photos taken : Sunday June 11 , 1230p , 81 degrees
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, back in January Mayor Paul Vagianos immediately acted with the council’s support to reintroduce outdoor dining corrals and pedestrian plazas to the central business district.
The decision was made to have a Pedestrian Plaza, where streets are closed to vehicular traffic from Walnut Street to Broad Street, along East Ridgewood Avenue on Saturdays and Sundays from June 3 – October 9, 2023.
Objections and issues brought up by merchants were ignored and Village Central Business District was promised a new era of prosperity after all it worked out so well when Hackensack tried it 30 years ago .
Input primarily came from people who clearly never shop in the central business district , don’t own a business and garner their opinions from the NY Times.
While the Village is in its second weekend the buzz in town is that it’s just not working out as expected (surprise, surprise ). Despite a huge push of social media advertising the streets appear empty . This coming in spite of the music and entertainment in Memorial Park at Van Neste Square on Saturday and Sunday nights , that was billed to be “culturally themed”, (whatever that means)and there will be special activities for children(no word yet on drag shows) .
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People do not want to eat outdoors in the summer heat and humidity. Nor do they want to stroll about on unshaded East Ridgewood Ave. Now that the COVID crisis is over, there is no need for this.
CORRECT.
This only exists in the minds of liberals imagining a (false) Utopia that OTHERS will live in, because they “know better” and want to impose their (superior) will on the little people who they believe will be forever grateful.
Meanwhile, they jet off to their summer houses and would never set foot in this ridiculous “pedestrian plaza”
…was there Sunday late aft. Ghost town. Town was hopping by StarBucks, Daily Treat etc
Whether one wants it or doesn’t want it, psychology, all the signage is negative “(detour)” and road block fences make it look like “DoNotEnter” “Go Away”.
Closing off Rwd Ave only works for the Car Show and Christmas Tree Lighting. Otherwise is just looks ugly and is NOT inviting at all. There should be flowers, plants at an entranceway saying “WELCOME”
This is not the Ridgewood I’ve known for 69 years, that drew the world to it’s doors.
Haha. Signage “negative”
I am liberal politically and think this is a stupid, self-serving mistake. Please don’t paint everyone with a broad brush.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Don’t blind yourself to the fact that liberals are destructive idiots who do not understand how the world actually works.
The Mayor and his henchmen will offer many excuses as to why the first 2 weeks of the plaza’s opening bombed. Just you wait and see.
See also Ginormous Garage Failure.
I guess Siobhan was wrong. Crowds did not materialize to see and use the new trash cans.
You win best comment !
Nope. Not too soon. As soon a school ends, participation will plummet as people head to vacation homes, camps, etc.
It’s been great.
My family and I did go out to eat Friday night and it was not busy at all. Mc Murphy s had a real good band, that was the only place that had a crowd.
Is that the place that had the Gay celebration?
The book store is not in the pedestrian plaza. Sunday is strictly for King Vagianos and his gyro business
I understand.
We were there yesterday afternoon. It was a beautiful afternoon. The pedestrian plaza was a ghost town. We are at the Daily Trear, which was doing a brisk business
The pedestrian plaza is designed to benefit Its Greek To Me. Plain and simple. The mayor is unabashedly selfish.
Not even that…. it’s just a power play to see how far he can push his will upon others.
Yup, plain and simple.
Drop it to once a month, or once every three weeks, Make it a “special” event. Merchants don’t like it and the majority of residents couldn’t care less. So by those measures alone, Ridgewood should act accordingly….
Drop it to Zero times a month.
I was am in town every weekend and Ridgewood was doing great. Many people out, this is fake news.
really were do you shop, eat or go ????
Thanks Paul !!
This is not fake news. Many people are commenting that it was empty.
My wife, daughter and I were all in town both days. Saturday was very busy and there were a lot of people in town for dinners. We are from Ridgewood and have been our entire lives. So we will agree it disagree. We think is was great and has been a great idea. Also, we fail to see any negatives.
All the “regular” busy restaurants were busy at dinnertime – as the usually are.
Nobody was walking around “the plaza”
There were not additional people coming to visit the plaza .
It was just business as usual.
No need to close off the street to traffic.
the only people shopping in Ridgewood are out of towners , the pedestrian plaza makes it more difficult to get into town
yes and if the council had done their homework they would know this
Homework? C’mon James. You’re making it sound like they made a mistake. You know that they know fully well what they’re doing. It supports their agenda and that’s that.
Facebook is not the real world ,way too many a$$kissing dumb-dumbs in town
You win runner-up for best comment
I was trying to deliver a package to the UPS store on Saturday. What usually takes 10 mins from parking to dropping the package and back in the car again turned into a 45 min nightmare. The traffic around the area was insane. If PV wants to make this town the center of food industry in Bergen county then he is on the right path. In the process he will benefit a lot. Pedestrian plaza only serves out of towners and the usual woke crowd who are always on the lookout for something to destroy and have deep pockets to support these initiatives. Meanwhile a middle class family like mine who wants a normal town with convenience and peace and quiet, will stay away from it until “normality” returns in September.
P.S: It is disgusting that a rainbow flag flies above the national flag in the center of town. Not to mention the rainbow street markings. The crowd that support this stuff has gone schizophrenic.
I went to the dry-cleaner and post office Saturday with no problems so I don’t agree with you (except for the rainbow flag should not be government sponsored).
An important point. The US flag must be at the top. This is not optional or negotiable.
“. . . the U.S. flag must be placed higher than the other flags, unless other national flags are present. In that case the U.S. flag would be the same height.”
https://www.army.mil/article/236927/dos_and_donts_for_displaying_old_glory
(c) No other flag or pennant should be placed above or, if on the same level, to the right of the flag of the United States of America, except during church services conducted by naval chaplains at sea, when the church pennant may be flown above the flag during church services for the personnel of the Navy.
(f) When flags of States, cities, or localities, or pennants of societies are flown on the same halyard with the flag of the United States, the latter should always be at the peak.
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2011-title4/html/USCODE-2011-title4-chap1.htm
Please fix this, Mayor.
He won’t. That is his buddy Saracenos building
Saraceno should know better and should reverse the order of the flags asap if it is true. We still have half of Pride Month left. Let’s do it right. It is sufficient honor for any flag to be hung alongside Old Glory.
The traffic was insane…..but the plaza is a failure ’cause no one was there.
Never underestimate the power of stupid, angry people to believe two contradictory statements.
I am shocked I tell you shocked. I cannot believe that the pedestrian plaza was not overflowing with people who were dying to see the new garbage cans.
It’s not to soon to call it a failure, it’s an EPIC Failure.. For a town that can’t fix safety issues, repair roads, fix sidewalks yet can spend OT on a pedestrian plaza??? I’ve been there the last two Saturday nights, as another person stated it’s a ghost town. The restaurants are all empty, It’s not helping Ridgewood, it’s hurting and it’s only going to get worse after school lets out next week.
This pompous a$$ Clown and his three stooges, are a joke, and it’s only begun
Haters Gonna Hate
Can someone explain to me how the expenses involved with this are being paid? Are we all subsidizing the Greek restaurant with our tax dollars being spent on this?
Your Tax dollars well spent !
I was in town both days. There were no “crowds” anyone strolling in the street could easy have done so on the sidewalk. If the garage was to alleviate parking then there is no reason to close off the streets. Not worth the hassle and taxpayer expense (e.g. three stones-like statues in police uniforms standing in the same spot for hours) so two restaurants can put two more empty tables in the street.
Stores are closed on Sundays so this is a clear pitch for restaurants and nobody goes from one restaurant to another all afternoon and evening. Give it a rest. What a stupid idea and very off-putting. People come here by car and need to be able to travel through town and park. Meanwhile all adjacent streets get busier with longer waits at the traffic lights. Downtown is also a pass-through from east to west and west to east and there are few ways to get under the train tracks. We have Glen, Franklin, and Broad and that is it. The one place to go over the tracks north of the HHK train station was shut down.
Closing off automobile traffic does not turn macadam into a lovely grassy field. On a hot day it’s just going to be sweltering. Restaurant owners get acres of free table space but I would not eat at a table on the street if you paid me. That part of the pandemic is over. Even sitting on the sidewalk is uncomfortable. It will never be Paris.
Let people go to the UPS store without a hassle or what’s left of downtown will sink even further.
Bite the bullet and admit that this is a failure before it bankrupts us. I would deeply resent paying even one cent of my now-increased tax bill for it.
Another question is why, or in fact whether, the county has allowed this on a county road. Should have denied permission.
The town is done. A lot of empty stores. Rent is too high. I’m not eating out side in the heat. They should wash down the road with hot water and soap. Dirty, use the fire department to clean down the walkways and road.
The street closing is not set up for the disabled. My disabled sister had a Saturday hair appointment. It was impossible to park and too difficult to get to the salon
. She canceled her appointment. Now going to Glen Rock.
I used to patronize a hair salon in town but the parking issues drove me to Glen Rock, where I have happily had my hair snipped for about 12 years. Free parking and no stress about it.
We have been residents of Ridgewood for 46 years. Through the years we walked in town very often, shopped, had lunch and never had an issue with street traffic. This weekend we had occasion to be in town on Sunday afternoon to deliver a guest to the Van Neste bus station. Never in all our years here have we seen a more disruptive and unnecessary re-routing of traffic for absolutely no gain. Really, really sad what’s happening to Ridgewood.
Houston, we are in trouble Mayday Mayday we are having problems,,,, Mayday, mayor and council Mayday back to the drawing board. This operation is not working. anyone out there I guess were alone in this galaxy
My family and I were in town Friday night and we were meeting friends for dinner and it was quite empty, we had a bite, and then we walked over to McMurphy still listening to a band which they were great, the place is packed people are drinking and dancing. Pretty cool . On the way back walking to drop my friends off at the bus station. Because they called in an Uber/taxi. It’s amazing how dark inside and outside all around the bus station is other people that were waiting for their taxi said they felt safer in Penn station. Why is this place so dark. Can’t believe the mayor and council and management doesn’t fix this problem. This is embarrassing, and just ridiculous. The top brass should be embarrassed.
As appealing as it is to sit over an oil stain in the middle of parking space to eat overpriced food, I think I’ll take a hard pass. But at least Vag and company raised taxes 6 percent to pay for us to have that option. Now instead of 20 empty tables It’s Greek to Me can have 40 empty tables. I’ve never witnessed a wiser investment of tax dollars.
If you get word on drag shows, please update. I don’t want to see it and most certainly do not want my kids seeing that either
I thought it was great. Saturday was quite busy and there was plenty of shopping. The stores, other than restaurants and the book store are closed on Sundays
The book store is not in the pedestrian plaza. Sunday is strictly for King Vagianos and his gyro business
I think it made sense during the pandemic, but it really isn’t practical on a regular basis and not everyone wants to park in the garage. I agree with one of the commenters who said it should be a once a month thing, like when they have the car show. Otherwise, it doesn’t really make sense especially on a Sunday when only the restaurants are open.
I think it will pick up once summer hits
Thanks Paul!!
Who is paying for it? The aparetments were requested to participate with a donation. But this is an expensive proposition. Someone should file and OPRA request. Let’s follow that money trail. This hurts the businesses and aggravates a parking problem on 75 Franklin and those who have private lots. No respect for the businesses off Ridgewood ave and no help with parking issues. Sad state of affairs!
Would be wiser and more beneficial to the public if the mayor just blocked of his block with his restaurant for his tables and call it a day. Don’t need to inconvenience the public and neighboring businesses