Ridgewood NJ, sometimes to just have to drop off or pick up . This is the reason some people had reservations about creating a pedestrian mall in the Central Business District . Open parking spaces were being blocked by restaurant chairs on Ridgewood Avenue of Saturday May 22nd at 11am, peak up and delivery time for merchants in the Village on summer Saturdays . Not only could no one park costing the Village and taxpayers money , merchants could have lost a sales.
VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD VILLAGE COUNCILREGULAR PUBLIC MEETING,AUGUST 14, 2019 ,8:00 P.M.
1. Call to Order – Mayor
2. Statement of Compliance with the Open Public Meetings Act
3. Roll Call – Village Clerk
4. Flag Salute and Moment of Silence
5. Acceptance of Financial Reports
6. Approval of Minutes
7. Proclamations
Commemorate 100th Anniversary of Ridgewood’s American Legion Post 53 and Honor its Mission as a Patriotic Veterans Organization Devoted to Mutual Helpfulness
Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over 2019 Statewide Crackdown
We should probably all accept that our form of government allows a small minority to rule the day. Whether you’re for or against parking that’s what essentially happened twice with four years in between events. Lost in these small minorities exerting their will is the fact that we cannot make progress on parking; an issue that, like it or not, a super majority of your neighbors and out of town shoppers/diners would say is the biggest problem in the CBD. So we fight over specific solutions.
Anyone that’s been here more than a week and a half laughed out loud when someone recently had the genius idea to build parking at the Town Garage site. Why? Because 10 or so years ago, we went through this same process with a design, bonding, etc. for a garage there. What happened? A small group of people objected and the project was killed. Fortunately our spasm this year happened before we bonded so we don’t need to service debt that won’t be used. Anyone care to go back into the meeting minutes to see if someone suggested Hudson Street as a better alternative then? Round and round we go.
So we may seem to be left with glacial progress on big issues. But maybe not. Let’s have the argument once and be done with it: let’s form a Charter Commission to review the town charter. Maybe we need a ward system, allowable under the terms of our charter, to ensure single issue (again, for or against, no difference here) council-people from one section of the village don’t rule the day. Perhaps a different charter altogether is in order. But something needs to change or we’ll find ourselves with a different kind of village leadership: leadership that wears black robes and doesn’t ever need a single vote for re-election. It’s already begun.
