photos by Boyd Loving
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, at 6pm every Friday or Saturday night you can find parking anywhere in the Ridgewood CBD. There’s no shortage. There never was. The never-full garage loses at least $750,000 a year according to the village CFO.
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This sounds like he is talking about Ridgewood , “Economists, however, say expectations for inexpensive or free on-street parking create the appearance of scarcity when in fact spots often are plentiful nearby. Drivers prefer to circle the block looking for government-provided curbside parking rather than paying more in a privately owned garage. That adds to congestion.”
Meanwhile, garages are rarely full. A 2012 survey by real-estate firm Colliers International , where has this has been hiding, found downtown parking garages in most major U.S. and Canadian cities have at least 20% vacancy during weekdays and on weekends during special events. Donald Shoup, an urban planner estimates there are between 700 million and 2 billion spaces in the U.S. That equates to between 2½ to seven spots for every registered vehicle. There are no official government statistics.
The real kick in the ass to taxpayers will be the upcoming announcement that the building is no longer financially sustainable as a parking garage, and will be converted to high density, affordable housing instead.
Yet parking is free for the restaurant crowd.
Told ya so! This was an arrogant and perhaps an overly influenced decision that was destined to drain the Villages resources. Child like financial pro forma predictions and elected leaders who made up their minds well before the vote have created again, another white elephant. Shockingly poor decisions made in Village hall and at the voting booth. Well dine Ridgewood. Now pay for our mistakes.
This will hurt the village for a long time. Wow I would never want my name on that platform. They messed up big time. Now what.
Hilarious.
Shocker. I’ve never had trouble finding street parking. Maybe not directly in front of the place I was going, but there’s certainly enough spots around.
Always
The plan is working perfectly. Monthly parking for the apartments
another example of having expert consultants telling us what we want to here…..
Those critics are the same ones who wanted a bigger garage! They forced the council to build one..constant crying because parking was difficult in spite of the fact the businesses would not stop their employees from taking up spaces.
Just criticizing everything.
Who got paid is the question
Follow the money
Why have a parking garage when you can turn it into other known/proven moneymaking sites:
1) Convention center, or,
2) Sports stadium.
Think of the money making opportunities for certain restaurant owners?
That will go in the valley sitt on linwood
Wow, Paul Vagianos should resign if this is true. Let’s start a petition to call for Paul Vagianos resignation.
He advocated for this garage for over 10 years and and is still spending tax payer money on vanity projects in downtown Ridgewood where he owns properties.
He told us that this garage will allow extra revenue from CBD businesses in the form of increased valuation and increasrd taxes. Where is that money.
Paul. It’s time to resign!
Does anyone actually know what buildings the Vag owns and interest in downtown? What is the name of his company? According to tax records, he only owns his house so I am curious what his corporate name is.
A small cadre of five citizens fought against this. They knew this garage would fail. They collected and certified thousands of signatures. There was ALWAYS ample parking. Even Roberta Sonenfrld stated that the Cottage Place lot had spaces at all times. People were simply not willing to walk a couple of blocks to a restaurant. But Aronsohn, Pucciarelli, and Hauck persevered. And now we are left with this. So shameful.
Do you remember when the Bergen county Housing Authority was going to pay you for a garage and they were going to pay to have a built and operated for at least 15 to 20 years and they give it to the village. The village said no. Interesting isn’t it?
I think it was NJ Transit that offered to build a big parking garage at the Ford Ken Smith location and the Village said no thanks. Big mistake.
Follow the money
What is extremely amazing is that I know this has been a losing proposition for a few years now, and yet they still continue to spend money foolishly. Why are we spending big money on SUVs for supervisors to be riding around . Give them an old police car. That’s all we did years ago. Talk about wasting money.
Or we could turn it into a prison for elected malefactors.
Please DO NOT blame Susan. She acquiesced to a reduced size (yet plenty big) only out of concern that a future council might revert to the mondo-rific Aronsohn plan that would literally have occupied a goodly chunk of Hudson Street–yes, the street itself.
For anyone who doesn’t remember who pushed hard hard hard for this white elephant casting shadows over a formerly quiet corner, here’s a hint: he’s the current mayor, pushing-pushing-pushing for other downtown changes from which he clearly stands to benefit financially and from which many downtown stores that he doesn’t happen to own (he owns other buildings as well as his restaurant, by the way) will suffer.
His behavior is an embarrassment to the town and to himself.
Anyone who wished to initiate an ethics complaint or lawsuit might consider starting now.
What else does the Vag own downtown? What is his corporate name?
Even if by some miracle they get it down to 500k yearly losses after 10 years
We are looking at 5 million plus losses
Red Ink .
The Covid blamers are next in line that this could not have been foreseen …
Jesus even the forecasted commuters from other towns to possibly park in garage are largely missing
out of principle, I will never use that garage. I would rather walk 10 blocks than support that monument to arrogance and stupidity.
Why is parking free in the surrounding towns?
Pee Wee makes Biden look competent.
A comment above indicated that “the plan is working perfectly. Monthly parking for the apartments.”
Does anyone actually know how many, if any, apartment occupiers actually rent space in the garage? Seems to be a lot of daily empty spaces if any are actually rented monthly by apartment dwellers.
And they’re not even looking for ways to make money, like indoor flea markets, indoor car shows, indoor motorcycle shows, craft shows, and so on they should hire some kind of party planner, at least try to get some good out of it. This place is a losing proposition. Any financial advisor would tell you if it was a business they got a clean chapter 11 lease or sell the site. no brainer. These people who passed and pushed for this really screwed to town. Just maybe, maybe people will utilize the bulk garage if it was free. Retail is changing people don’t want to spend money for parking. This is not New York City that you’re going to a show. They think people are really gonna drive into Ridgewood pay to park their car go to dinner go to a café, go get ice cream, walk around and window shop. A good majority of the windows are not even well lit it at night. Look at any stores I have closed up I can’t afford the rent. that’s why I look at the majority of the walls turning into housing. Look at the biggest mall in the area in Westchester. Very fancy mall has just closed and they’re tearing that sign into housing. Wake up people.
You know, with all the things that are going on in the village, some find it very amusing, it’s amazing out somethings go full circle. Any, and the mayor council have all the power. Especially anyone in the pyramid of death. Managers, directors, and superintendence. I have no protection and speaking of superintendence there are none anymore in the village. All we have is a manager a few directors no more superintendents , and a few supervisors. Very interesting. Where did all that money go to the village receipt from Covid. They should supply line item list of exactly how much money the village received and where did it all go.
Every time I have to print out a parking pass (the night before ) for the privilege of day parking on the third floor. Only after I obtained my permit (free) in person at town hall. End the Byzantine madness! Simplify the parking fees and restrictions as step one.
I went to Council meetings early when they were planning the garage and said “no one is commuting into NYC five days a week anymore. I work 50% of my time from home. Most people work at least 1 or 2 days from home and this will NOT be a commuter garage. This is a huge mistake.” But they didnt listen to anyone. Paul was pulling the strings even back the.
In my 30+ years here, I have NEVER had a problem finding street parking. Yes, I may have to walk a few blocks but so what . . . I get a little bit of exercise.
Some of us like to know who is in charge of personnel when they’re hiring employees. Because some of them are so damn rude and not that bright we would like to know how did they get hired. Who do they know. Because somethings not right.
“Not that bright”
….says the person with several grammatical errors.
Paul Vagina is a looser.
They should of just repaved the old lot . Stupid ass’s . Mayors, council, management come and go. And at times they screw things up that last a long time.
It’s so much easier going to the surrounding towns to shop and dine.
They all have plenty of free parking. Why should I have to pay for parking to get an ice cream or go to a bank?
Ridgewood should get rid of the street meters
This is the definitive expert on parking. It’s too constantly underpriced. Read his book: The High Cost of Free Parking.
https://www.shoupdogg.com/
Donald Shoup is Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Urban Planning at UCLA. His research has focused on parking, transportation, public finance, and land economics.
In his 2005 book, The High Cost of Free Parking, Shoup recommended that cities should (1) charge fair market prices for curb parking, (2) spend the meter revenue to improve public services in the metered areas, and (3) remove off-street parking requirements. In his 2018 edited book, Parking and the City, Shoup and 45 other academic and practicing planners examined the results where cities have adopted these policies. The successful outcomes show this trio of reforms may be the simplest, cheapest, and fastest way to improve city life, protect the environment, and promote social justice.
Who cares about the hours, the individual is not writing a book. just speaking the fax. Truth Hurts, enjoy.
Can we get someone to clean the village garbage trucks because they stink . We smell them on Oak Street coming from the yard. Ridiculous.
I don’t think I’ll listen to the Urban Planner from California. We could end up with a homeless encampment in the parking deck.
The last great mayor was Mancuso. Everyone after him had no idea what the hell they’re doing. Thank God the blog that the village can’t control it. Like they control in the past the Ridgewood knows, the real estate group, the women’s club, the chamber, conference, sport groups, Board of Education, he burns their ass. Oh well too bad suck it up. I love it when people say we are blaming the restaurant owners for their parking garage, please stop your bullshit. maybe the person who wrote the comment above about removing all the meters in town, maybe, how about try free parking for a weekend to see if that helps lore people in. Listen the villages so far behind with garage. Think about what kind of money they need to pay for it and to maintain it, we would like to know how much money we need every year just to maintain it. Forget about t0 pay for it. You never know. Somebody might just write a check and pay it off never say never.