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.
