Category: Village of Ridgewood

>I’ve loved the CBD for years and now I know why: small retailers that had personality and identified with Ridgewood residents. Now, how can they pay the rents and where do we park? Biggest stress in shopping in Ridgewood is hoping to find a parking space!! I now plan my trips for slower times in the day which I can do because I work in Ridgewood. But even then it’s a challenge!
I hope we can find some solutions to revive Ridgewood!

I also have a comment about the Cheese Shop. I really enjoyed shopping there because of Rich’s knowledge and his willingness to take time with you (and I was never a big spender). Also I’m a female senior and never felt slighted by Rich or his employees.
I feel fortunate that he’s still here in town with his Cheese Shop located inside Super Cellars on Broad St. I can park there anytime and didn’t even have a problem during the holidays. Plus now I can do “one stop shopping” and buy my wine there too.
My suggestion is to loosen up, be nice, appreciate the knowledge and expertise, understand the demands of a busy proprietor and enjoy the cheese!

Barbara Cassidy, Ridgewood Resident

>

Tickets will be available the day of the event.
$40/includes book.
February 4, 2010 @ 9:30 am – 12:30 pm

>

>Restaurant Week 2010
Sponsored by The Valley Hospital
Mon, January 18, 2010 – Thu, January 21, 2010
Location: See details for participating restaurants

Event Description

From January 18 – January 28, on Mondays through Thursdays, experience fine dining in Ridgewood for only $20.10.

For these eight days, participating restaurants are offering you the chance to experience dining in Ridgewood like never before.

Each chef is preparing a tantalizing 3-course, prix-fixe
menu for your dining pleasure. Choose from 3 appetizers, 3 entrees and 3 desserts for only $20.10.

Monday – Thursday, January 18-21
Monday – Thursday, January 25-28

Reserve a table at these participating restaurants:

A Mano Neapolitan – 201-493-2000
Baumgart’s Cafe – 201-612-6888
Blend – 201-447-4343
Dim Sum Dynasty – 201-652-0686
Gen Sushi & Hibachi – 201-493-1988
It’s Greek To Me – 201-612-2600
La Piazza Bistro Italiano – 201-447-5111
Latour, French-American (LUNCH ONLY) – 201-445-5056
Marcello’s Ristorante – 201-652-2120
Mediterraneo Restaurant – 201-447-0022
Natalie’s of Ridgewood – 201-444-7887
The Office Beer Bar & Grill – 201-652-1070
Puzo’s Family Restaurant – 201-445-3332
Sakura Bana Japanese Restaurant – 201-447-6525
The Stable – 201-444-1199
Tabboule Lebanese Cuisine – 201-444-7034
Tre Voci – 201-857-3494
Wild Ginger – 201-857-3830
Winberie’s Bar & Restaurant – 201-444-3700

Beverages, tax and tips not included. Regular menu will also be available.

And, to make your meal more special, Super Cellars & Cheese Shop Artisanal Marketplace, 201-444-0012, is offering a selection of fine wines for $20.10.

For more information, contact the Chamber at (201) 445-2600 or email [email protected].

>Retailers Offer 20% OFF Through Jan 28!

Ridgewood Restaurants and Retailers are both ‘sizzling’ for your business! Beginning this week, and continuing through January 28th, 19 Ridgewood Restaurants will be participating in Restaurant week – offering prix fix meals for $20.10! To make this offer even more appetizing, when you pay your dinner tab at these participating restaurants, you will be given a Coupon good for 20% OFF your purchases at 19 different Retail Shops – offering everything from books, lights, shoes, bedding, furniture, clothing and jewelry! The 20% Off Coupon is good from January 21st through January 28th and keep in mind that many shops are open late on Thursday night. Come for dinner, stroll our streets and shop Ridgewood!!

List of participating stores:

Araya Rebirth
Backyard Living
Biltmore Tuxedo
Bookends
Boutique Unique
B. Witching Bath Company
Duxiana
Ecco Shoes
Gardiner & Co.
Hallmark Floors
Hillmann Electric
Hot Jewelry Box
Just Our Shoes
Leapin’ Lizards
Mephisto Shoes
Paris Jewelers
Saavy Chic Consignment Boutique
The Grazi Collection
Village Tannery
Yansi Fugel

For more information, call 201-445-2600 or email [email protected].

>Washington, Jan 25 –

As President Obama prepares for his State of the Union address, unemployment remains at record highs for Americans. The White House claims their stimulus bill “has already created or saved up to 2 million jobs,” but the table below compares the White House’s recent claims of state-by-state job creation with the actual change in state payroll employment through December 2009, using data announced on Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor. According to the data, 49 States have lost jobs since stimulus was enacted in February 2009. Only North Dakota and the District of Columbia have seen net job creation, and even those levels fall short of White House claims

>
THANK YOU so much for posting the information about our upcoming benefit piano concert. It is greatly appreciated.

Should be quite an event; we hope your mention draws more people.

thanks,
Emily Rose

>Many landlords and proprietors of retail establishments in Ridgewood’s Central Business District are claiming that Ridgewood’s downtown could be saved if a national chain were convinced to open an store here.

However, there are several national retailers already in Ridgewood. They are:

The Gap
The Baby Gap
Lucky Brand Jeans
Ann Taylor
Gymboree
Color Me Mine
The Rugged Bear
Fox’s
Sleepy’s
Rite Aid
Chico’s
Sherwin Williams Paint

So why hasn’t the downtown been saved?

>Glacier scientist: I knew data hadn’t been verified

By David Rose

The scientist behind the bogus claim in a Nobel Prize-winning UN report that Himalayan glaciers will have melted by 2035 last night admitted it was included purely to put political pressure on world leaders.

Dr Murari Lal also said he was well aware the statement, in the 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), did not rest on peer-reviewed scientific research.

In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, Dr Lal, the co-ordinating lead author of the report’s chapter on Asia, said: ‘It related to several countries in this region and their water sources. We thought that if we can highlight it, it will impact policy-makers and politicians and encourage them to take some concrete action.

‘It had importance for the region, so we thought we should put it in.

Read more: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1245636/Glacier-scientists-says-knew-data-verified.html#ixzz0da13Kxgg

>If your looking to run ads or get in touch with the Ridgewood Blog please send all correspondence to [email protected]

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>UN climate change expert: there could be more errors in report

Jeremy Page, South Asia Correspondent

https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6999051.ece

The Indian head of the UN climate change panel defended his position yesterday even as further errors were identified in the panel’s assessment of Himalayan glaciers.

Dr Rajendra Pachauri dismissed calls for him to resign over the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change’s retraction of a prediction that Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035.

But he admitted that there may have been other errors in the same section of the report, and said that he was considering whether to take action against those responsible.

https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6999051.ece

>https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703483604574630423614312770.html?mod=WSJ_newsreel_opinion

Is the Obama Administration going to side with school reformers, or will it reward state and local teachers union affiliates that defend the status quo? This is a question states are asking as they prepare their applications for $4.35 billion in Race to the Top competitive grants. Some guidance from Education Secretary Arne Duncan would be helpful.

Teachers unions in Minnesota and Florida are currently threatening to withhold support for their state Race to the Top applications, which are due later this month. So is the school boards association in Louisiana. This matters because the Administration has placed a premium on states garnering “local school district support” in order to win a grant. Not having union buy-in isn’t fatal, but it definitely hurts a state’s chances of getting federal funds.

States will be evaluated on a 500-point system, with the largest number of points (138) going to states that improve teacher effectiveness by using student performance to help rate instructors. States are awarded 45 additional points for getting “local education agencies” to sign off on their applications—about the same number of points they get for turning around failing schools.

Unions are mainly opposed to teacher accountability reforms. Both Florida and Minnesota want to implement or expand systems that tie teacher pay to student test scores. The irony is that both President Obama and Secretary Duncan have expressed support for such programs, yet Race to the Top is giving leverage to reform opponents who would eliminate or weaken these policies, and it punishes states that want to expand them over union objections.

Collective-bargaining agreements that protect bad teachers also harm children. Unions, which put the interests of their members above those of students, aren’t bothered by this. But state reformers who are trying to correct the problem don’t deserve to be penalized on their Race to the Top applications. They deserve some political cover from “the top,” meaning Mr. Duncan.

Race to the Top awards are supposed to go to states demonstrating “a coordinated and deep-seated commitment to reform.” Letting unions undermine state reform applications is a race to nowhere.

https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703483604574630423614312770.html?mod=WSJ_newsreel_opinion

>Police Supervisor Testing Process Used In Ridgewood Cited As Discriminatory

Suit calls N.J. police test biased

New Jersey’s Civil Service test for police officers seeking a promotion to sergeant discriminates against African-American and Hispanic candidates, according to a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday.

Even African-Americans and Hispanics who pass the multiple-choice test are less likely to receive promotions because their scores are lower, according to the 10-page lawsuit filed against the state and the Civil Service Commission.

The suit seeks to block the state from using the test.

At least 120 municipal and county police departments in New Jersey, including the Village of Ridgewood, have used the discriminatory system from 2000 to 2008, according to Department of Justice spokesman Alejandro Miyar.

Eighteen of the state’s 20 largest cities and townships, including Paterson, use the same test.

“This complaint should send a clear message to all public employers that employment practices with unlawful discriminatory impact on account of race or national origin will not be tolerated,” said Thomas Perez, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division.

“The Justice Department will take all necessary action to ensure that such discriminatory practices are eliminated and that the victims of such practices are made whole.”

Questions changed yearly
Civil Service Commission spokesman Mark Perkiss said the test is developed internally and administered annually with different questions each year.

“We’ve been testing for this position for decades,” Perkiss said.

He did not comment on the contents of the test. He referred questions on the lawsuit to the Attorney General’s Office, but the spokesman there, David Wald, declined comment.
Newark Police Department spokesman Detective Hubert Henderson said the approximately four-hour test covers traffic and criminal laws, as well as state guidelines.

When preparing for the test, Henderson said, candidates study two or three textbooks and sometimes take courses costing $2,500 to $3,000.

He said he had never heard any discrimination complaints involving the test.
The Department of Justice is arguing the state has violated Title VII, which prohibits employment discrimination, because it hasn’t proved that the test, which some departments require for promotions to sergeant, is an essential tool for determining fitness for the job.

Between 2000 and 2008, 89 percent of the white candidates who took the test passed it. That rate compared with 73 percent of African-American candidates and 77 percent of Hispanic candidates who took the test, the lawsuit says.

‘Disparate impact’
“For whatever reason, the test as it currently exists has a disparate impact,” Miyar said.
“We don’t have a problem with the use of a written test, but if the state wishes to do so it must not have a disparate impact.”

The lawsuit says the state and the Civil Service Commission “have pursued and continue to pursue policies and practices that discriminate against African-American and Hispanic candidates and that deprive or tend to deprive African-Americans and Hispanics of employment opportunities.”

>Ridgewood schools can proceed with $48M expansion, renovation plans
Friday, January 8, 2010
LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY JANUARY 8, 2010, 8:05 PM
BY PATRICIA ALEX
THE RECORD
STAFF WRITER

Ridgewood can proceed as planned with a $48 million expansion and renovation plan for its public schools after the state reiterated Friday that money promised for the project would be forthcoming.

The school district on Thursday posted a notice from Superintendent of Schools Daniel Fishbein on its Web site saying that the release of $10 million in state contributions to the project would be delayed pending review by the incoming Christie administration. The notice said Ridgewood would not begin work until the matter was resolved.

But Friday afternoon, a representative of the state agency that doles out the money said the funds approved in a recent referendum would be on their way.

“The press release issued by Ridgewood was unfortunately not accurate,” said Larry Hanover, spokesman for the Schools Development Authority. “We have been in dialogue with the district and have reassured them that &hellip grants that have passed local referendum will be processed in accordance with direction received from both the current administration and the incoming governor’s staff.”

Christie has vowed to review all further borrowing by the state, leading to some confusion in local school districts. Mike Yaple, spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association, said his group had gotten calls from one or two other districts that were worried about receipt of the state funds. “It was a concern,” said Yaple. “People weren’t sure how it was going to play out.”

Bob Hutton, vice president of the Ridgewood school board, said earlier conversations with the state led Ridgewood to believe the money was in jeopardy. “We were told point blank by the SDA that they weren’t signing anything,” Hutton said.

However, late Friday, after the SDA saw the Ridgewood release, the district received word that their project was a go, Hutton said. Work is slated to begin in the summer, he said.

The project will include improvements at nine schools and several athletic fields in the district. It was approved by a margin of 62 votes in December.

E-mail: [email protected]