Out of town commuters NOT WELCOME in Ridgewood?

March 1,2018
the staff of The Ridgewood Blog

Ridgewood NJ, strong recommendation made by Walker Consultants (contained in their parking garage financial analysis report) to allot 50 spaces for out of town commuters in the proposed Hudson Street parking garage, more than one member of the Village Council said “absolutely no way” during last night’s Village Council meeting.

The Walker report says: “The new garage will attract roughly 50 commuters from outside Ridgewood, which it should be able to accommodate during weekday commuter hours without impacting Village businesses.” It further explains: “Although we are not able to quantify potential gains of customers due to more space being available, we do quantify (albeit broadly) an increase in commuter demand from non-Ridgewood residents looking for parking near the train station. In the past Ridgewood had upwards of 120 out-of-towners using the Ridgewood train station. With parking in short supply, the Village raised rates for non-residents and demand decreased. The out of town permit rate has decreased again and there is a small amount of demand. With supply available on weekdays once the garage is built, we project about 50 new permits.”

The staff of The Ridgewood Blog questions why Village Council members are so opposed to out of towners provided, as Walker suggests, there is plenty of parking available. Have we become such an elite community?

This “no out of towners” welcome attitude clearly sends the wrong message. Let’s fill the garage so we can avoid going into debt and not worry about where the money is coming from.