January 17,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Russ Forenza suggestion at the January 6th meeting to use the Graydon Parking lot , Graydon Pool parking is a tremendous asset that is never used , shuttle buses , would be a simple easy solution . The idea would be to push all the employee parking into the Graydon lot .Yes we know it was tried before and true it failed .But now parking rates are significantly higher and we could allow employees and business owners to park either for Free or at a greatly reduced rate and shoppers could also park there at a reduced rate . Shuttle service would have to run continuously during the day at regular short intervals .
It has been reported on this blog many times over the past 6 years , that often the parking spaces are already full on streets like Oak Street by 8 am in the morning when no businesses are even opened . The Graydon parking along with a shuttle service would siphon off many full time employees , encourage them to spend money in town and be far more ecologically friendly than circling the village in cars looking for parking . Non compliant business could be fined ,both the employee for parking in the wrong place and the business owner .
Perhaps the Graydon lot could be used seasonally like shopping centers that don’t allow employee parking during seasonally peak periods . Garden State Plaza for instance bars employees from parking in certain areas during the Christmas rush.
Another idea is to also add more bicycle racks in the central business district so the down town would be more bike friendly . Parker’s at Graydon could bike back and forth during warmer weather if they desired and the shuttle should be made “bike friendly”.
