the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Business owners, members of the Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce and Ridgewood Guild met Wednesday morning in an effort to unlock the key to jump start the central business district .
I love Wing Bikes. Use my referral link to get a discount now! http://wingbikes.refr.cc/
The attendees were treated to what one Ridgewood business owner called the, “Jeanne Johnson and Tony Damiano show “.
Jeanne Johnson is the brain behind the “suicide bike lane ” which is not only a public safety hazard it restricts accesses to the central business district and backing traffic up to Godwin Avenue in Midland Park .
Tony Damiano is the Ridgewood Guild Executive Director.
The Featured speaker was Joe Getz, the president of retail consulting firm JGSC Group. JGSC works with cities and towns, improvement districts, urban enterprise zones, and anchor institutions to create vibrant communities, stimulate economic growth, and build stronger organizations.
We have no information as to whether any central business district owners were allowed to speak .
Over the years the Ridgewood blog has followed carefully the ups and downs of the central business district and we have come to two conclusions :
- The Village Central Business district needs more destination shoppes , not mall type stores .
- It’s the congestion getting in and out of town , not the parking that’s the issue .
- Parking fees are way too high and Ridgewood Parking Authority is ticket happy making the town look shady .
Tell your story #TheRidgewoodblog , #Indpendentnews #information #advertise #guestpost #affiliatemarketing ,#NorthJersey #NJ , #News #localnews #bergencounty #nj #sponsoredpost #SponsoredContent #contentplacement #guestposts #linkplacement Email: Onlyonesmallvoice@gmail.com
1. The parking fees are still not high enough to pay for the garage.
2. The parking enforcement is not a problem if you pay for your parking.
3. Does Mr. Damiano still occupy a parking space in front of his store?
Unnecessary garage. There, I fixed it.
I agree that bike lane are very dangerous. They create multiple pinch points where cyclists and drivers can easily collide with left hooks, right hooks and door incursions happen when foolish designers allow parking and situate the bike lane parallel to the parking. Regardless, the solution is to create shared lanes with Sh-arrows that remind drivers when the lane is shared. Low speed sections of town when cars need to be at low speed anyway are ideal for this. However, cyclists will have to obey all traffic laws which means they have to ride with traffic and cannot pass illegally. Greenways provide more rapid means for cyclists to get from point A to point B but urban riding with cars is easily done. Check out Cycling Savy.
https://cyclingsavvy.org/
Now as far as parking in town goes it’s been that way since I was a kid…that is police being tough on parking violations!!
The police don’t write any meter/kiosk tickets anymore. Only the parking authority.
The parking garage from hell.
We knew the garage was a folly when it was proposed.
We LOUDLY protested against the Ginormous Garage.
We stated that it would be EMPTY and UNPROFITABLE and a DRAIN on Village Resources.
We had FACTS and presented them.
We were told we were wrong.
We were right.
Parking fees to shop are off the charts. Just ridiculous. The stores in town….how many barber shops can u squeeze into the cbd.
How many barber shops? How about restaurants? One or several short-term patrons in each barber shop vs. DOZENS of long-seated patrons in each of the DOZENS on restaurants.
From broad street to maple ave there are 5 barber shops…cross over the train tracks and 2 more. 7 barber shops within a mile.
Don’t 2 and 3 contradict each other?
I expect Jeanne Johnson will be our next mayor, while she isn’t elected, she thinks she runs the town and now has three puppets on council.
There is a discussion on the “Nextdoor” app about why people don’t go into town . Most of the comments are from people that live out of town . Maybe they could read that and figure it out !
Are you criticizing the long Richwood TRADITION of publicly stating that the CBD is being revitalized (or wondering why it is the way it is) while at the same time making the parking situation more obnoxious?
The fact that other towns have easy parking without meter sharks and pleasant business districts does not apply here, after all….
THIS IS RICHWOOD!
I do all I can to evade the CBD, never mind shop there. The problems are not realistically fixable, and they all relate to restaurants and taxes. The truth be told, there are no traffic solutions short of eliminating some of the commercial real estate and rezoning to residential. That’s ridiculous, and will never happen. There are too many restaurants that pay too many taxes to support the too large Village budget. Commercial properties higher tax rate support and in some ways, subsidize residential taxes . All attempted ‘solutions (i.e. Parking garage, aggressive parking enforcement, etc.) have failed. Restaurants and their large patron count exacerbate the problem to extremes. When The Daily Treat was about the only restaurant option, I never had a parking problem and the Village was buzzing with activity. Rents and taxes were WAY lower. Zoning or ordinance changes to discourage restaurants is the only possible fix – maybe.
I attended the meeting. MANY Ridgewood business owners spoke and were encouraged to speak…and to stay longer than the meeting to express their points of view.
I shop in westwood, glen rock and waldwick. Noticed that westwood is now what ridgewood used to be.
We the people are saying is the next mayor and council in charge will have a Communication report with all village departments. And don’t come back to us with some old fashion regulations rulebook because will throw it out. We the people do not trust a few individuals in Village Hall anymore.
Thanks
Business owners don’t bother with this bs. We just want to run our businesses.
Is there an ordinance against chain stores moving in like J.Crew etc.? Everybody wants a thriving downtown but nobody wants traffic etc. you can’t have it both ways!
Correct, can not be a chain store on Ridgewood ave. That is why talbots is where it is and why stores like the gap and josAbank had to move out fro ridgewood ave location.
The d p w better get the salters set to roll Sunday.
I just put wax on my snowblower and shovel , woo wee . Fun
I hope we get 2 feet ,Right on top of the leaves.