courtesy of the Wyckoff Police Department
MOTORISTS in New Jersey MUST stop for pedestrians in a marked crosswalk. Failure to observe the law may subject you to one or more of the following:
2 POINTS
$200 FINE (plus court costs)
15 DAYS COMMUNITY SERVICE
INSURANCE SURCHARGES
NEW JERSEY STATUTE 39:4-36
Driver to stop for pedestrian:
exceptions, violations. penalties.
A. The driver of a vehicle must stop and stay stopped for a pedestrian crossing the roadway within any marked crosswalk, but shall yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection, except at crosswalks when the movement of traffic is being regulated by police officers or traffic control signals, or where otherwise prohibited by municipal, county, or State regulation, and except where a pedestrian tunnel or overhead pedestrian crossing has been provided, but no pedestrian shall suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk or run into the path of a vehicle which is so close that it is impossible for the driver to yield.
Whenever any vehicle is stopped to permit a pedestrian to cross the roadway, the driver of any other vehicle approaching from the rear shall not overtake and pass such stopped vehicle.
Every pedestrian upon a roadway at any point other than within a marked crosswalk or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway.
B. A person violating this section shall, upon conviction thereof, pay a fine to be imposed by the court in the amount of $200. The court may also impose a term of community service not to exceed 15 days.
C. Of each fine imposed and collected pursuant to subsection B. of the section, $100 shall be forwarded to the State Treasurer who shall annually deposit the moneys into the “Pedestrian Safety Enforcement and Education Fund” created by section 1 of PL 2005, c 84 (C.39:4-36.2)
photos courtesy of Boyd Loving
June 1,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, A 911 call from a frightened teenage female, who alleged that she’d been inappropriately touched by an adult male stranger, generated a immediate response from three (3) uniformed Ridgewood PD Patrol Officers and two (2) uniformed Patrol Supervisors. The incident was alleged to have taken place on a sidewalk near 103 Franklin Avenue, Ridgewood on Wednesday evening, 05/31. Ridgewood Police canvassed sidewalks and restaurants near the scene in an attempt to locate the adult male involved in the incident. The victim’s mother responded to the scene to discuss the incident with police officers and to take the youth home. The alleged perpetrator was not immediately located, but a description of his clothing and physical appearance was disseminated to all on duty officers for follow up throughout the evening.
file photo by Boyd Loving
Parking is confusing. Lots of signs and restrictions. It feels like the town has decided that parking enforcement will be a revenue center.
The risk of ticket and 2 hour limitations make it even less likely that I will be in town during business hours.
I come in for dinner when it is safe.
The only conclusion is that these so called traffic engineers don’t ever
actually drive in the Central business district ..complete lunacy..we are actually paying for these experts conclusions ?? making matters worse would be the inevitable result as well as spending a fortune to build out and then fix this mess.
January 19,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, reader commented “Its actually a one faceted approach–bury your head in the sand and pretend we dont need a garage.” No we don’t think the lack of a garage is the problem.
Central Business District Thursday, January 18th, 11 am employee parking cottage place wide open.
January 14,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Saturday January 14 th 530 pm gotcha ticket next to aside rite aid across from the movies.
the concern is that the lot slopes from one side to the other and that when developers like these start building they can play games with the grade from which the building is measured. By measuring from the high point of the property, they can get away with more building.
The problem here is that just as they were being chased out of office, Aronson & Co. passed laws allowing for these multi-unit, multi-family complexes to be built throughout Ridgewood. We are all struggling with the legacy of these laws. This site, for instance, could potentially add a few hundred cars, students, etc to our budget. It is only one of several sites already in the works. Undoubtedly other land speculators and profiteers are lining up to try and build more. Saurabh and others are doing their best to try and either prevent the monstrosity from moving forward or keep it as curtailed s possible.
You should go to the planning board meetings where these projects are being discussed. See if there is anything you can do to prevent the damage that is about to happen. First and foremost you can write your council people and the planning board members to use the means available to them to undo these monstrosities before they are built.
