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Central Business District its time for drastic action in the face of new realities

ridgewood idea

April 2,2018

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, well what do you know ,Anthony Damiano‎ from the Ridgewood Guild on the Facebook page ,It Takes a Ridgewood Village

“Just for the record, I am in favor of a garage that fits comfortably on the lot. As for the current parking situation, currently you can find parking on the street because the town is not performing. If the merchants were all doing the business that they should be doing, you would not be able to find street parking. With the closing of Pink Bungalow, we now have over 20 vacancies in town. We have 5 locations that are 3000 feet and larger, most of which have remained vacant for guite a long time. No retail anchors in town because of lack of parking. The majority of cars on the street are employees. I watch them feed the meters all day.”

It appears that Mr. Damiano is reacting to public pressure due to the total lack of participation of local retailers in any attempt to alleviate the parking issue.

The brick and mortar retail environment is hurting due to online shopping. That’s not going to change if we build a garage. While Englewood and Montclair downtowns also have many empty storefronts and so do many local malls with plenty of parking.

Some are suggesting the De blasio approach of a ‘vacancy tax “.

A smaller garage may alleviate some issues when the Village hosts major events like the 4th of July parade ,the car show or even Saturday’s Easter event.  The fact is its time for drastic action in the face of new realities .

Its time for Ridgewood to become a leader once again and get connected, plug in . Every store or restaurant in to must have a vital Ecommerce platform and the Village should blanket the Central business district in Wifi making it as easy as possible for retailers , restaurants  and business to do business off of mobile devices .