
The steady erosion of true public parking options in Ridgewood will decrease the number of patrons of Ridgewood businesses.
Go to the lot behind Bookends. The majority of the employee only spaces are either empty or filled with non-employee vehicles. Often every single regular parking spot is filled, which pressures people to risk a ticket by parking in the employee only spaces.
The number of designated employee spaces far exceeds the usage by employees. I have seen this on weekdays, evenings, and on weekends. There are routinely more empty employee parking spaces than spaces in use, which is a massive waste given the perennial parking problems in Ridgewood.
Is the real goal of the valet parking in formerly public spaces and the designated employee spaces revue from tickets?
I have already reduced my usage of downtown Ridgewood because of the parking problems. How much money has the Village wasted on parking studies over the past 20 years without ever acting to add to the available parking? The cost of the studies in that time would have paid for an additional parking structure over an existing lot, which would not have required any of the expensive and litigation prone processes of acquiring additional property.
Mismanagement of the parking situation will hurt the businesses the parking should support. Without those businesses and the taxes they pay, the Village budged would be in dire straits indeed.
The reason employee parking spots seem underutilized is because they are parking in the CBD in spots that should be left open for customers. Until the town figures out how to get owners and employees out of the CBD don’t even begin talking about a taxpayer funded parking deck.
If I can’t find a spot on the street (something which HAS NOT been a problem thus far) I WILL NOT shop in the CBD.
I WILL NOT use the garage.
So keep removing parking spaces to artificially justify a garage and you will just hurt the village.
Employees should be required to have cardboard placards left on the dashboard while they are at work or risk a fine. It would then be easy for police to see whether they had parked in allocated spaces and if not, give them a ticket. Any employee or his or her family member who was using the same car when not working at the local shop could remove the placard.
9:06 Great idea but basically unenforceable . How many times have you seen non-handicapped drivers use handicapped spots? Or driver’s with another’s placard parking and then jogging away from car. (personally witnessed. Young man parks in handicapped spot and then jogs away. Placard is actually a temporary issued to a gal named Sue. Short of the song, how many males are named Sue?)
It would be virtually impossible catching them in an unassigned spot because they would never leave the placard visible.
i go downtown every Saturday night after 8pm for dinner with the wife. In 8 years, I have never NOT found a spot. Ever.
It may take 10 minutes and I may have to walk 2 NYC city blocks – but have NEVER not found a place to park. Why is this an issue again?
It’s getting to be too complicated , just build a decent parking garage already, it’s not like we don’t need it. It’s time to get with the times. If the Village would like to keep a strong business environmental just build a decent parking garage already, it’s not like we don’t need it. It’s time to get with the times. If the Village would like to keep a strong business environment Welp you need parking. Gregg what is known throughout the area to be restaurant alley and almost turning into a tourist destination for the area like it or not. So the village needs to either build a parking garage or utilize other space somewhere in the village and have a shuttle. What may work to is utilize the park-and-ride on Route 17 for Thursday Friday Saturday nights And have a shuttle going back and forth I don’t know give it a try , try something. Because as a store owner at paying big big rent I need to be stay busy to pay my bills and my employees and if there’s no parking or inconvenient parking they will go elsewhere. We are losing a lot of business because of our parking
6:27 – No, we don’t need a parking garage. Plenty of spots. Try walking a block. Would be good for you especially before and after a fatty meal.
If Ridgewood Taxpayer above is correct, and employees are parking in spots for the general public, then we should eliminate the majority of the designated employee spots in the lot behind Bookends.
The main function served by those spots now is ticket writing, since it is almost impossible to find a parking spot in that lot, or on any nearby street on many occasions.
The designation of expensive valet parking will reduce parking spaces for the general public, which in turn will reduce business downtown or result in more “illegal” parking and increased fine revenue and revenue for the valet company.
How does any of that serve the public interest in Ridgewood?
I now spend less time and money in Ridgewood than I did a few years ago, and that trend will continue. Parking has become more difficult in my 20+ years in Ridgewood. Glen Rock, HoHoKus, Waldwick, Wyckoff and other local towns have managed to avoid this degree of parking problem.
The restaurants add nothing to the quality of life in town, and yet we want to change our downtown to suit them, and increase our taxes too. Makes no sense. Let the free market decide which businesses succeed and fail. Lets not continue to foster the growth and expansion of restaurants.