the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, when it come to parking its all about the data . Recently the council has once again moved to reconfigure the parking in the Central Business District .
The Council has altered rates, times , who can park where and for how long. Yet with each change comes a whole new set of problems . We went from too much employee parking to not enough, too little commuter parking to too much back to too little then too much again. Every change seems to present itself with a whole new set of issues .
Parking has become an even bigger issue . Its gone from too long, too many , too far, not far enough ,never used ,cant use ,might use and really just don’t care.
The issue is and always has been reliable data . Not the silly ,we are gonna add 350 plus units to down town Ridgewood and its not going to add any new school kids , use water, parking etc… or the even more ridiculous the Valley expansion was going to cure the congestion problems in town. That’s not data ,that’s self promotion by special interest groups and their well paid supporters.
Data is how many commuters use the Ridgewood Train station everyday , How many use the Bus station ? How many employees park in the CBD , how full is street parking at 7am ,9am , 3 pm , 6pm on weekdays and then weekends , By data we mean numbers , raw numbers , real counted numbers ,actual numbers not promotional fantasies by people looking to play Ridgewood taxpayers for fools.
It seems to us despite as some would say there has been a parking problem in Ridgewood for over 100 years , there is sill no reliable data on parking that can be used to craft serious parking solutions.
Absolutely agree.
But weren’t there studies on parking over the last couple of years? Walker study? or am i mixing things up?
Anyway, council memers past and present have always seemed to veer on anecdotal evidence.
When was this picture taken? 5am on a Sunday?
C’mon James – you’ve gotta be kidding !
Our Village leaders have years of tried and true methods to solve problems:
1) If you’re a friend of a Village employee, Council or Board member you either:
A) get to come up with the solution that helps you (Think “Horse farm”), and/or
B) deny there’s a problem and do what you want (think wall in front of the Greek place), and/or
2) If you’re an employee, you:
A) either try bullying people (think Roberta); and/or
B) take what you can get, then say your sorry and keep some of the profits (think Parking meter collector).
Now along comes you, preaching heresy and wanting to use facts to solve a problem! Just think of what would happen to our well-oiled Village methodologies if we used facts and logic?
And to think NJ Transit offered to build a parking garage for us on the Ken Smith land. so sad we did not take that offer
Very good points. But they raise the questions: could it be that this council is totally clueless about how to deal with torn issues? It is strange because our mayor used to be a big shot on wall street if I am not mistaken and was expected to bring his experience to heal our ailing issues. He has looked anything but a problem solver to me but this is is true for all of them. Or maybe my expectations are really high.
Walker study was based on a very limited sample. Go check it out.
I think the Canary in the coal mine is actually the drive-in Starbucks. That one new business has resulted in cones in the street and sometimes a police officer wasting their time in a parking lot across the street looking to ding Villagers for turning in. Where are the studies for that? What’s going to happen to Franklin when both apartment complexes open near the train. More cones?
Studies are partisan nonsense. I can’t believe the VC (and other supporters) fell for it.
Wow Bill, is that true? How mismanaged is this Village? That’s just so sad.
Great Photo
a memorial for those legacy trees yes that had a few branches sheared off by the arbors
however the execution song was calling and they nuked them flat last weekend in a coinboy move to corner the Mini Cooper parking space arbitrage…VC YOUR LAME
Wanna see cones. Look at the the Shell with the new Dunkin on Franklin Tpke. Filled with CONES and arrows. But it is still too dangerous to drive into. The planning board approved that mess.
Nobody is being fooled by the Aronshon fanbaoys who keep posting “anti current council” statements to discredit the current council when they know full well their boy and his team put into motion all of the initiatives that are killing this town.
.
– Change to master plan
– pushing through Ginormous Garage
– etc.
– etc.
.
Anon..HA IF ONLY THAT WERE TRUE
We would not be a such a deep hole from the current hopes and prayers admin..
They had our full support and sold out like the earlier Winning team
Roads are shit…wear that fact