I absolutely agree. I go to my nail appointment 9:30am, very little is open. But all parking spaces near the shop are taken. And when I go to lunch, ~11:30am, hoping to get a space, same issue. Must be at least some employees in the spaces, maybe more. You don’t see people walking in and out of stores, walking on the streets at these early times. And 2 shop owners have confirmed to me – when I have asked – that the spaces are taken by employees – they see them. Apparently the employees are able to park 3 hours, just like shoppers. Just put money in the meters. It may be legal, but it’s certainly not good for the vibrancy of downtown shopping or the customers.
I marvel at the stupidity of taking spots away from your customers.
Makes me think of the money in the bowl experiment.
Village employees are a little more lazy than the shoppers who always think they should have parking in front of the store or restaurant they are going to.
First world problems.
That is true the parking front of Their own store or if there’s a parking lot The park real close to their front door so stupid instead of parking at the end then you wonder why they don’t have any business
The council has tried really hard to address this problem. Providing designated employee parking for less $$, penalties for repeat parking, etc. Tony The Whiner Damiano is one of many employers who does not push the shopkeepers to send their employees down to Walnut and Cottage to park. 7:47 is right, some of the employees are lazier than the shoppers. And if the employees park on the street, they have to run out to feed (illegally) the meters. If the employees parked in the designated areas on Walnut and Cottage they would not have this problem. I work at a big corporation that has a huge parking lot. It is first-come, first-served. When I park, I often have to walk maybe 5-7 minutes to get to the building. Big deal. People who work in the city walk from the train to the path, from the path to the street, from the street to their office. Everybody does it. Why can’t someone working in a shop in the cbd do it???? Shaking my head.
Waiting for Jeff Voigt to chime in and state how none of this is his fault and it is all the Mayor’s fault.
I think building a Ginormous Garage at the far end of the CBD will solve this problem.
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People will happily walk multiple blocks from the Ginormous Garage to shop even though they are unwilling to walk 1 block to shop under the current parking situation.
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I’m in the CBD every day shopping utilizing all of the local stores and your driver around and you see the same cars parked on the main Avenue and sidestreets. What are they thinking of they want to keep an eye on their car it’s Ridgewood it’s not the Bronx.
Employees from Panico and Country Pancakes (lots of waiters, kitchen staff and hairdressers) use the spots around Ridgewood Ave and Walnut. Every day. Stand around there around 9:45-10:15 and they flick out to feed the meters.
They should park in the lots
4.42. It is worse than the Bronx where I lived for many years. In the Bronx if you pass the 1-2hr limit for parking and then re-feed the meter you get the ticket. 2hr parking means you can’t have your car there for more than 2 hours and you need to move it. Unfortunately this town is unable to enforce this hence the situation. I was driving by Broad St over the weekend looking at all the happy people sitting at the tables of Soku and other places and I was just trying to imagine how would these people feel if they had to enjoy their drinks or meal under the shadow of a 3-4 story garage stinking of urine and garbage. Pave that parking lot, put on a parking system in place with attendants, pave Broad St (and all other streets for that matter) and you have a nice place that would make a lot of people happy. Why is it so difficult to do this ? Is our village management so incompetent?
Bruce 4:42 is correct..no raised Garage escapes the ills of time ,crime and grime..they are impossible to maintain and are one of the most harmful dangerous creations to any NEIGHBORHOOD environment.No less 4 churches 2 Schools in a 4 block area.VOR we refuse to accept such a harmful structure to that neighborhood,it’s churches,schools ,cafes and apartment and homeowners
Just a thought – Since employees need a permit card (displayed on the dash) to be able to park in the reserved spots in the lots, doesn’t the Village have the license plate of the cars that are supposed to park in the designated spots in the lots?
If they do, can they ticket the offenders?
If the Village does not have that information, should they both have it and use it?
Every employee who parks on the street is effectively taking two parking spots. The one with the vehicle, and one reserved (and thus unused) spot in a parking lot. That does not seem ethical or fair. Neither does it help the downtown parking crunch, indeed, it magnifies the problem.
The Village needs to check the lots to see how many employee spaces go unused, and then reduce the number of reserved spots. That would be simpler and less expensive than trying to enforce a system of no employee parking on the streets.
They might also enforce the “no repeat parking” rules on the street.
We have flogged the tired horse that is the small business ills of their business plans and exactions of second seating ln on peak business volumes ,general growth of their small to medium sized businesses.
Not one business is safe from the risks of completion ,social change,consumer trends and e commerce and Amazon and big box store
massive parking and long hours all of which creates even more competiton..even the big box stores face virtual competiton of Amazon,Walmart,Clothing and other E retailers.
These competitive global issues are not the responsibility of the towns taxpayers to fix with massice cap ex for comuter and shoppers raised garages .Local. shoppers circle the district and park and walk where we can and get out of our cars and get some needed exercise.
no store owners your parking excuses are killing the taxpayers patience and the towns budgets if we build some half pint Garazilla
Amazon and E commerce won’t stop their charge and e should Mill Pave
reconstruct always and install Parking Kiosks in the existing surfed lots.
How long must this debate go on. PS The town businesses do not intend to modify their employees parking habits.lits first come and first serve like everything else in life.ll
Make sure Ridgewood does not turn more corrupt by so called public officials like cops and many other officials..just take a look here what they do here https://twitter.com/MyBrooklyn1