>“Open Letter” : It should clearly state that it was paid for by Valley, or it might mislead people
That’s fine that these guys are sending a letter out on behalf of Valley. However, it should clearly state that it was paid for by Valley, or it might mislead people.
I think it’s great that these guys volunteer at the hospital. That’s their perogative.
However, I know a ton of people in this town. 90% of people are against the expansion as it now stands. It’s not to say that they are all against expanding Valley, but not to the extreme buildout now contemplated.
I’d say that most residents fall into several buckets regarding the expansion: 1. Opposed to any expansion or change 2. Opposed to a 1.1m sq foot structure, 94 foot structure (double the height of any other structure in town) but potentially ok with something scaled back 3. Clueless about what’s going on or proposed 4. Nervous about the expansion but think it’s necessary 5. Gung ho about any expansion because it’s a hospital
I personally am in bucket 2 and so are many people I know.
When I look at Barclay’s letter and it says that they will construct attractive buildings with signfificant attention to landscape design, i laugh. How could they possibly disguise buildings of the size they are proposing by “landscaping”. I drive by Valley now and all trees are less than 30 feet. Even if there were room to plant Oak trees around, you can’t transplant large trees. And furthermore, the buildings will be so close to the street due to the 110% lot coverage they are proposing, you couldn’t hide them if you wanted to.
There are reasons why so many people I know across a broad cross section of town are against the expansion as it stands, and it is not just “property values”. These include virtual disenfranchisement from the decision process, change of neighborhood character, concern for the underlying undisclosed long-term plans for the hospital in a residential neighborhood, and finally the impact of a large hospital next to multiple schools.
If that makes me a NIMBY, then I am. You can’t make such a significant change to the town we choose to live in and raise our children in without full buy-in by the community.
Put it to a vote. If that is not possible, vote by proxy for the councilman that will ensure that our needs our heard.
>Oprah to host N.J. Gov. Christie, Newark Mayor Booker for $100M school gift by Facebook CEO
LOS ANGELES — N.J. Gov. Chris Christie and Newark Mayor Cory Booker will make a surprise appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show Friday to announce an unprecedented restructuring of Newark’s school system and the gift of $100 million from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, two officials with direct knowledge of the plan told The Star-Ledger tonight. (Margolin and Giambusso, The Star-Ledger)
The Ridgewood YMCA will be having evaluations for their Youth Basketball League on Saturday, November 6th at 2:00 P.M. in the YMCA gym. Everybody plays in this basketball league! Evaluations are available for three divisions; Grades 1/2, Grades 3/4, Grades 5/6. After evaluations on the 6th, practices will be held on Saturdays 11/13, 11/20, and 11/27, and games will be on Saturdays 12/4 – 3/19 (excluding Christmas and February recess).
Play basketball at the place basketball started! Call Chris at 201 444 5600 ext. 339 or [email protected] for more information or to pre-register for evaluations!
Ridgewood Knights of Columbus Hosts Inaugural Stickball Tournament
Ridgewood-NJ-September 22, 2010: The Ridgewood Knights of Columbus Council #1736 held their inaugural stickball tournament Saturday, September 18th on Passaic Street in Ridgewood. Proceeds from the event were used to make a donation to the Ridgewood PBA and the New Jersey Firefighter’s Mutual Benevolent Association.
Ridgewood’s Finest and Ridgewood’s Bravest went head-to-head with various teams from the Ridgewood Knights council for local bragging rights. “For a brief moment, the streets of Ridgewood were transformed into an urban landscape from a bygone era”, said Joe Hernandez from the Ridgewood Knights, co-organizer of the event. Hot dogs and hamburgers were served, and a good time was had by all.
Why stickball? “A lot of our members are older gentlemen that can relate to this sport,” said Rich Paliotta, a Knight and event co-organizer.
First place winners were Andy Meyer, Sean Noble, Scott Gammer and Michael Dougherty from the Ridgewood Knights; second place was awarded to Tom Shortway, Joe Ferraro, Sean Daly, and John Judge from the Ridgewood Fire Department; and third place went to Tony Lupo, Kevin Casey, Rich Paliotta, and Bill Fahey from the Ridgewood Knights.
>NJ school choice bill: Will there be a stampede out of troubled schools?
Gov. Chris Christie signed a bill into law last week that allows parents who are dissatisfied with the schools in their district to transfer their children to schools anywhere in the state. The bill, A355, even provides money to pay transportation costs for the students. (Morgan, The Jersey Journal)
The public is behind Gov. Christie on many of his initiatives to reform government. Increasing state workers’ health care premiums and eliminating double-dipping both get the green light. But a Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey Press Media Poll out today is divided on cutting benefits for current employees. (Ingle, Asbury Park Press)
>NJ Assemblyman requests criminal investigation into ex-sheriff’s move to Port Authority
A state lawmaker has added his voice to a growing chorus of calls for an investigation into whether former Passaic County Sheriff Jerry Speziale’s withdrawal from his re-election bid was part of a politically motivated deal that rewarded him with a high-paying job at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. (Strunsky, The Star-Ledger)
All Bergen County residents are eligible to participate in Bergen County’s first series of Mobile Paper events for personal documents. Free to Bergen County Residents
Up to 4 boxes or bags of documents, weighing no more than 10 lbs each
Bergen County community Services Building
327 East Ridgewood Avenue, Paramus – Between Hours of 9AM and 2PM – Rain or Shine.
>“SIGNS FROM GOD” WORLD PREMIERE AT PHILLY FRINGE FESTIVAL
Award-winning Playwrights Present New Dark Comedy
The Porch Room theater company will present “Signs From God”, a new play by Pete Barry and J. Michael DeAngelis, at the Philly Fringe Festival. Barry and DeAngelis have enjoyed a string of success as up-and-coming playwrights, having recently published numerous short plays with Samuel French and Vintage Books. The Porch Room’s productions of their plays have been winners at the Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Festival and the NJACT Perry Awards.
Mr. Barry is a native of Ridgewood, NJ.
WHAT: The world premiere of “Signs From God”. A frustrated satellite TV salesman discovers a revolutionary business in a sign maker who can deliver personalized messages from God.
WHEN: September 16th-18th, 2010, 8:00 PM.
WHERE: The Society Hill Playhouse, 507 South 8th Street, Philadelphia, PA.
WHO: Directed by J. Michael DeAngelis. Written by J. Michael DeAngelis and Pete Barry. Starring, in alphabetical order: Jeff Baxt, J. Michael DeAngelis, Phil Deerwester, John P. Dowgin, Paige Hoke, Dustin Karrat.
WHY: The Porch Room is excited to produce their first original full-length play, as well as their first production in the Philly Fringe Festival.
VISUALS: Logos and marketing photos available, rehearsals may be photographed.
>Ground Zero Mosque :American Muslim organization says President Obama is wrong August 15, 2010 AIFD American Islamic Forum for Democracy
STATEMENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PHOENIX (August 15, 2010) – Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, a devout Muslim and the president and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy issued the following statement regarding remarks from President Obama on the proposed mosque and Islamic Center at Ground Zero:
“As an American Muslim whose family fled persecution in Syria and as someone who has stood in the face of some resistance to the building of many of our houses of worship in the U.S., I fully understand the value of standing for religious freedom in America. But President Obama’s statement about the Ground Zero mosque at last night’s White House Iftar dinner is the latest example of political correctness gone awry.
The President commented that:
“Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country. And that includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America.”
Yes, Mr. President, this is America and you have fundamentally misunderstood the stakes in this discussion and the sentiments of the American people. Instead, you have focused on the very issue that the Islamist propagandists wish you to– the narrative that Americans somehow need lectures about Islam, Muslims, and religious freedom.
Your message to Americans will be spun on Al Jazeera and by Islamists across the world that President Obama reassured a friendly global Muslim audience at the White House Ramadan dinner that he was going to remind Americans about the principles of religious freedom for Muslims since they seem to be trampling over those principles in the local dispute at Ground Zero in New York.
Mr. President this is not about religious freedom. It is about the importance of the World Trade Center site to the psyche of the American People. It is about a blatant attack on our sovereignty by people whose ideology ultimately demands the elimination of our way of life. While Imam Faisal Rauf may not share their violent tendencies he does seem to share a belief that Islamic structures are a political statement and even Ground Zero should be looked upon through the lens of political Islam and not a solely American one.
As a Muslim desperate to reform his faith, your remarks take us backwards from the day that my faith will come into modernity. I do not stand to eliminate Imam Rauf’s religious freedom; I stand to make sure that my children’s religious freedom will be determined by the liberty guaranteed in the American Constitution and not by clerics or leaders who are apologists for shar’iah law and will tell me what religious freedom is.
‘Park 51’, ‘The Cordoba House’ or whatever they are calling it today should not be built, not because it is not their right to do it – but because it is not right to do it.” Mr. President, your involvement in this issue is divisive not uniting. Your follow-up stating that ‘you will not speak to the wisdom of the construction of that mosque and center’ indicates a passive-aggressive meddling on your part that only marginalizes those Muslim and non-Muslim voices against it while pretending to understand both sides of the debate.
About the American Islamic Foundation for Democracy
The American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization. AIFD’s mission advocates for the preservation of the founding principles of the United States Constitution, liberty and freedom, through the separation of mosque and state. For more information on AIFD, please visit our website at https://www.aifdemocracy.org/.
The answer is quick and decisive ,1999.That, David Reasoner said, is the only summer that he can remember in his 11 years in New Jersey that was worse than this one. Back then, Reasoner was a young assistant professional at Ridgewood Country Club watching as the entire team — from course superintendent to the head pro — tried to keep the manicured greens from falling off a cliff.
Now, the head professional himself, Reasoner has been thrust into a horrifyingly similar situation with this summer’s extreme weather conditions. Only this summer, the stakes are much higher.
One week from today, the PGA Tour’s 125 top golfers will descend upon Ridgewood for The Barclays.
“The golf course is in great shape,” Reasoner said this week. “But it’s been a tough summer. If you look at some of the other golf courses in the area, we’re lucky we’re still green. It’s been a tough summer to grow grass.”
How tough has it been? Last month checked in as the second-warmest July on record in New Jersey history, according to the Office of the New Jersey State Climatologist. The average temperature for the month — 78.8 degrees — fell just short of the 1955 record of 79 degrees.
The problem faced at Ridgewood wasn’t unlike the problems faced statewide, it’s just that the 100-year old Paramus club is the only course in the area that will get the spotlight treatment this summer from the PGA Tour.
“With the exception of 2001, it’s probably the most challenging year I’ve had here in my 16 years,” said Ridgewood’s course superintendent Todd Raisch. “We knew going in (to the summer) that we were going to baby the golf course a little bit — but not the whole season.”
>N.J. bill places cap, restrictions on retirement payouts for current public employees
TRENTON — Retirement payouts for current public employees would be capped or frozen under a measure described as compromise to help local governments deal with six-figure payments for employees’ unused sick time. (The Star-Ledger Statehouse Bureau Staff)
The battle raging over the Ground Zero mosque is bringing new attention to another, less publicized controversy involving a house of worship in Lower Manhattan.
St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, which once sat right across the street from the World Trade Center, was crushed under the weight of the collapse of Tower Two on September 11, 2001. St. Nicholas was the only church to be lost in the attacks, and nine years later, while City of New York officials are busy removing every impediment to the building of the Cordoba mosque two blocks from the site, St. Nicholas’ future remains unclear.
The last bit of hopeful news for St. Nicholas came two years ago, in July 2008, when church officials and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced a deal which would have allowed the church to be rebuilt about two blocks from its original location.
The Port Authority agreed to give the church a parcel of land at Liberty and Greenwich Streets, and contribute $20 million toward construction of a new sanctuary. The Port Authority also agreed to build an explosion-proof platform and foundation for the new church building, which would sit on top of a screening area for cars and trucks entering the underground garages at the new World Trade Center.
Trouble emerged after St. Nicholas announced its plans to build a traditional Greek Orthodox church building, 24,000 square feet in size, topped with a grand dome. Port Authority officials told the church to cut back the size of the building and the height of the proposed dome, limiting it to rising no higher than the World Trade Center memorial. The deal fell apart for goodin March 2009, when the Port Authority abruptly ended the talks after refusing to allow church officials to review plans for the garage and screening area underneath. Sixteen months later, the two sides have still not met to resume negotiations.
St. Nicholas Church’s difficulty in getting approvals to rebuild stands in stark contrast to the treatment that the developers of the proposed Cordoba mosque have received. New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, state Atty. Gen. Andrew Cuomo, and a raft of city officials have all come out publicly in favor of building the mosque, and the city’s Landmarks and Preservation Commission recently voted unanimously to deny protection to the building currently occupying the site where the mosque is to be built.
The mosque is proposed to rise 13 stories, far above the height of the World Trade Center memorial, with no height restrictions imposed.
Inspired by former representative Vito Fossella (R-NY), Human Events and RedState.com are sponsoring an online petition calling on New York officials to take action to stop the mosque from being built.
The contrast has not been lost on at least one candidate for Congress. George Demos is a Republican running in New York’s 1st Congressional District. Demos has made the Cordoba mosque an issue in his campaign, even though his district is on Eastern Long Island, and is highlighting the plight of St. Nicholas Church.
In an exclusive interview with Human Events, Demos had harsh words for the Port Authority, which he accuses of blocking the church from being rebuilt. “The Port Authority is a creation of Congress and should be answerable to two states [New York and New Jersey], but in reality is answerable to no one,” Demos said. “The Port Authority is insular and simply doesn’t care about public opinion. They are simply not making this a priority. Chris Ward is the Port Authority director and he is not allowing this to go forward.”
For its part, the Port Authority says it had no choice but to break off negotiations with the church to avoid delaying the World Trade Center project any longer. The authority said that the church retains the right to rebuild on its own at its original location. “We made an extraordinarily generous offer to resolve this issue and spent eight months trying to finalize that offer, and the church wanted even more on top of that,” Stephen Sigmund, a spokesman for the Port Authority said last year. “They have now given us no choice but to move on to ensure the site is not delayed. The church continues to have the right to rebuild at their original site, and we will pay fair market value for the underground space beneath that building.”
Demos said it is the church that has been unjustly delayed. “One place of worship was destroyed in the attacks. That should be the first thing on that board’s agenda. That should be the first priority,” he said. “There were actually relics of St. Nicholas in that church that were lost in the attacks. Why is it that the same government officials who are so ferverently fighting for the mosque’s right to be built aren’t also fighting for the church to be rebuilt.”
Demos was critical of Mayor Bloomberg’s recent comments on the occasion of the Landmarks Commission vote. In a speech immediately following the vote, Bloomberg said, among other arguments, that allowing the mosque project to go forward would be a victory of sorts over the forces that attacked America on 9/11.
“Let us not forget that Muslims were among those murdered on 9/11, and that our Muslim neighbors grieved with us as New Yorkers and as Americans,” Bloomberg said. “We would betray our values and play into our enemies’ hands if we were to treat Muslims differently than anyone else. In fact, to cave to popular sentiment would be to hand a victory to the terrorists, and we should not stand for that.”
Demos called those remarks “premature” and echoed New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio’s call for an investigation into the funding of the mosque. “We need to investigate sources of funding for the mosque. If in fact it is being funded by terrorist regimes, then it is the terrorists who are winning by building a mosque at Ground Zero,” Demos said. “Bloomberg’s comments only beg the question of why aren’t we investigating?”
Demos calls his district, currently represented by four-term Democrat Tim Bishop, a bellwether for Republicans in the fall elections. The district is a traditionally Republican seat, which President Obama narrowly won with 51% of the vote in 2008. While Demos is focusing his campaign on the issues of jobs, government spending, and his opponent’s voting record—which he characterized as out of step with the district—he said that the plight of St. Nicholas Church is resonating with voters.
Recent polling in New York shows that a majority disagrees with the plan to build the mosque so close to Ground Zero.
Asked what prompted him to take up St. Nicholas’s cause, Demos said the apparent favorable treatment the mosque’s developers received served to illuminate the issue to him as simply a question of right versus wrong.
“This is not a partisan issue,” he said. “It’s an issue of fair-minded candidates for office stepping up and doing the right thing. The focus should be something we can all agree on—getting the church rebuilt.”
>This is not a “Freedom of Religion” issue people.
No one is stopping any Muslim from practicing their faith in NYC (or anywhere else in America).
Don’t fall into the trap of agreeing that “freedom of religion” ALLOWS the mosque to be built but it is INSENSITIVE.
That is not the case.
Freedom of Religion is not at issue here. There is no inherent “freedom of religion right” allowing Muslims to build this mosque in this particular location.
Muslims are not being restricted from practicing their faith so freedom of religion is not at issue.
Don’t fall into that trap. “Freedom of Religion” in this instance is a straw-man argument that is being put forth by those who support the mosque being built.
I wrote in several months ago expressing my concern with the intersection at Franklin and Oak. I wrote that I drive home through that light every night from my job in Ridgewood to my home in Ridgewood. I know for a fact that people have also expressed to the Village in writing their concern over this intersection. Yet, another person gets hit today.
I passed through this intersection twice today, and both times cars are still traveling through the intersection east to west and vice versa, when the light is already green for those people waiting on Oak Street. I pass through this intersection almost daily, and the situation is exactly the same. Ridgewood has a signal department, how long can it possibly take an entire department to change the timing by a few seconds?
This town let another pedestrian get hit, by lack of involvement and negligence. I would like to know how many Village officials read this entry on the blog tonight, yet don’t do anything to change it.
To all Ridgewood residents and those passing through: Watch out at the corner of Franklin and Oak, something is not right.
