“This $15/hr, more than anything else going on, will break our CBD permanently. Our CBD businesses are all getting by on thin margins now: restaurants & retail. Now the state will reduce those margins even more. Look for more empty storefronts. The No-Math crowd behind $15 in the village [Library/Hospital Cabal, Apartments, Garage] are also Murphy Voters. So as all the new parking [proven that we don’t need] comes online and the $20m bill comes due this year, there will be fewer businesses to pull shoppers who will pay to park to pay the loan. How do you imagine that it will be paid for [hint: your highest-in-the-area property taxes/fees are going up, Way Up]. Also, as businesses shorten hours to cover the artificially forced higher cost of labor, less need for employee-only parking as there be fewer people working in the CBD. All these facts were known before Ramon/Jeff/Bernie pushed the garage and the Library Glamificiation. None of this is all that hard to understand unless you are a Socialist like a Murphy voter or our VC.”
Listen I wouldn’t worry about the minimum raise going up a dollar. That is not going to break the CBD. People in the end the CBD is a great little village to take your family walk around and have breakfast lunch or dinner a snack movie have a drink shop or just hang out and have ice cream and a cuppa coffee. It’s a safe place for your family. I like taking my family to a clean place I’m sure you do too. What I want to see something more for the kids yes maybe an indoor arcade or something like that would be pretty cool. Like the old time is always said this village of Ridgewood you can be born in this town and actually never leave it think about it. You can be born at Valley Hospital work and live eat and shop pretty much do all your shopping and living in one town and die here too, I’ve talking to many elderly people And some that never ever even drove a car and was born and raised in this town and never really had to leave which is pretty cool too. Is it turning to be a little city yes.
If all you seek is to earn in minimum wage. You will succeed.
Ramon, Susan, Mike, Bernie and Jeff all voted for the garage.
Current council voted for garage but smaller version after previous council committed us to having a garage, pointing to the larger version. But by that point the Village was already committed to a garage.
To me bigger issue is lack of forward thinking based on our reality with a political agenda behind it. Since 9/11 steadily less high earning lower Manhattan jobs, yet we still act like the the high wage earning, happy to pay high home price gravy train will go on forever. Sadly (in my opinion) less interest in social eating out and more in “GrubHub” eat at home scenario. So put together higher minimum wage for restaurant workers, less likely need for restaurant workers, higher parking costs, demands by some for more taxes on CBD, only Illinois having more residents wanting to move away than move in than NJ, more shopping via online – none of this is a good trend for a small town focused on a CBD with high cost housing.