I think this result qualifies as at least a little evidence that residents want a garage. After all, a 2:1 vote of residents expressed explicit approval for a parking garage on exactly the site that is being planned. A much smaller group of people used a technicality on the funding of the garage to veto a particular design, but that certainly doesn’t eliminate this overwhelmingly positive result as the foundation for moving forward.
https://theridgewoodblog.net/ridgewood-voters-back-parking-garage-proposal/
2:1 of the voters that voted. Okay. All I know about piece of local “democracy” is that the Yes voters were the result of mobilization efforts and that, as usual, hardly anyone actually turned out to vote. Local politics. Scammers 1. Unaware Residents 0.
This post is a blatant lie.
Notice the flyer says “parking deck”. If they voted for a parking deck, give them a parking deck. Parking garage? Nobody voted for that.
Again, these comments are great and the council should know about them. Parking decks would be sufficient, one on each end of town. Let the council know. I can’t persuade them by myself.
8:20 the vote FOR the garage had too low a turn-out to be legitimate but the even lower turn-out vote AGAINST the design was fine? Turn-out doesn’t matter if you agree wth the result?
9:02 a lie? What part is a lie? The link to the article about the actual results of an actual vote of actual residents as reported in the Bergen Record? Let’s not forget that the original response was to someone that said “not a shred” of evidence exists that residents want this garage. This looks like more than a shred of compelling evidence that the residents want a garage.
939… theyre grasping at straws. Which means the garage will be built.s
Whether you want a garage or not, we all need to come to the realization that in it’s current state, our taxes in this town are going up (from already ridiculously high levels) and that this council and ones before have failed to do what I think most would agree is their primary job..to be fiscally responsible, municipal managers and not politicians with special interests. The question that i think has failed to be answered is, what benefit, to the residents of Ridgewood does a large parking facility bring? Will it bring more shoppers to town to stave off the inevitable doom of retail (which if you’ve picked up a paper in the last 5 years you’d realize is happening), and in the slim chance it does, how much of a benefit would we as tax payers realize? Does it benefit the current RESIDENTS who commute via train into NY, probably…but then again, what size garage would do the trick? In the new tax regime, local tax rates matter now more then ever..so the days of raising taxes with little to no push back are over. The idea of a multi million dollar spend on a garage, without clearly and concisely outlining the benefits to tax payers, just falling back on the argument that this debate has gone on for 30 years, just baffles my mind. I’m not pro or con the current or prior council, i question the motives behind certain positions by some, which have been clearly outlined in past posts. Unfortunately, special interests in this town have come to the forefront, probably due to the fact that we all have very busy jobs, lives etc (contrary to what a previous councilman thinks), and don’t think we have to actively monitor town councils…lets be clear, their job is to run the town as efficiently as possible, balancing the costs of services and the level of taxation that is optimum to keep the influx of new families coming. This garage, will probably be the tipping point. Ignore, the older aggressive guy at the council meetings who thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room, why do we care about his pontificating about conspiracy theories and constitutional interpretations?? Let’s move on, rid the council of politics and vote in residents who make decisions based on the good of the town FOR THE FUTURE, not the past. This council should not be a stepping stone for wannabe politicians that will sell this town out in hopes of furthering their pathetic attempts at a political career.
No specific garage was ever approved by voters. Again, no garage plan was ever approved.
To those who want a garage: suggest you get NJ transit to take the former Ken Smith property by eminent domain. It was done in Ramsey . Zero cost to Ridgewood residents..
That completely tainted referendum. Geez, it was masterminded by two individuals who now have been charged with ethics violations.
@Silentmajority. I agree on almost every point of your eloquent post BUT how do we identify resident candidates who are not in it for their personal gain??!! Weren’t we fooled by Hache and Voight? They can say one thing while campaigning and do differently when on the chair. Who will keep their feet on fire? People lose faith and become disinterested which is terrible but that’s how it works. If local politicians act in such shameless way one can only imagine how big of a scum you need to be to get to a higher level.
Let’s focus on the facts the village has paid tens of thousands of dollars to gather: do we have enough existing parking inventory to meet demand? The 2015 Walker “HUDSON STREET PARKING GARAGE PRELIMINARY FINANCIAL ANALYSIS” found here: https://mods.ridgewoodnj.net/pdf/manager/2015walkerFinal.pdf is an amazingly comprehensive study of existing village parking. The key findings, on the report pages 15, 16, 17, 19, and appendix page 4 clearly show we do not use the parking we have on weekdays and most importantly, on Saturday nights. On appendix page 4, the bottom table “EXISTING WEEKEND CONDITIONS – PUBLIC” shows 32%, or 194, of the public parking spaces, are available at 7pm.