the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, spring is in the air and the Village of Ridgewood is once again looking to set up a pedestrian mall in the Central Business District .Some merchants and restaurants have raised some concerns over inability of patrons to do quick drop off or pick ups at their establishments . The Ridgewood blogs research shows the idea of the pedestrian mall is overwhelmingly popular both with residents and CBD tenants . Mayor Kundsen seems open to resolving the issue and working with both sides in an attempt to make the pedestrian mall an even better success.
However a group of individuals has taken it on themselves to attack anyone who raises any objection to the pedestrian mall idea. This is the same group that pushed turfing fields in flood zones ,building suicide bike lanes , cutting the west side of the CBD off from the east side , supporting high density housing with no regard to the consequences to the Village ie… public safety, traffic, parking, infrastructure, schools ,sewage and water, the same group that pushed eliminating the Ridgewood school budget vote (good luck with property taxes) and on and on.
Clearly anyone would recognize the pedestrian mall presents challenges and opportunities for pick up and delivery , appointments and parking . The silly bogus emails circulating , claiming you will never shop in the Village without the pedestrian mall and straw man arguments claiming some merchants are trying to stop the mall are unhelpful .
The Village of Ridgewood and Central Business District merchants and restaurants need to work out the details in a way that works best for all parties with skin in the game , Walmart shoppers and grant writers need not apply.
Good idea !
Plenty of parking at the White Elephant Garage !!
Yes that’s the only way that they are going to fill up that white elephant. PJ feel free not to print my comment if “White Elephant” is considered racist
Terrible idea. Ugh.
Maybe for part of a Saturday every so often, but not permanently.
If there was a way to enforce aesthetics then I would be all for it. Unfortunately, the dirty orange barricades, the litter, the plastic sheeting and the uneven level of effort put in by the restaurants make it look more like an eyesore than an appetizing place to eat. Just my 2 cents, go ahead and attack me, I can take it
A center mall is a terrific idea. It will bring many more people into the village, especially if restaurants serve outside. On the downside it might also create traffic problems on main roads leading into the village.
And, seriously, where would cars park? On the side streets or would they have to use the garage?
Use the garage. And pay. They should have a clean communities employee work when they do this to control litter.
This is another delusional idea from utopians who do not know how real people think, act and live.
This “pedestrian mall” would be a total fail. It will not bring in any more business – in fact it will likely reduce business since people can’t drive up to the stores/restaurants. It will inconvenience residents by shutting down a major thoroughfare.
Make E. Ridgewood “one Way” to make more space for pedestrians and Franklin “one way” the opposite direction, also giving more space for pedestrians for the summer.
“It will inconvenience residents by shutting down a major thoroughfare.”
This.
Franklin Avenue is a death trap already. Do you remember the priest pedestrian in the crosswalk trying to cross Franklin Avenue at Oak Street who was killed by an impatient woman (who was apparently immune from County prosecution) who admittedly had the green light but became impatient waiting to make the left turn onto Franklin Avenue who punched the accelerator, zoomed around THE LEFT HAND SIDE of the car in front of her which was waiting to do the same thing (but that had appropriately stopped to let the poor priest cross the street) and brutally hit and killed the pedestrian priest in the crosswalk?
Franklin Avenue is in general a rear-end-smashing accident paradise and is threatening to become worse, what with its intersection with Broad Street now becoming a bona fide 4-way intersection with the recent construction of the new apartment building “The Benjamin” and the traffic into and out of The Benjamin’s sizable (hidden) parking lot, and what with its drastic and in close succession up and down slope near Broad Street, and what with all the Woke motorists now in Priuses and other zero-muscle cars powered by thousands of 1.5 volt batteries bundled together in huge boxes who have made a fetish out of stomping on their brakes and stopping their pathetic lady cars dead in traffic on major thoroughfares all over the state, at crucial moments and at 30-35 MPH or more when they clearly have the right of way, for no other reason than to virtue signal and faux-philantropically and lamely give up their right of way up to every Tom, Dick and Harry in their car waiting in a driveway or on a podunk side street who was not looking to receive a generous gift thank you very much, or to every pedestrian on feet yapping with a friend and only just beginning to think about entering the roadway two crosswalks away, or to every squirrel on paws only threatening to dart out into traffic.
Ridgewoid residents who have had enough practice and have learned the right way or ways to accommodate pedestrians in crosswalks (neither being too aggressive and violating the law requiring motorists to yield, nor too rigid with the law or too trigger happy with the brake pedal such that they tend to unnecessarily surprise motorists behind them) and who tend to use Ridgewood Avenue to avoid that chaotic stretch of road on Franklin between Broad and Maple will need Ridgewood to keep Ridgewood Avenue as a automobile throughfare more than ever, and for the next 5-10 years at least until traffic patterns mature, new businesses havd had a chance to grow, old businesses to recover, and we figure out whether our new parking garage was worth the trouble to build and maintain.
The outside shopping is a nice touch we talked about this many years ago. And you know what they should have a ties it and have free parking at the garage for the summer. The mayor council chamber conference, Need to do whatever they can to Bring business and more people Into the shopping areas.
Disaster for every other store except restaurants.
Disaster for restaurants too…
Its going to turn into a giant street party. Great for restaurants terrible for merchants. Be prepared for rockin Ridgewood.
Its going to turn into a giant street party. Great for restaurants terrible for merchants. Be prepared for rockin Ridgewood.
delusional.
Its going to turn into decreased business for stores and restaurants and a hangout for “bike gangs”…