February 9,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood Nj, We continue to hear this argument time and time again from the Mayors friends , “Those who are opposed to the garage should make a fact filled and compelling financial study of the project on their own to support the notion that it should not be built. No one has done this so far and hence a level of confusion exists that the people who are against it have not presented any concrete data to support their position that it will be bad for the village and will not sustain itself. Show me that data so all can make a rational and informed decision, My hunch is the data does not exist. In all likelihood the garage will loose some money during the first and possibly the second year of operation and then it will get up to full capacity and from there on will earn far above its projected break-even point. The demand clearly exists, there is not a lot you can do to screw it up so it should make a lot of money for the Village. Clearly if we adopted some of the earlier proposals the garages proposed would now be all paid off and we would be swimming in profits of a huge magnitude. Remember when the cost / space was calculated to be $1500/space. for a 580 car garage over Ken Smith. if only that were build we would be swimming in money today…..and all of our taxes would be far lower due to the huge cash flow thrown off from that project. Do not defame the garage project. It could turn out to be a real winner.!!.”
Nice dream….
In reality , “love an optimist! But, we have gone through the numbers and questioned the council numerous times. Read the Walker Report, which can be found on the Village Website. It says, perhaps on page 2, that the garage will not be self-funding. It will, as has always been the plan, be funded by increased meter rates all throughout downtown. That exact scheme has been asked for by Mr. Sedon and others, but nothing concrete has been said. Walker mentions eventually raising rates to !.00, increased hours until 9pm, increasing enforcement, not allowing meters to carry over, etc The council will be taking away some of their tools by saying they won’t raise rates saturday night (so as not to punish 5:30 Mass at Mt. Carmel) and now with BCIA you can’t charge commuters more than Ridgewood residents.”
“Furthermore, the actual bonding through BCIA is more expensive than Ridgewood bonding ourselves, and many in municipal finance question the assumptions used. Also, the building will go over budget as Albert promised himself. Lastly, there is demand for parking but currently you can always – always- find parking on street in that area of town. (in front of NY SPorts, up prospect etc.). The garage is not that much closer and it is a shame businesses were never able to convince their employees to park over there as that is what really takes street parking.”
Of coarse there is also the county politics and perhaps the real story;
“The answer is simple if we step back and look from a higher level. The garage will be built near the old Cadillac dealership to provide parking for the apartments that will be built there. The village mayor needs the support of those developers to fund his political aspirations and to do so needs to get the garage built as big as possible in that location to show his compliance and ensure donations for his next office run.
The apartments will be built as soon as the lawsuits begin, COHA judgements line up, and the remaining council fall in place. Makes some sense”
