The Ridgewood blog was founded in March of 2006 by James J Foytlin aka PJ Blogger . Mr. Foytlin was born and raised in Ridgewood ,New Jersey and is a graduate of Ridgewood High School .
Ridgewood NJ, – Oct. 26, 2009 – RIDGEWOOD, N.J. — The Ridgewood blog ( https://theridgewoodblog.blogspot.com/ Originally ) (www.theridgewoodblog.net) was founded in March of 2006 by James J Foytlin aka PJ Blogger .[1] Mr. Foytlin was born and raised in Ridgewood ,New Jersey and is a graduate of Ridgewood High School .[2] [3]
After many years living in New York City[4] Mr Foytlin returned to Ridgewood after a divorce and the tragic events of 9/11 . Once he settled in he noticed a lack of sufficient news coverage of local events . One day a friend from Brazil[5] showed him her home town on the internet and to Mr. Foytlin’s great surprise when he tried to reciprocate he was utterly dismayed at the absolute lake coverage of his home town. After all Ridgewood is only 18 miles from midtown Manhattan[6] the media capitol of world and there was not a single picture of Ridgewood to be found . How could this be? Ridgewood is a picturesque upper middle class village of around 25,000 located in Bergen county in northern New Jersey[7] . Founded by Dutch settlers before it became an English colony[8] . The town or village as its called is steeped in rich history and tradition .Known for a large amount of Victorian era housing , a quality school system and a family friendly atmosphere.
Though busy getting reacquainted with his home town the fact that the Village of Ridgewood was so under represented on the internet continued to disturb Mr. Foytlin. Mr. Foytlin had been writing news letters for his job in financial services since the mid 1990’s . The popular flip, off beat investment strategy news letters had become email blasts with the advent of readily accessible internet.[9] By 2004 the email blasts were converted into blog format for the One Small Voice blog (https://onesmallvoice.blogspot.com/ ). [10]
Around that time the Village of Ridgewood had finally completed it’s much anticipated and long delayed renovation of the Village hall which has been flooded out due to Hurricane Floyd.[11] The renovation was marred by huge cost over runs and lengthy delays. In 2005 it opened with great fan fare , was once again flooded with the very first rain . Mr. Foytlin was more shocked by the abject lack of responsibility taken by elected officials than the fact that the $9 million dollar renovation had to some extent been a failure . That was the breaking point and Mr. Foytlin had had enough so he decided to give , citizen journalism a go and created the Ridgewood blog in March of 2006. [12]
The birth of PJ Blogger .By this time Blogging its seems had become quite the rage and mainstream news anchors such as Dan Rather had questioned the validity of information from non professionals sitting around in their Pajama’s blogging.[13] Mr. Foytlin not a fan of Dan Rather or any of the mainstream media decided to blog under the name PJ Blogger as a play on words and to plant himself firmly in the camp of the new digital media.
Innovations by the Ridgewood blog to citizen journalism.
“The Fly” is a column on the Ridgewood blog the originates from the expression ,”I’d like to be a fly on the wall “ . The idea is that every citizen has both a unique perspective and experience and these two factors can be used to gather news and opinions about local issues. Originally only of handful of people in town participated but with time the Ridgewood blog can now count on 20–40 semi regular contributors. These post are both anonymous and signed and are largely opinion as well a breaking news.[14]
The Ridgewood blog brings a free market lassie fare point of view to local issues . Mr. Foytlin aka PJ Blogger has stated that for local issues there are only two kinds of people ;the ones who say spend what every you want because I will not be around to pay the bill and the second group which are more focused on the ,”be careful this is my money your spending” . The Ridgewood blog is dedicated to the interplay of there two groups.[15]
[1][12] the Ridgewood blog website https://theridgewoodblog.blogspot.com/
[2] Birth Certificate born in Valley Hospital , Ridgewood 04/09/1962
[3] Ridgewood High School Class 1980
[4] 444 East 86th street ,530 East 72nd
[5] Monica Rocha
[6] Mapquest
[7] United States 2000 Census, the village population was 24,936.
[8] https://www.americantowns.com/nj/ridgewood/organization/vi…
[9] Fahnestock & Co. now Oppenheimer & Co.
[10] https://onesmallvoice.blogspot.com/
[11] https://www.ridgewoodlibrary.org/localhistory/lh_vh_pease.htm
[13] https://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110005611
[14] [15] James J Foytlin
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Congrats, James. Good job!!
Thank you!
Good job James. You keep our elected people on their toes. Nice work.
Bilbo
Thank you James for giving us this in real time opportunity to express our first amendment rights. The right that our families sacrificed so much for us to have. Together we can make a positive difference in salvaging what ever we have left. I’m not going down without a fight. I will be leading an effort to remove the trans flag from flying around public buildings around hohokus and ridgewood primary. I need the support. Please call these towns and let them know that only the American flag or no other flag fly on public buildings. This will be a start to getting rid of the woke ideology that has infiltrated our politics, schools, and employement. We do not feel represented with a woke trans flag flying above us for a whole month in June. We’ll protest with carboard signs or whatever it takes. I’m coming after you people in town strategically. I’ll make sure you never represent us again.
Amazing job that you guys do each and every day. Thank you very much for letting us speak. Because in the past the Village Of Ridgewood, which silence us, the Ridgewood news was under the bare thumb, the woman’s club, the realtor group, the Board of Education, they all slept in the same bed. And not to mention a few individuals that are behind the curtains. A.k.a. political, money, donations, so on they’re getting caught left and right with their sneaky tactics, they think they are smart, but we see right through their bullshit. And because a few people will put thumbs down, we know who they are, to those individuals that put thumbs down. Guess what twist your hand around and slide that thumb up your ass. Have a great day because I am. and enjoy spending $2 million cleaning up that toxic soil. That’s what happens when you put too much power in mustache boys hands.👨🏻⚕️🫵🏼
That’s right freedom of speech lives on. We have certain directors in the village at one time said to me that you can’t use the word angry. Can you imagine that. That’s my freedom of speech. I didn’t use the word angry. My attorney said, the judge said so too, and also the report that I made at the police department. They even told me that I can use the word angry at any time. This is what we’re dealing with not anymore.
Congratulations to the Blog! Village needs an honest outlet for local news
🎶Happy Founders Day To You!!🎶
Let’s find a who is receiving paid stipends . Who on the list.
How much they are receiving, and why.
And who authorized it?.