the mayor - THE RIDGEWOOD BLOG.

January 7,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, There were too many discussions focused on needing a garage or not. I voted no, but it passed, let’s build a nice one. We need to be talking about what it looks like and how we pay for it. The only design offered to date is ugly, doesn’t fit the lot, and the council is in a rush to build it. We don’t really know how it gets paid for. The traffic impact is going to be huge. The garage is going to be filled with train commuters every day- the village has been clear about that. The one traffic study (done over 4 hours on one day) says we need to know more about overall traffic impact. The village has a poor record dealing with traffic design. This is a traffic disaster waiting to happen.

Judging by comments to the council and online discussions, too many voters did not educate themselves ahead of the vote. A lot of buyer’s remorse and people who “assumed”. There were some amazing speakers who clearly and smartly got to the issue and were ready to dive into to the details the council wishes to avoid. There were also uninformed garage supporters who thought the architect’s renderings were fakes made by opponents of the garage. Quite the indictment when supporters of the garage have no idea what it looks like and even they think it can’t possibly “look like THAT”.

It is now crystal clear that 3 council members, led by the village manager and mayor, were not forthcoming about their intentions ahead of the vote. They promised a conversation about design and then offered one photo ahead of the vote and no options on design. The only design option was a meaningless 10′ difference. The village seems to revel in ignoring codes and statutes created to preserve what everyone loves about the village. The village should set the standard and go beyond what is required. This manager and 3 of the council now have a demonstrable record of doing the opposite. Let’s hope the promise of a new design to be created is true.

file photo by Boyd Loving

Readers say : non binding = if the residents approve great they will move forward. If the residents do not approve it is non binding (on the mayor and council) and they will move forward. It’s a done deal folks.

So let’s get the business owners in the CBD who want this (Fish, Greek to Me) to help pay for the garage if it’s a done deal. If they have skin in the game, at least they’ll help protect Village taxpayers from cost overruns and “slippage” better than the Village ever could or would. Why should taxpayers be liable for 100% of the cost and inevitable overruns when this garage will benefit the businesses in the CBD? C’mon, this is North Bergen in NJ. Everything costs multiples of what it should so that everyone can get their “taste”.

The CBD business interests and landlords like to say that Ridgewood always says no to change. Not true. In the past couple of decades we built a new Village Hall, expanded the High School, built a new library, turfed Maple and the HS fields, upgraded Graydon, built a new track facility at BF, added a new gym at GW, converted Habernickel to public use. Whether you agree with all of these actions or not, Ridgewood has not sat still and has spent when needed. Contrast that with the decades long debate about a parking garage. It has NOT been built because there has been a consistent view by most residents that it is not needed and will detract from the Village. The only thing that has changed is that the commercial interests seem to have gotten a firmer foothold with the VC.

so why aren’t these CBD business interests helping to pay for it? Why should taxpayers be on the hook for 100% of this? Makes no sense.