20210617 - CBDAC Minutes

Central Business District Advisory Committee  (CBDAC)

Meeting Notes

Thursday, June 17th, 2021;  Zoom Call: 8:30 – 10:00am

Attendees: Philip Davis, William White, Jeanne Johnson, Capt. Lyons, Philip Davis

Stacey Tsapatsaris,  Kathryn Schmidt

Jordan Kaufman, Anastasia Bamberg, Steve Aspero

Comments on Upcoming events

• Chamber of Commerce car show. 4000K people will come. How can we help make this more successful? Can we put some of the cars in the West Village and add live music to Van Ness square and the west side? How can we engage the people who attend? After the ceremony at 9 pm everyone leaves. Add music. CBDAC should support Joan/Chamber of Commerce to help make it successful. Could groups like Ridgewood Dads and Newcomers be involved? The car show has been viewed as one of the most successful events in the Village. Wilsey square lot might be closed off--this might create buzz.
• RHS reunion weekend is Columbus Day weekend. There will be a bar crawl.  Could some streets be closed? Music would be good.
• Last art installation will go up this weekend. The CEO of Benjamin Moore, who lives in Ridgewood, is going to help get a mural painted in the back parking lot. Also might be able to do this in the train tunnel. Ridgewood Arts Council would be a great organization to help.
• Art Around Town Store on June 26. Will view all sculptures, murals, empty store front art. Will also meet artists. Jeanne needs help.  Sign up on Ridgewood Walks.

Comments on the pedestrian plaza

• How do we generate traffic in town? Pedestrian plaza drives foot traffic. Retailers need to be creative in figuring out how to bring people in. Suggestions were given but mostly not implemented. People view shopping as entertainment.
• People who are walking or riding bikes spend more money because they stop in multiple stores. Summit did pedestrian plaza and found it so successful they want to do it every year. Let’s help retailers be successful.
• How can we measure the success of  the pedestrian plaza going forward?
• Pedestrian plaza is not popular with UPS store. Is there a propensity for downtown visitors to come for more than one errand/experience?

Comments on CBDAC/shaping the future of downtown Ridgewood

• How can we get new people/constituents involved, especially newcomers. There 1500 people in the Ridgewood Newcomers Group, and they vote.
• All stakeholders need a voice-landlords, retailers, residents, PP visitors.
• Capture opinions. We need a professionally designed effort. Jeanne mentioned Getz could help us. Jeanne will investigate the fees.
• What is the image that we want to project from the CDBAC--be inclusive and collaborate.
• Update from Phil-retailer perspective. Events have been successful. Non-restaurant food retailers have been aggressive in driving traffic to stores. Driving traffic into the town is the most important, as well as encouraging residents to visit. Surveys might not be the right metric to measure traffic. We need to be quantitative.
• Changes to mask mandates have gone smoothly.
• Restaurants and retailers have different points of view.

Other comments

• Stacey is now an official CBDAC member as a business owner. There is still an opening for a resident.
• Minutes-changes to May 27-Add Jeanne and Johnson and Stacey are in attendance. Change wording to pedestrian plaza and wayfinding signs.  Minutes will be sent out soon after the meeting as a first draft. Please send any feedback/updates to Anastasia.
• Universal community calendar--this would include all Village events regardless of sponsor/organizer. This would be useful for both organizers as well as residents to know in advance what people are planning. The latter would help for the former.
• Gail has created posters for Welcome to Ridgewood. QR code links to Welcome Back Ridgewood landing page with June events. Also working on a calendar with all known upcoming events. All events are being maintained in a spreadsheet. Let’s prioritize events that are interesting for outside visitors as well as Ridgewood residents.
• Empty storefront improvement ideas. Get Ticktock to bring art to the empty storefronts. The current installation on the Westside will be brought to the Eastside. Would like to do stores at the bottom of Ridgewood Avenue. If stores can't do this Stacey will help. This won’t be a gallery--no one will enter stores.
• Website update. Stacey will meet with Heather tomorrow (6/18) about the real estate forum and with Dylan about the website. Will find out what his interface will be from a content management perspective.
• NJ Transit owns the underpass but the village maintains it.  Could it be fitted with tiles? Easy to upkeep.

submitted by Anastasia Bamberg on 7/7/2021