HERE WE GO AGAIN - THE PARKING PROBLEM

As I drove through Red Bank yesterday I counted the number of empty stores on Broad Street and West Front Street. I stopped counting at thirteen and had not gone done Monmouth Street or the side streets. The thought crossed my mind that we were going done the same road we went down over twelve years ago when we were “Dead Bank.” The reasons for the stores being empty maybe different then they were years ago but the coming results could be the same.

Many Mom and Pop shops are leaving Red Bank one; because the landlords are charging higher and higher rents and two; high rents only become a major problem when there is not enough business. The major cause for the lack of business is the parking problem. Many people have just given up and trying to get a parking place in town almost at any time. The merchants have given up hope that anything is going to change so they are leaving for other locations.

The parking garage on the White Street Parking lot would have gone a long way to alleviate the business/parking problem for the downtown. However, it was used as a political ploy for turning the residents against the business community. In an article dated October 6, 2005 I wrote:

“The town of Burlington Vermont has a booming economy going right now. It mirrors Red Bank in its downtown development however they have built 4 parking garages around the town which enable people to park, shop, eat and go the various art stores. The residents and business owners are ecstatic over the revues being collected and the tax spin off is keeping property taxes to the private sector from climbing.”

The residents; uninformed, misinformed and new to Red Bank will have to have the painful realization that if the taxes on the commercial properties go down our taxes, the residents’, will go up. That was the case in the early 1990’s and it looks like “here we go again” in that cycle. Red Bank is losing or has lost the momentum that was created by Rivercenter, the town counsel and the mayor over the past 13 years. The voting public will only realize this when tax hikes hit us in a couple of years.