Business owners protest as new traffic signage planned in Leonia

LEONIA ─ A group of borough business owners and their supporters marched to Borough Hall on Thursday to protest the town’s controversial road closures, demanding the new traffic laws be amended or dismantled to protect small businesses from losing non-resident customers.

The protest came on the heels of an announcement by Mayor Judah Zeigler on Wednesday night that the intimidating “Do Not Enter” signs blocking off 60 residential side streets to out-of-town commuter traffic for the past month will be replaced with more welcoming, business-friendly versions.

“When we launched the plan, 'Do Not Enter' signs were put in place,” Zeigler stated in a news release. “However, these signs make it appear that our side streets aren’t open at all during peak drive periods. We believe that these signs are scaring some non-residents, and they’re worried that they’re not able to shop or dine at their favorite Leonia destinations.”

The new signs will be more understated and include information about side streets being open only to residents and visitors of Leonia destinations during peak driving hours, according to Zeigler. They will be installed as soon as they are received.

Business owners complained last week that they were bleeding customers as a result of Leonia’s “Safe Streets” initiative. They said the drop in business has been profound — as high as 40 percent at the restaurant Dante’s Place — since the borough began closing streets to non-residents due to a regular onslaught of traffic from the George Washington Bridge.

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On Wednesday, several business owners said they were unaware of the sign revisions but doubted if they would help. Leonia residents have been provided yellow tags to pass through the restricted streets with ease, but non-residents could be pulled over by borough police who need to determine their destination.

“Nobody wants to be stopped by the police,” said Sara Calegari, manager of the restaurant Fontana di Trevi on Fort Lee Road. “I don’t think you can reverse this, the damage is done.”

Calegari said her Italian eatery has suffered more than any other local business, losing 75 percent of its customers. She held up a large sign stating, “98% of our business comes from non-Leonia residents,” as she marched down Broad Avenue, from Leonia Middle School to Borough Hall.

Fontana di Trevi is open from 4:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., the same hours the borough’s evening rush hour road closures are in place. Streets are off-limits to non-residents who are not heading to a Leonia home or business nine hours a day, from 6 to 10 a.m. and 4 to 9 p.m.

Those hours are also a source of ire for Gladys Calero, owner of Rumba Café on Hillside Avenue for the past 15 years. She said she’s experienced her steepest decrease in foot traffic ever, losing 35 percent of her customers.

“I would like to see changes in the hours,” she said. “The hours are affecting business.”

The mayor said Thursday that the hours were recommended by Leonia’s police department based on an analysis of traffic data. That data has shown that in spring, summer and fall, the borough’s narrow side streets become clogged at 8 p.m. and pose a threat to public safety, Zeigler said.

“I don’t believe there’s enough data yet to say the hours are wrong,” he said. “I think what we have to do first is implement the changes that I have outlined and then take more data.”

Zeigler said critics have only used anecdotal evidence to make their arguments.

“On the third weekend, we got four inches of rain, how much business would have been done anyway?” he said. “We must not rush to judgment, we can’t blame every problem in the world on this ordinance. We are committed in word and action to working with business owners to make this ordinance something that works for everybody.”

Wendy Orlansky, a 32-year Leonia resident who lives on one of the restricted streets, shared the mayor’s sentiments on Thursday. She stopped by the protest to offer her support for the new laws, calling them long overdue.

“I feel for our merchants, I love them, they’re my friends but I also fear for my safety,” Orlansky said. “You have to see how the commuters go down our streets at 50 miles per hour, maybe 60 miles per hour because they’re angry and they’ve been in traffic and they have no respect for our town’s rules whatsoever.”

Leonia has blamed much of its traffic woes on navigational apps like Google Maps and Waze, which suggest shortcuts through the borough when traffic on the highways leading to the bridge grinds to a halt.

The resulting road closures have made a noticeable difference in Leonia, Zeigler said. Weehawken, a Hudson County township at the foot of the Lincoln Tunnel, recently adopted its own road closure plan to mitigate commuter traffic.

Since taking effect on Jan. 22, the borough's traffic laws have drawn condemnation and are being challenged in court by an Edgewater woman. Leonia's main thoroughfares — Fort Lee Road, Broad Avenue and Grand Avenue — remain open to all traffic.

Zeigler said the borough is working to spread the message that non-resident customers are welcome in Leonia.

“We’re open for business,” he said. “If you’re coming to shop or dine, you can use any street at any time and you will not receive a citation.”

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