Nyack, Feb 25, Updated 12:15p — The Village of Nyack is closing First Avenue to parking on both sides of the street between Gedney St. and North Franklin St. until further notice due to the snow storm. Also until further notice, no parking tickets will be issued in the village parking lots to the east, west, and the south of Riverspace.

Meters on the following streets have been “bagged” by the Nyack Parking Authority, meaning no parking until further notice: Continue reading →

by Dave Zornow

Nyack, Jan 3 — Here’s the second installment in our top Nyack stories of 2009 series. Yesterday we counted down ten from 20. Here’s the rest of the best based on Google Analytics reports of NyackNewsAndViews site traffic. Continue reading →

by Dave Zornow

Nyack, Jan 2 — Elections, fireworks, parking, boating, sailing, ROMPing and drinking were some of the big stories of last year. Here’s our countdown of Nyack’s Top 20 news and views of 2009.

This list is based on Google Analytics reports of NyackNewsAndViews site traffic., NyackNewsAndViews averages about 40,000 pageviews with about half of all adults 25+ reading NyackNewsAndViews on a regular basis (hover for details).

Although these are the “top stories” by popular demand, we all know the best performer isn’t always the winner on American Idol. Feel free to click the comment link and add your own suggestions to the list. Or topics you think deserve more attention in 2010.

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By Jen White

On December 10th, the Nyack Village Board will take an enormous step toward finally improving the Villages waterfront. The Village Board, in the last meeting of both this year and this board makeup, will vote on whether to endorse the waterfront master plan, a plan that has taken almost three years to develop. This plan is the end result of four large public meetings, a number of small public meetings and is the culmination of many redraws based on public input.

The consensus plan features a much larger green space area for play, moving the parking away from the Memorial Park side of the park and over to the Marina side of the park, thus removing a large chunk of concrete that continuously leaks petro-chemicals into the Hudson. The removal of pavement is a move supported by all local and statewide environmental agencies and organizations.

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Nyack, Nov 13 — Last night the Village Board unanimously passed a resolution to make the parking lot behind Riverspace free from Thanksgiving Day to January 3. Continue reading →

by Dave Zornow

Today’s Journal News editorial provides a good overview of Nyack’s post-election challenges.

The village’s problems are similar to other Lower Hudson Valley municipalities struggling through a rough recession. But as Nyack is a showcase village, its problems seem to loom larger.

Now, the mayoral winner, Richard Kavesh, must start team-building, so the new Nyack village board can avoid the rancor-fueled stagnation that has led to half-cooked decisions and molasses-slow action.

We learned a few things about ourselves in the last few months. Old rivalries can separate people who share the same goals. History, some of it private and deeply personal, is often the subtext for vigorous conversations between the players.

But it’s time to move on and begin anew.

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By Maureen Dougher

Walk the streets of Nyack today and take a look: empty stores, parking issues, the closing of Riverspace, etc.  Nyack faces many difficult problems.  But they can all be solved.  I am running for Village Trustee in the November 3rd election because I’m a problem solver.

As a Senior Research Scientist doing cancer research at Wyeth,  my job is to analyze complex health problems and find chemotherapy solutions to save people from cancer.  Now I want to put that same problem-solving discipline to work for Nyack, the village I love.

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by Friends of Denise Hogan

We all know that parking is one of the most difficult problems that our village faces.

For example:

• We have the highest parking meter rates in the Hudson Valley,
• Tickets are issued for alternate side parking violations- when you are parked in front of your own house,
• Parking authority “police” are notoriously good at catching you when you step out of the car for just a brief moment, and a recent addition
• Meters are operational until 9PM at night.

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by W.N. Ross

The author’s comments are in response to Descartes On Nyack posted on 9/22/2009.

I want to address three issues, but first this:  So sorry you have to endure drunken laggards, on your way through Nyack.  There is a bit of a college crowd here, and this happens in an area where the bar hopping is packed into two blocks.  I have lived in several tourist areas, one an up and coming artist area in Manayunk, PA, where there were 50 restaurants in six blocks, crowded everynight, with every kind of person: locals, college kids, danceteria people, happy pubbers, the chic and trendy.  There would be someone’s driver waiting, while a group of toothless locals stumbled by, crossing paths with the white collar boys out for a night on the town.  It was a vision of amazing proportions, yet all survived.

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by Dave Zornow

Nyack merchants’ initiative to provide free parking on Thursdays nights will cost the village over $11,000 in lost parking revenues in 2009, according to a NyackNewsAndViews analysis of parking data. On July 9th the Nyack Village Board approved free parking on Thursdays from 6p to 9p beginning on July 16 and continuing through the end of the year.

Mayor John Shields told the Journal News that he estimated Nyack would forfeit about $2000-3000 in parking fees. But using a revised average of $482 for Thursdays from 6p-9p, the estimate for just the summer months alone is $3500. Using seasonally adjusted estimates for September-December, the total projected revenue lost to this program is $11,100.

Continue reading →