>Anti Government Grumblings, Who me…
As some of you know the Ridgewood blog has made the Ridgewood News. In this piece the Ridgewood News has accused the blog of “anti government grumblings” . Well, if that means that some people in town are a little annoyed by the seeming lack of accountability of elected and appointed officials, then yes it is antigovernment it is. There was also an accusation made that people should stop complaining and get involved. Funny I don’t recall anyone asking me if II know who the posters are? I can assure you that many of the posters do attend meetings, run for office, work for the village or just pay taxes here. Many are old time residents that are getting a bit disturbed by the direction our Village has been going in the last dozen years or so. Many residents are starting to feel they are being made a fool of. Many think the town is run by a group of insiders that no longer has the Village’s best interests at heart. And finally and most importantly it’s about respect. Do you think the town is getting the respect it deserves? There was a time when Ridgewood had the best of everything and there was no town more admired than ours. If we did it everyone wanted to be like us .Yes that’s right everyone wanted to be like Ridgewood. We didn’t live in New Jersey we lived in Ridgewood. We had the best schools, the most active and interested residents, and the cleanest and safest streets. But alas I am not so sure that the same can still be said. Well as I have said before everyone is invited to participate by sending us your thoughts, comments or complaints. The blog is trying to give voice to local issues that often go unnoticed in out busy lives.
James Foytlin
>the fact that the village spent 9.5 million on the Taj Hall and there is not enough parking and it flooded the FIRST TIME IT RAINED,wouldnt be enough to get people angry?
>As evidenced by orders given to block the Ridgewood Blog from all Village Hall computers, you’ve scored a well deserved bull’s-eye. Every allegation posted was certainly accurate, otherwise someone in authority would have refuted all of them, or at least some of them. The silence from James Ten Hoeve and Village Council members speaks volumes.
The fantasy of all government officials is to operate in an environment in which the public pays no attention to what’s going on. They’d love it if no one attended their meetings to comment or ask questions, and would offer their first born children to anyone who could guarantee only positive letters to the editor would be published.
This is another classic example of the first rule in government – if you don’t like the news, shoot the messenger!
>Maybe the real reason you got such bad press in the Ridgewood News is that they’ve recetly launched their own blog (www.mycommunity.com). They sell advertising, so they gotta bash the competition to keep their readership numbers up.
>So the ra ra newspaper is frightened by a little blog? Please, spare me. And I find if funny that the village hall computers have blocked criticsm from entering their puny little world. Sounds like a bunch of ostriches with their heads stuck in the sand, or possibly some other dark and dank place.
>mycommrade.com requires that you sign up and identify yourself. So you know your getting real honest opinions (not!). Considering it’s run by the north jersey media group, those fun loving commrades who run the bergen “pravda” record, you can tell that this pro collectivist group really hates competition.
Just you wait… they’ll endorse or push for some new legislation that would shut down independent blogs under the guise of campaign reform.
>Anger at the way things are is not only normal, it’s justified. All the reasons people cite for being dissatisfied with the powers that be in Ridgewood are completely valid.
And all the venting might make us feel better, but what I get a lot of the time from this blog is a sense of “life’s a bitch and then you die.” Is the overall feeling that things are so far gone that they can’t be improved?
I mean, shine the light all you want, but I’d like to see more people offer something concrete as to how to fix some of the things that are wrong with the town.
I was always taught that you’re either part of the problem or part of the solution. I would like to see more proposed solutions here.
And as far as accountability, the best way to hold elected officials accountable is to vote them out of office. But that’s hard to do if they face little to no opposition.