There is one set of parking spots that is always unfilled – unfortunately, those reliably empty spots are all in the designated employee parking section of the Cottage lot.
Walk by and look for yourself. Often the majority of the employee spots are empty. The Village needs to act on this, reducing the employee spots to more closely reflect actual usage by employees. A close examination will reveal that some of those spots are being used by non-employees willing to risk the ticket given the difficulty of finding parking spaces during certain times.
Is it possible that the Village has intentionally maintained the excess employee capacity for the purpose of increased revenue from tickets, since the income from a ticket for one spot greatly exceeds the income from quarters for parking in the same spot?
I now visit downtown Ridgewood less than any time in the past 25 years, based on the unreliable availability of parking. Glen Rock, Wyckoff, Waldwick, Washington Township and Ho-Ho-kus now receive more of my business even though I still live in Ridgewood. I suspect that I am not the only resident to decrease usage of the CBD based on parking issues. The planned addition of high density housing will not make that situation any better, to say the least.
In my 25 years in the Village, Ridgewood has wasted money on repeated studies on how to fix the parking situation without acting on the recommendations in any effective way.
Ridgewood’s CBD has long been a selling point for living in Ridgewood, but the attraction has been decreasing lately.