Ridgewood and other suburbs survive due to their proximity to a major city. Without that income coming back those suburds quickly wither.
RW has done everything it can to force Wall Street and other high paying commuters to find a different town. From ridiculous parking fees and non availability for residents to awful traffic congestion when a train comes in. Does anyone believe that this town survives without NYC workers living here ?
Come spring we are out. We will avoid large NJ state taxes, a expensive commute that just keeps getting worse, and gain back some time.
Do the math. 40k in property taxes, 2500 annual to park, 7-11% state income tax, and almost 4000 annual for NJ transit
Good luck as you lose more NYC workers
This Strikes the forged metal of the Ridgewood VC nanny
state. Parking fees increases and all the other mismanagement outrageous projects . take a walk up small narrow Hudson Street. Proponents of this massive
non confirming raised Garage ( please don’t play the we make Garazilla into a junior size card ) So many of us have
completed kids in VOR SCHOOLS phase . This VC IS Completely deaf to the Taxpapers ..retaurants all upgrading their street signage…Montclair ..Morristown here we go . the land of the parking garages…slums all.
The Midtown Direct train ride through certain Essex County towns straight into Penn Station (34th street) in Manhattan remains the gold standard for NJ residents. It’s tough for Ridgewood to compete with that, even though we do enjoy the most convenient (i.e., combination of short and frequent trips from one train station) train service yo and from the Secaucus Transfer station of any town in Bergen County. Now that the inbound Lincoln Tunnel has been hobbled due to desperately needed road work, the permanent lane shutdown from this road work creates an unavoidable bottleneck that hurts the efficiency of the many Coach USA buses that carry commuters from the Ridgewood Park-n-Ride to Port Authority Bus Terminal (42nd street) in NYC midtown. Hopefully that road work will be completed soon. Also hopefully, all of the West Bergen, Weehawken, Hoboken and Secaucus mayors are very polite to Governor Murphey and his political enforcers during this period of cross-Hudson traffic “difficulties”. Or is that just a republican problem (LOL).
495 repairs 21/2 years
funny when a guy is complaining about the cost of the annual parking pass but says he is leaving town in spring. why would you even be looking at the cost of the annual pass?
Down the left side, why does this post say “Posted in 2016”? Is it an oldie but goodie?
So where to? Manhattan.?. It is absurdly worse . Westchester? Greenwich.? Ha
495 repairs 21/2 years
James is right sadly that is a life sentence served on a hot dirty bus or packed train…Golden Days are long gone….
people will move ….technology has changed the employment markets….more and more people function
from home offices in cheaper states…NY NJ TRAINS and buses used to be an asset for employers and families
You dinosaurs that continue to commute into the city are a classic example of what the problem is. Wtf would you put yourself through that? If you still work for a company that’s in the city that does not give you any options why do you still work there?
Ah, that’s right ….all the money.
Good luck with that
The cost of parking at the train station for residents is now 11.00 a day, 55 a week, 220 a month. That is not the cost of an annual parking pass just what you pay now as a resident. Almost double other towns. Also almost impossible for a resident to get a spot after 7am as out of town permits are also sold with no preference for residents. Traffic in the area is just awful getting in and out of the station with no easy pickup or discharge
Finally no overnight parking so god forbid you work at night or decide to stay in NYC for the night.
The change in Secaucus to get to midtown is ridiculous. RW has lost its role as a easy commuter station. Residents are neglected, trains are unreliable, the buses are problematic, parking is expensive, and village/school/ state taxes are a mess. Does anyone see this getting better or plans to address.
Where to go? Great question. But with kids out of schools, 35k in taxes, terrible and expense commute, 110k school budget with declining rankings and property values declining maybe the question is how soon to go ?
When many of my neighbors can appeal their taxes every year due to declining values is that a good indicator of our future values?
A lot of people have written a variation on this same note in the past and a lot of us will write it in the future…..life goes on.
Developers bought votes by offering reduced rents to some residents , gee lets see if you can guess