the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, imagine if the village had looked to the future, not the distant past. CBD garage critics brought up these very trends and were ignored. Now, we have a huge money losing parking garage we’ll likely never fill. A garage that loses nearly $1,000,000 a year in the best of times and who knows how much now.
According to the Wall Street Journal: “What would cities do if they didn’t need so many parking spaces?
Architects, urban planners and parking industry experts are now imagining a future in which parking garages like the Hudson Garage in Ridgewood are turned into commercial kitchens, fitness centers and transportation hubs where driverless taxis recharge between trips. Parking structures whose sloping floors make them hard to repurpose would be candidates for the wrecking ball, clearing the way for green spaces or new development.
“We won’t need street parking, we won’t need parking structures that much, and we certainly won’t need below-grade parking structures,” says Andy Cohen, Los Angeles-based co-CEO of Gensler, a global architecture firm.
Mr. Cohen and other experts say the demand for urban parking spaces will plummet in coming years as a result of several trends.”
Agree – we have constantly made decisions about our downtown to benefit the existing businesses rather than the taxpaying citizens the downtown is meant to serve.
Pandemic or not, this was a very poor investment. Based on pre pandemic business, this investment broke even ONLY if one was to ascribe to the most fanciful assumptions.
So who do we hold accountable for this annual drain on our collective resources? I say the Cillage manager.
So now that they spent (wasted) all of this taxpayer money building this albatross of a garage AGAINST vehement opposition from the residents, they want to spend EVEN MORE taxpayer money on another folly to “correct” their self inflicted mistake?
Was Foretold over and over By this Ridgewood Blog and individual in real time as they were signing build-out multi million obligations.
And no this is not Covid related
Outside of train targetted out of towners the VC HOPED TO CAPTURE
I’d vote for a pocket park. Kids in the new apts. will need places to play. Better than having them in the streets or sidewalks. Park in center of town not enough.
Time to sell the parking garage now.
We wonder what that land is worth .
put Healthbarn there