photo by Charles Bozian
March 31,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Ā Charles Bozian Ā asks ,”This is the “green” space everyone is getting hot and bothered about, the grass around the cement path….. really???”
funny how no one ever said a thing about the portopoty that was station at the train station for over 3 months ?
Hey, those green spaces in the train station parking lot are islands of safety in that crowded , over crowded , small and dangerous parking lot. Hey, you ever go to Farmer’s Market. Hey, I have gone for years. Always crowded , I always use the islands and hey, I not only look both ways before I step off island , but before proceeding to the market, I actually make sure driver’s actually see me. I wave my arms up into the air and make them look me in the eyes and I gesture that I am about to step off the safety island. Drivers are often distracted on their smart phone while driving. And they are always in a big New Joisey hurry. And crabby after having to stay in line to pay for produce.
And hey, on those safety islands are families, kids in strollers. Children walking, the elderly walking slowly. The islands are actually too narrow as is, for the amount of people walking. Hey, you narrow those islands and I will stop going to Farmer’s Market.
I don’t commute but I assume commuters use those islands when they get off train to get to their cars during busy times.
The same people (Mr. & Mrs. Halaby) who are leading the charge about saving that “green space” were HUGE proponents of: 1) clear cutting the Schedler Property, 2) building a MASSIVE parking garage on Hudson Street, 3) allowing The Valley Hospital to DOUBLE IN SIZE on its existing Van Dien Avenue property, and 4) Village Council candidates/members who supported the construction of high density housing throughout Ridgewood’s Central Business District.
This is a “no brainer.”
Cut down the trees, narrow the island, add new spaces, plant new trees.
All for a few commuter parking spaces.The same people that defend making more space are first to complain about global warming. Mayor Knudsen posse is at t again. Instead of talking about the facts they would rather deflect and resort to demonization. If ay former Mayor would have suggest this the Knudsen posse would have been out with knives , pitchforks and petitions .
Deputy Mayor Mike Sedon explained changes in our tree replacement program which includes allowing the village to examine trees on private property and if a tree had a diameter larger than 6 inches, it could not be taken down unless it was deemed diseased, dead or a hazard. Trees that are taken down would need to be replaced by the property owner or 150 dollars paid to the village for a tree planting in another location. The hope is to replenish or depleting shade tree stock with municipal funds, grants and stricter guidelines for property owners.
This is definitely a no-brainer.
It is a parking lot, so anyone walking in it needs to be cautious, period, even if more spaces are added. At Disney World there are a few million parking spaces. Just look where you’re walking.
And as far as the trees go, just get the Council to plant a few elsewhere in town. In an actual green space.
We could use these extra spaces. This is an inexpensive and sensible immediate help. Not a solution, but a help. Thank you Mayor Knudsen.
Love the photo. Makes me want to go sunbathe in such a beautiful spacious and eco-friendly park.
8:05 – Aronsohn and his cronies would never have proposed a cost-effective, easy solution like this. They only proposed a solution that their developer friends could make money off of. Remember Big Al the Developers’ Pal???
Tree in the back is dying.
Add spaces.
Re-do the walk-way.
No grass or trees than need maintenance. Grass gets trampled on when after parking the car, you have to walk on the grass to get to the walkway.
Worse is when there is snow on the grass and I have to walk in the street anyway…
Maple street, Walnut Street, Beech Street (now Cottage place), Linwood Avenue…where are the trees that gave these streets their names? Only Oak Street still lives up to the hype.
Who is funding this proposal? Take the Halaby’s out of the equation and ask yourself if this is the right thing to do. Don’t be for this initiative just because you despise Rurick. Personally, I don’t want to pay for this and I would hate to see the green space, trees and walkway go away. People all over the world find other means of transportation. Walk, bike, carpool, etc…… Why must we constantly be catering to cars, traffic, congestion in this town? Leave your keys at home and walk or bike to the station! There is no other word for it except being LAZY.
8.13AM. I love Sedon’s idea. I feel terrible whenever I see someone take a tree down or when sidewalk trees are maimed or cut by PSEG or someone else. In my opinion there should be an ordinance that prohibits owners from cutting trees bigger than a certain size unless village approves it. In my only 2 years living in Ridgewood I have seen so many large, old trees taken down even when looking perfectly healthy.
10.54AM. 100% with you on this.
@1:12 – A neighboring town did pass such an ordinance. Then one tree – that the town did not allow to be cut – fell on the owner’s house during a storm. He showed up with the stump at the next town meeting and demanded that the town pay him for damages by the fallen tree.
Are you willing to set up a fund to pay such damages eventually?
This town has gone nuts.
This is such an obvious, common sense and zero impact solution to a problem but the loons (most of whom probably never use the parking lot and never will) have to protest.
Another strike against the desirability of living in Ridgewood…
Halaby et al do not favor any parking solutions except the garage, promised by AP and PA to the developers so that they could legally provide less parking on their own apartment properties. Resolve the parking situation in other ways and the (unwanted, unneeded, solution-less) garage goes away. We can’t have that!!!!!!!1
Let them park at cottage in all those empty employee only spots
Towns gone nuts leave the train island alone ..talk about grasping at straws
This is about money folks cold cash on 10 more spots at next years 1250
Increased VIP spot..little people..let them walk carefully while town casts crumbs their way during sucker parades..town management is rambling
From one sacred cow to the next…pave cottage and walnuts and the Hudson.lots…or give more lawsuit money to the lawyers and lawsuits..they are all dark dangerous minefields.Trees have earned their keep.
The train station parking lot does not exist for the farmers market. Maybe the market should move somewhere safer.
There has to be a place with better flow for the market. Maybe the “horse farm” or one of the elementary schools. Or Van Neste park.
9:29. Short description work order : demo current lot greenery and safety zone.elders,children or disabled too bad..there progress to be imagined here..money on the table for the town to squander and bulldoze with.
Summary
Pave over the open wound.Invoice VIP spots users excessively.Attend to expected lawsuits by pedestrians.Lawyers await the bounty.what crap..get a grip town leaders..fix the roads ..this decade? ..management..not so easy to build something and protect it from the tear down solution teams.
The big renovation already made the station accessible.
I doubt that the grass strip was a big part of the accessibility modification. Releive the commuter parking problem.
I don’t even use the train and I can see how this is a simple and relatively inexpensive solution.
How would the village be liable for injuries done by motorists to pedestrians if the parking lot expansion was properly designed?
7.29 removal of a perfectly useable and tested pedestrian zone to a smaller footprint..
7.23 great to hear not train user perspectives..but let’s listen the actual users of the access and egress to and from the lot and those who bought the various levels of commuter parking passes..they are in and entering and exiting the. lots every day..Winter darkness presents an even more
difficult challenge to drivers and family pick ups at the main side of the parking Lot.everyone is queuing up and turning into that same straight lane,commuters dashing to own parked cars backing out into the long line of cars awaiting the use of the forced right turn into the square..more cars in that lane on the median side adds to the chaos of backing up cars during rush hours.Bikes and commuters on foot and the cars in lanes awaiting just in time pickups/ubers etc.we need to resist the effort to add more spots as the net gain of 10 to 15 top tier spots 1000 plus is not worth the safety impact. There will be expensive studies and experts spending
townsfolk money.Pave cottage walnut and Hudson ..yes Hudson lots now .
The crowd who loves high-density CBD housing, massive hospital expansions, and giant money losing garages hate adding more parking to the train station and CBD in a simple and low-cost manner. Why? Because supporting simple, low-cost, low-impact, high-ROI programs undermines their entire narrative of over-developing. Is Sears failing from a lack of parking? Is Englewood, NJ struggling with store-front retail due to a lack of parking? We have the parking, the very well done Walker and Maser reports show we don’t use what we have. Why don’t we try maximizing all the space we have already dedicated to parking first, then think about building. The garages all lose money even while requiring huge fee increases and are really subsidies for the local developer and a couple land owners in the CBD.
the “crowd” ?… there were many supporters of the garage and high density housing who were totally opposed to the ridiculous Valley “renewal” (and not nimbys either) and don’t think the parking at the train station expansion is a good idea. It’s a stop gap measure, not a solution. Not everyone in town is marching in lockstep for the issues the town faces.
Bill M is completely totally accurate!!!
Bill M
Im against the hufson garage and also against cutting into the train green median pls go up there at 6 to 7 pm train discharge and race to escape
Esp if rainy pick ups add more throughput. We need to pave all of the othee surface lots. Paint some white lines on fresh plat blacktop
Look closely at the Photo..leave well enough alone…people walk and wait safely here every hour of the day and night.
@2:30 – Yes and the voices from the past support ALL of them. That is my point, the group that supports them all has a clear agenda of over-development to serve the local developer and the main landowners in the CBD.