March 24,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, at the Village Council meeting the Financial Advisory Committee seemed to be caught with”alternative facts” .
The FAC presented a report still talking about a 350-space garage, which is no longer on the table. This sunk their entire report and made it’s over zealous estimates flawed from the git-go.
The next problem was the allocation tables that would have to change since more personnel resources would be expended toward managing the garage, so any surplus from the parking authority would most likely be less.
And finally, the $500,000 surplus that they seemed to think would be an annual surplus was a one-time amount, in large part because of insurance payment for the pilfered quarters; there was no evidence given that this surplus would ever reach this level again.
The FAC did not have the FACTS so their report was a complete waste of time.
As someone who is on the fence about the garage to begin with – the FAC presentation did nothing to convince me this is what the town needs. How can the council and residents get an accurate idea of the financial impact of the garage if the numbers are not even accurate for the current proposal. This presentation, while well-intentioned, was a waste of time for all involved.
Propaganda is never a waste of time.
I had to laugh when I heard everyone was in favor of the garage.
Sounded like the settled science of global warming.
Why don’t we try a little experiment. Raise the meter rates for 6 months and gauge the reaction.
We could use the extra money to pay back what we spent on all of the consultant reports.
There is nothing like a little dose of reality for the parkers and the merchants.
They also want to double parking rates in the main downtown area and increase the hours to 9pm.
The restaurants killed that idea a few years ago. The financing on this appears to be DOA.
6.19.. We continue to flounder like fish out of water..thrashing about to the left and right as elected official and experts on the clock tell us how we should feel about the solutions to Amazon home deliveries every minute of the day .we don’t need more bricks and mortar garages for peak loading to keep the restaurants afloat for out of towners ..the locals have figured it out..we park on the ajoining streets around the district and walk in and enjoy the exercise and window shopping..really Ridgewood get a grip .the garage is DOA.We had a formal Vote and the taxpayers declined this BOONDOGGLE AND NEIGHBORHOOD Wrecker.