Tag: The Village Council

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The Village of Ridgewood Council to vote for the future of a parking garage in Ridgewood

Hudson_street_parking_theridgewoodblog

July 15,2015
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Village of Ridgewood Council Meeting
Wednesday July 15, 2015- 7:30pm, Court Room
The Village of Ridgewood Council will be voting for the future of a parking garage in Ridgewood

Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce  looks to rally the troops tonight to push through the parking garage  readers say not so fast .

“Where will the shopper/diners/employees park during construction? A net loss of 80 spots at any given time for three years. Let me remind you $.50/hour per meter. 80 spaces x $.50/space = $40/hour. $40 x 12 hour day = $480/day. $480/day x 465 days x 3 years = $525,600 revenue loss during construction. About the same amount that could pay for the parking study commissioned by the 3 Horsemen of the Apocalypse.”

Skimmed the linked (Walker)report and my heart sank at the photos. This is not suitable. Walk down Hudson St. with a building sticking out over our heads? How is this appropriate? The noise, the traffic, the smells, people rushing around at rush hour–forget sitting on the sidewalk at Sook or Natalie’s, or probably even inside. Who wants to listen to/look at/smell that thing? The mayor and deputy mayor are so proud to be pushing for this? Burn in hell, guys.”

“How can we even consider something that costs this much money? We will never get it back in any way. Let NJ Transit and CBD building owners pay for it. The turf was bad enough.”

“Of course the wording is misleading. They have every intention of misleading the public on this. They are trying to shove this parking garage down our throats and they want to be able to say that we all approved it.”

“As sure as you’re born, a parking garage erected by Ridgewood’s village government will be co-opted for use by out-of-town commuters in accordance with the preferences of those seeking to dismantle New Jersey’s deeply ingrained “home rule” tradition and replace it with a new oligarchical style of regional government. Imagine a regional, multicounty board of overseers populated by Gwen Hauck-type cloned hand-puppets easily manipulated by namelesss, faceless third-party wealthy power brokers. That’s what many forward-thinking progressive statists see in their dreams. They don’t give a whit about mere business owners and their parking concerns…”

“My questions:

1. What happens if parking revenues fall short of expectations?

2. What is the proposed parking fee structure for the new garage?

These are very important questions and I will explain why. For the first one, the answer is pretty obvious. The Village taxpayers will be on the hook for it as the construction bond cannot be reneged on just because you hoped there would be enough revenue. The second one will absolutely dictate the success or failure of the entire project. Any fee structure that is more than street parking will completely disincentivize most people from using the garage. They will circle the blocks until a street space frees up, or they will go somewhere else to eat/shop. As I’ve stated before, this garage will represent the parking location of absolute last resort, and I predict it will be viewed in years to come as one of those “what were they thinking” buildings.”

From the Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce :

PARKING GARAGE

We invite everyone to attend next weeks Village of Ridgewood Council Meeting

Wednesday July 15, 2015- 7:30pm, Court Room

The Village of Ridgewood Council will be voting for the future of a parking garage in Ridgewood…

we encourage everyone who knows that the future of Ridgewood’s business district depends on this very important vote-
**needed are 4 yes’s from the Council members**

Please attend the meeting,voice your concerns at the public form and show your support for a parking garage.
It’s been 88 years since Ridgewood’s needed a parking garage…NOW IS THE TIME!
pu
Save our “downtown”!
see you there.

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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

Mayor_theridgewoodblog

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.

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Aronsohn speaks of TRANSPARENCY and CIVILITY. And yet we have NONTRANSPARENCY and INCIVILITY under his reign of terror

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Just watched the 15 minute portion of the video relating to this issue, and…WOW!  https://www.ustream.tv/recorded/60629688

As a 22 year Ridgewood resident I am disgusted by these three and Roberta. Cleaning the leaves is not a measure of good management. VM stated she doesn’t understand civil service so what are we paying her for? The love fest with these three and Roberta has crossed the line and has got to stop. They are uncivil to councilwoman Knudsen and treat her terribly. I am grateful for her decency and hard work. Knudsen should have the full support of Village residents and the three with Roberta should feel the wrath of the people.

What an utter mess our well-meaning and diligent public servants have made, in absolute good faith, with all appropriate due diligence, and deserving of no blame or negative consequences of any kind, with the exception of a nearly unintelligible but unmistakably nasty and inappropriately personal and emotion-laden tongue-lashing of Ms. Knudsen by Ms. Hauck! (/s)

This is a perfect example of how abruptly the rules of civility will be tossed out the window when the righteous scorn is to be delivered by one of the Three Amigos to a non-Amigo.

After you listen to Susan – and to Gwenn’s idiotic response……then slide ahead on the UStream to public comments and listen to Boyd’s comments at 1:24:34. He very emphatically ripped into them. And then our mayor had the audacity to attack Boyd (which he quickly backed off on) and then Paul went on to attack Susan during Boyd’s comments. Wow, Susan really struck paydirt and the dirty secrets are being revealed. THANK YOU SUSAN

I saw it live last night. Hauck sounded like a rude child who got caught doing something they shouldn’t have been doing. He Hauck, did you miss the point of the entire discussion; certainly seems like it. I love it when Susan says “well, just let me address that” repeatedly. And then when Roberta says “well. I hate to do this to you Susan” and then throws out a nothing-burger and Susan shoots her down with a solid response. . PRICELESS.

Susan comes to the meeting well informed and well prepared. I agree she is articulate and assertive in a polite and meaningful fashion.

And Boyd, you keep doing Boyd.

Last week Councilman Pucciarelli told Councilwoman Knudsen that “It’s not always about you” and “Don’t flatter yourself.” I look forward to hearing how this was civility at its best. In fact, that was a rude, condescending, contemptuous way to speak to anyone, much less a fellow council member on the dais during a council meeting. That arrogant, narcissistic misogynist MUST GO if he is so foolish as to run for reelection to the Village Council next spring. His outbursts are pointless, counterproductive, ego driven, and embarrassing both to him personally and to our Village government.

Here is an ironic twist. Aronsohn speaks of TRANSPARENCY and CIVILITY until the words have lost their meaning. And yet we have NONTRANSPARENCY and INCIVILITY under his reign of terror. Knudsen and Sedon are doing their level best to restore transparency and civility – but until we get rid of Aronsohn that won’t happen.

MAYOR’S OFFICE HOURS FOR RESIDENTS -Saturday, April 4 from 9 AM to Noon

Mayor Paul Aronsohn holds office hours for Ridgewood residents the first Saturday of every month. Mayor Aronsohn will meet with residents on Saturday, April 4 from 9AM to Noon in the Council Chambers (Sydney V. Stoldt, Jr. Court Room) on the fourth floor of Ridgewood Village Hall.

For an appointment to meet with the Mayor, please call the Village Clerk’s Office at 201-670-5500 ext. 206. You may come to the Mayor’s office hours without an appointment, but those with appointments will be given priority.

Civility Forum – May 11th at 7:30PM

The next Civility Forum will be held at 7:30pm in the Senior Lounge at Village Hall.

Rev. Jan Phillips will lead the discussion. Everyone is welcome to attend.

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Reader says The Mayor and his team have a major credibility problem

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Reader says The Mayor and his team have a major credibility problem

The Mayor and his team have a major credibility problem. Regardless of whatever accomplishments they tout from now until the next election, they cannot escape their past and ongoing mishandling of Village matters. They are arrogant and vindictive and even when they try to hold laughable forums on civility, they inadvertently violate the Sunshine Laws. They’ve been caught in secret meetings developers, they have been caught accepting free tickets to fundraisers, they have publicly humiliated both their political adversaries and any resident that has dared to voice a contrary opinion. None of them has the guts to address any of these particular issues publicly yet they all seem to post here anonymously to advance their personal agendas to try to defend the indefensible.

It’s unfortunate that our town’s elected leadership acts the way these 3 have. At this point, anything that any of them proposes should rightfully be looked at skeptically as none them can be taken at their word. Both individually and as a trio, this group bas failed miserably at gaining the public trust.

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Reader says The Village Council and the Planning Board need to step up and make decisions that are in the best interest of a vibrant and healthy village.

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file photo Boyd Loving

Reader says The Village Council and the Planning Board need to step up and make decisions that are in the best interest of a vibrant and healthy village.
The Citizens For a Better Ridgewood (CBR) website states that the group:

-Favors economic growth for our downtown
-Favors new housing that is appropriate in scale
-Favors new housing designated for empty nesters and special needs residents, where there is an established need
-Favors new parking solutions that support commerce
-Favors more open space and athletic fields for our youth sports

Hotwire US

That all sounds good. But, their public actions suggest different agendas, at least for some of the founders. Specifically, they have opposed ALL new multi-family housing projects in Ridgewood, regardless of “scale”. Clearly, we don’t need all three of the proposed developments in town. But, it is also clear that one or two of the proposed housing projects would benefit economic growth in the CBD and would help advance the parking solution in town. It is also clear that the most desirable projects would be those that are moderate in overall size, with high-end units that cater to young professional couples or empty nesters, who wish to downsize. Such projects would have less impact on our infrastructure and schools than when families with children move into existing homes in Ridgewood as empty nesters leave town each year, when their children graduate from RHS.

So, why doesn’t the CBR come out and publicly endorse one of the proposed projects? Or, if they support a specific project, but would like to see minor modifications, why don’t they tell us which project and what modifications they recommend?

The reason is that they don’t really want ANY new multi-family housing! Why? Two reasons… which the Ridgewood News has been remiss in reporting and the CBR has failed to disclose.

1) Amy Bourque is one of the founders of the CBR and is its most vocal advocate. Her family is the long-standing owner an existing multi-family housing development that would be most adversely impacted by ANY new multi-family housing in Ridgewood. This is a major conflict of interest that she should have disclosed long ago. Her failure to do so openly raises serious questions about her motivations.

2) Several CBR supporters have repeatedly and publicly expressed concern that new multi-family housing will attract more foreign families to Ridgewood, who wish to take advantage of our school system for a few years, potentially with an inappropriate number of family members or more than one family in a single unit. This concern was clearly expressed at a recent public meeting. However, the press inexplicably glossed over the comment.

The debate over multi-family housing projects has gone on for far too long in Ridgewood. We need SOMETHING. The Village Council and the Planning Board need to step up and make decisions that are in the best interest of a vibrant and healthy village. Perhaps a little honesty from those who have been stalling the debate out would help residents understand the CBR’s real motivations and allow the Village to move forward.