Category: Bergen County

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We, the people are violent and filled with rage: A nation spinning apart on its Independence Day

Tuscon shooting rampage suspect Jared Lee Loughner ruled not mentally competent to stand trial

We, the people are violent and filled with rage: A nation spinning apart on its Independence Day

School shootings, hatred, capitalism run amok: This 4th of July, we are in the midst of a tragic public derangement

JIM SLEEPER
FRIDAY, JUL 4, 2014 09:45 AM EDT

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard ’round the world.
–Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Concord Hymn,” 1837

For centuries most Americans have believed that “the shot heard ’round the world” in 1775 from Concord, Massachusetts, heralded the Enlightenment’s entry into history. Early observers of America such as G.W.F. Hegel, Edward Gibbon and Edmund Burke believed that, too. A new kind of republican citizen was rising, amid and against adherents of theocracy, divine-right monarchy, aristocracy and mercantilism. Republican citizens were quickening humanity’s stride toward horizons radiant with promises never before held and shared as widely as they were in America.

The creation of the United States really was a Novus ordo seclorum, a New Order of the Ages, a society’s first self-aware, if fumbling and compromised, effort to live by the liberal expectation that autonomous individuals could govern themselves together without having to impose religious doctrines or mystical narratives of tribal blood or soil. With barely a decorous nod to The Creator, the founders of the American republic conferred on one another the right to have rights, a distinguished group of them constituting the others as “We, the people.”

That revolutionary effort is not just in trouble now, or endangered, or under attack, or reinventing itself. It’s in prison, with no prospect of parole, and many Americans, including me, who wring our hands or wave our arms about this are actually among the jailers, or we’ve sleepwalked ourselves and others into the cage and have locked ourselves in. We haven’t yet understood the shots fired and heard ’round the world from 74 American schools, colleges and military bases since the Sandy Hook School massacre of December 2012.

These shots haven’t been fired by embattled farmers at invading armies. They haven’t been fired by terrorists who’ve penetrated our surveillance and security systems. With few exceptions, they haven’t been fired by aggrieved non-white Americans. They’ve been fired mostly by young, white American citizens at other white citizens, and by American soldiers at other American soldiers, inside the very institutions where republican virtues and beliefs are nurtured and defended.

https://www.salon.com/2014/07/04/we_the_people_are_violent_and_filled_with_rage_a_nation_spinning_apart_on_its_independence_day/

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Dr. Fishbein: Reflecting on the school year

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Dr. Fishbein: Reflecting on the school year

JUNE 27, 2014    LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JUNE 27, 2014, 12:31 AM
BY DANIEL FISHBEIN
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Each June I reflect on the many great opportunities the Ridgewood Public Schools and the Village of Ridgewood provide our youngest citizens, culminating in the Ridgewood High School graduation at the close of the school year.

While the many school-related activities are too numerous to list, here are some representative highlights from the district this past school year:

The Remedial Early Development (R.E.D.) graduation at the Glen School. This event is more than an important milestone for the students, parents and staff; it is a personal career highlight for me. Friday Friends is a fabulous program where students with special needs meet, learn and play along with their peers.

The Orchard Museum of Art (OMA). Held at Orchard Elementary School each year, the museum is a celebration of the creative process in the fine and performing arts, culminating with a performance — this year Romeo and Juliet — in the school’s unique outdoor amphitheater.

The Ridge Restaurant and 18th century encampment. Ridge Elementary School’s fifth graders open a restaurant every fall to raise money for their June promotion activities. During the school year they also participate in an 18th century encampment, spending 36 hours as recruits in the Continental Army where they sew, cook, drill, set up camp and are spectators at a musket shooting demonstration by Ridgewood Board of Education Facility Manager Steve Tichenor, who is also a military re-enactor.

Hawes ducks. Perhaps you saw the 100-plus Hawes Elementary School ducks running in the Ridgewood Memorial Day Run this year. Their inspiration comes from real-life mother duck Henrietta, who nests each spring in the school’s inner courtyard and, once the ducklings are hatched and ready to swim, marches her brood through the halls of the school, out the door and into the brook beyond.

Up mountains and under the sea at Willard. Willard Elementary School students were treated to an author visit this year by everyone’s sweetheart, “The Sound of Music’s” Julie Andrews. Students also had a Skype session with Jacque Cousteau’s grandson from his underwater lab.

Acting at Somerville. Somerville Elementary School students in kindergarten through fifth grade took action for a cause, participating in a walk for autism and raising nearly $1,000. In addition, fourth and fifth graders put on a lively production of “Shrek the Musical.”

Travel at Travell. Travell Elementary School students traveled the world at their International Expo heritage celebration featuring their community’s cultural foods, artifacts and performances. Fifth graders went to circus school for a week and put on a show highlighting the importance of teamwork and cooperation. The school readied for summer recess with a children’s book swap to encourage reading while away.

Celebrating history at GWMS. George Washington Middle School eighth graders just returned from their annual overnight trip to our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. The school’s sixth graders worked with Civil War re-enactors to gain a better understanding of what life was like in the nineteenth century.

Music and more at BFMS. Benjamin Franklin Middle School had a fantastic concert season, as orchestras, concert bands and choirs all performed to full-house crowds of parents and grandparents. The school community also donated more than 120 turkeys to needy families as a result of their annual Thanksgiving “turkey trot.”

RHS graduated the Class of 2014. Finally, I hope you had an opportunity to see the Ridgewood High School graduation. It is a beautiful community celebration! The real accomplishments of the Class of 2014 happen in the classroom, on stage, on the field of competition or in a studio. Ninety-one percent of the Class of 2014 will attend a four-year college or university this fall. Five percent are headed to two-year colleges. The balance is headed to work, the armed forces or taking a “gap” year.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/education/reflecting-on-the-school-year-1.1042467#sthash.dHZlvuJC.dpuf

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Nothing like a little sour grapes…

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Nothing like a little sour grapes…

Valley supporters continue to attack this blog and the the “mean spirited anonymous posters ” for their utter failure to aggrandize them selfs with an over sized monstrosity .

The Ridgewood Planning Board summed it up best ,“The impacts from this amendment are detrimental to the community,” end of story.

We are told the failure of this plan had nothing to do with the fact that it was ill advised, ill planned, and poorly executed . 

And that Valley and its supporters behaved  behaved like a bunch of spoiled 2 year old brats with their  ,gimme gimme gimme attitude .  

Valley in it unlimited arrogance even when as far as to demand the Village comply with their business plan. Apparently that included destroying the character of the Village.

Valley supporters even went as far as to purchase anonymous IP’s from hacker and spammer sites  so as to attack residents on this blog  I remind you of all the “thats what happens when you buy cheap houses near a hospital”  posts .

And while we would love to take al the credit , for blocking the ill suited expansion , groups like CRR  did most of the heavy lifting .

The fact that a $100 million dollar hospital could not get this done says far more about management and strategy than anonymous posts .

Unlike the sports people who love send derogatory emails to peoples employers or the schools system that picks on your kids if you speak out of line , the Ridgewood blog has not engaged in any of this “COWARDLY” behavior.
Posters can remain anonymous to protect them selves  from unscrupulous bullies , like the RBSA , BOE and Valley Hospital .
cry me a river>>>>>next time do your job!

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A Majority of Young Adults Are Having Kids Outside Marriage. Why That Hurts Kids’ Futures.

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Kim Kardashian and Kanye West had a baby together before getting married. (Photo: Judy Eddy/WENN/Newscom)

A Majority of Young Adults Are Having Kids Outside Marriage. Why That Hurts Kids’ Futures.

Rachel Sheffield June 21, 2014

Rachel Sheffield focuses on welfare, marriage and family, and education as policy analyst in the DeVos Center for Religion & Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation.

Among young adults, first comes baby, then (maybe) comes marriage. This increasingly is the new normal.

According to a new study from Johns Hopkins University, 57 percent of mothers between 26 and 31 are unmarried when their child is born

But not all young adults are having kids outside of marriage. Instead, the key factor appears to be whether a young woman has attended college.

Among mothers without a high school degree, 63 percent of births occur outside marriage. But among college educated young women, 71 percent of births occur within marriage.

Unfortunately, these differences have consequences. “The U.S. is steadily separating into a two-caste system with marriage and education as the dividing line,” says my colleague Robert Rector.

“In the high-income third of the population, children are raised by married parents with a college education. In the bottom-income third, children are raised by single parents with a high school degree or less.”

Similarly, the authors of the Hopkins study found that “American society is moving toward two different patterns of family formation and two diverging destinies for children.”

But one of those destinies is far less promising, leaving a significant portion of the nation’s next generation with less opportunity.

Children in single-parent homes are more than five times as likely to experience poverty. That isn’t simply because of their parents’ generally lower education level. Even parents with lower levels of education are at far less risk of poverty if they are married.

Children raised by their married, biological parents have other advantages. They are more likely to graduate from high school or college, less likely to engage in delinquent behaviors and less likely to become single parents themselves.

So why do many young adults then still have children outside of marriage?

It’s not because they’re anti-marriage: Research suggests that young, single mothers are not hostile to marriage. Yet they don’t believe it is necessary to marry prior to having children. Rather than seeing marriage as a step to achieving a stable family and social mobility, they view it as a capstone that occurs after they have arrived.

Still, , young men and women don’t seem to understand the consequences of the breakdown of marriage. Thus, the first step would be to get the message out about the importance of marriage in building stable families and communities, particularly in areas where this stability is not the norm.

Additionally, leaders at every level should engage in finding ways to strengthen and maintain healthy families. Examples of this include high schools in Alabama that have taught relationship education courses to youth, the community healthy marriage initiative in Chattanooga, Tenn., that provides relationship education and other resources to couples and families, or the state healthy marriage initiative in Oklahoma that operates marriage and relationship education programs for lower-income couples.

Restoring a culture of marriage is crucial to today’s generation and to the generations they will raise. The goal for all individuals, families, churches, communities and policymakers should be to give every child–regardless of economic background–the greatest opportunity to be reared by their mother and father in a stable married relationship.

https://dailysignal.com/2014/06/21/majority-young-adults-kids-outside-marriage-hurts-kids-futures/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social

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Trenton’s Broken Record

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Trenton’s Broken Record
Jun. 19  
By Joe Sinagra | The Save Jersey Blog

“This plan is not only a matter of fairness and responsibility with pension payments, it is really about the full range of government services and opportunities, including such things as property tax relief, college affordability, public schools, law enforcement, transportation and many more priority needs,” NJ Senate President Steve Sweeney said on Wednesday as he rolled out his counter-proposal to Governor Chris Christie’s budget. “We have to maintain the state’s commitment to all New Jersey residents by meeting all of our commitments. This is a fair and responsible plan that will help meet those needs as it restores balance to the budget in a fiscally responsible way.”

So in all the years and administrations prior to Christie being governor, the 154 tax increases, raising the state sales tax from 6% to 7%, a 4% corporate tax surcharge, a 25% increase in liquor taxes, increased taxes for the citizens of New Jersey by over $10 billion dollars, an increase in the Realty Transfer Tax of $62 million on the state level, another $22 million on the county level, along with another $8 million tax on the lottery. . . Senator Sweeney now suddenly believes we need a fair and responsible plan?

What happened to all of the revenue that was already collected?

Even the promised tax rebate disappeared. On average, property taxes went up 55 percent statewide from the prior seven years before Corzine and another 20 percent when Corzine took office, and Corzine left us a $2.2 billion shortfall that existed when Christie took office on Jan. 19, 2010.

And Senator Sweeney decides now is the time to meet the commitments of the residents? Why is it that more is never enough in this state?

– See more at: https://savejersey.com/2014/06/new-jersey-budget-sweeney/#sthash.VrJfTZ1d.dpuf

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The good school-expensive home dilemma

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The good school-expensive home dilemma
June 13, 2014, 10:00 a.m. EDT

Peter and Megan Dale of San Francisco say their two-bedroom condominium in Cole Valley, just south of the Haight-Ashbury District, is starting to feel cramped; their two school-aged children share a single room. But they have no plans to leave the condo, which they bought for $990,000 in 2007. The reason: The nearby public school is rated a “9” out of 10 by GreatSchools.org, an Oakland, Calif.-based education-advice website.

A good local school can be one of the biggest drivers of home prices in a community. And parents hoping to get their children the best education possible are often willing to stretch their finances for a pricey home in a good school district, sometimes taking out ambitious loans. When the Dales bought their condo, they took out an interest-only jumbo mortgage that allowed them to put down just 3% instead of the usual 20%. When the market fell, they briefly found themselves underwater on the home. And they face hefty payments ahead when their loan resets to a principal and interest payment. Mr. Dale, a 42-year-old software designer, says the headaches are worth it for the great school and a short commute to his Montgomery Street office: “Some things are just more important than money,” he said.

In the past year, relatively low rates for jumbo loans have made buying in expensive school districts a little easier for some borrowers. Even so, some jumbo borrowers say they have trouble competing in markets where cash-only deals are commonplace. Anna Sikha, who lives in San Francisco with her husband, needed jumbo financing when they shopped for a home in the same neighborhood as the Dales in the hope of getting their 3-year-old son into same school. They lost out on several homes to all-cash buyers. “We were constantly getting outbid. It was so depressing that we thought about renting,” Mrs. Sikha, who works for a biotechnology company, said. Ultimately, they bought a condo in the neighborhood for $1.25 million, with the help of a jumbo loan.

Mark Livingstone, president of Cornerstone First Financial, a mortgage broker in Washington, D.C’s Georgetown neighborhood says he often needs to write aggressive preapproval letters for his jumbo-loan clients that waive appraisals and financing contingencies in neighborhoods such as Bethesda, Md., that have highly rated public schools. “Families are willing to pay more for a home to get into a well-rated public school. They see themselves saving $10,000 to $20,000 year in private-school tuition,” Mr. Livingstone said.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-good-school-expensive-home-dilemma-2014-06-13?mod=latestnewssocialflow&link=sfmw

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Planning Board members have much to consider

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Planning Board members have much to consider

JUNE 12, 2014    LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2014, 5:42 PM
Lisa Baney

To the Editor:

Let me start by saying I could never be a Planning Board member, but if I were, I would be so tired. Over the past 14 months, they have had to attend 26 sometimes very long hearings, and listen to and dissect thousands of pages of testimony focusing on details and information that any normal human could scarcely nail down. All in response to a prestigious applicant, Valley Hospital, and its application for a master plan amendment that would allow its near-doubling of size at its location at South Van Dien Avenue next to the Benjamin Franklin Middle School.

It has become evident through this process that there are many different ways to slice and dice the data. By that, I mean a litany of measurements such as square footage, lot coverage, floor area ratios, shadow lines, changes of buffers, heights and setbacks at various sections of the buildings and property. Moreover, the board members have needed to distinguish each of these measures according to the current 2014 expansion proposal, the former 2010 proposal and what exists today. Add differing testimony on hospital beds needed, numbers and types of trucks during specific years and stages of construction, possible impact on child safety and schools, and a magnitude of other information – most importantly village character.

If I were a Planning Board member, I would see three things through all these nights.

1. Land use is primary as the basis of a master plan change.

2. As a key burden of proof, the applicant for the master plan change has not substantiated why it is absolutely necessary to conduct this degree of expansion on its main hospital campus. Valley affirms that this scale of expansion, at its current location, is the only way to well serve both our village and region, and that it is cost-prohibitive to relocate additional services, re-think its bed counts here, or follow other paths to modernize – based on elements of a business plan that it chooses not to make clear.

3. There is more than enough reason to believe that the detriments of this permanent change to our village outweigh the positives, and that the hospital has not made a convincing case to the contrary.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/opinion/opinion-letters-to-the-editor/letter-planning-board-members-have-much-to-consider-1.1034646#sthash.6Qg61KBE.dpuf

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Hospital officials are misleading

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Hospital officials are misleading


JUNE 12, 2014    LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2014, 5:43 PM
Melinda Wagner

To the editor:

When my husband and I began attending Planning Board meetings years ago, we were deeply annoyed with Valley Hospital, whose officials had already drawn up elaborate plans to double in size while neglecting to consult the taxpayers who would have to endure years of construction, and its permanent aftermath (to date, residents have yet to be consulted).

More than eight years later – after countless meetings, thousands of dollars, and numerous, stressful hours, my family is no longer annoyed. We are furious!

Valley wants to place a structure the size of Paramus Park Mall in the middle of a neighborhood of single-family homes, three schools, and playing fields – an area traversed by many hundreds of children daily. In order to get their way, Valley officials have spun, sliced and diced the “facts,” treated residents with disrespect, and have consistently failed to address the matter at hand. It is this last point that I find most infuriating. Indeed, every single argument in support of this gargantuan project has been specious, beside the point, and misleading – no matter how compelling, heartwarming or dire.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/opinion/opinion-letters-to-the-editor/letter-hospital-officials-are-misleading-1.1034647#sthash.RXWCtLb6.dpuf

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Reader says It does not take much to turn a real estate market and we are likely on the tipping point.

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Reader says It does not take much to turn a real estate market and we are likely on the tipping point.

Perhaps the most interesting indication of this is the No Valley and No Apartment signs that appear on the lawns of houses that have recently sold to young families moving into town. They came here for the schools and the neighborhood feel of the town. Then, they learn that what they just bought into is under the threat of the massive hospital and apartment complexes. Having just sunk their young fortunes into new homes, they are justifiably worried.

Think now of what happens if that worry becomes known to those currently looking. Through this blog, for instance, or newspaper coverage of the planning board hearings or letters to the editors. Real estate can very quickly take a nose dive in Ridgewood when towns in close proximity offer almost as much without the looming risk.

If you were 30-35 again, with two young children and enough money to buy a house in Ridgewood, and there was a chance Ridgewood was going to turn into something more along the lines of the hustle and bustle found in a small city sometime in the next 5 to 10 years, would you risk your hard earned down payment money on Ridgewood property? And for those of us in the 45 to 55 range, on the verge of being empty nesters, do we risk riding the property market to the bottom when we can cash out now?

No, make no mistake, Ridgewood is very much on a precipice formed by the intersection of a monolithic hospital concerned about its future revenue stream, developers who want to increase their profits and well meaning Villagers who are buying into false arguments and fears generated by the Hospital and developers.

wine.com

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Post-CA Tenure Decision, Kyrillos Seeks Repeat in New Jersey

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file photo by Maura McMahon DeNicola in Ridgewood PJ Blogger with Joe Kyrillos 

Post-CA Tenure Decision, Kyrillos Seeks Repeat in New Jersey
Jun. 11 Education, Joe Kyrillos, National, Uncategorized 1 comment

By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog

Joe Kyrillos at 2012 RNC in Tampa, Florida

Following an earth-shattering decision by the California state court striking down that state’s tenure law, state Senator Joe Kyrillos (R-Monmouth) says he’s reaching out to an advocacy group involved in the West Coast case to help accomplish the same result in New Jersey.

He’ll start by re-introducing S-2171, “The School Children First Act.”

“This legislature should seize this opportunity and momentum to pass full tenure reform to improve education and lower property taxes in New Jersey,” Sen. Kyrillos said in a statement released by the Senate GOP office. “This overhaul bill allows public school districts to best serve their students and communities by ensuring only the best teachers, administrators and staff members are the ones educating and nurturing our next generation.”

Past efforts have been examples of tokenism at best and a waste of time for the more cynical among you.

Kyrillos says his legislation would accomplish the following: 

· Eliminate last-in, first-out (LIFO) seniority protections that force schools to ignore educator effectiveness and layoff high-performing younger teachers, instead of more expensive, ineffective ones;

· Require school districts to adopt merit-based compensation schedules, whereby public school employees are paid and retained based on their performances, contributions and growth;

· Allow school principals to assign teachers to classrooms where they will be effective; and

· Alleviate tenure-law obstacles for school districts seeking to become more efficient by consolidating or merging services.

It’s a tough issue, Save Jerseyans.

Why? Because it’s easy enough to say “let’s reward good teachers and reform/penalize the bad ones,” but how do you effectively evaluate teacher performance when the good teachers find their classrooms filled with the most challenging students on an annual basis?

There’s also an emerging consensus among everyone NOT in government that testing is close to useless.

School choice is the only solution. The free market is the only fair way to judge any professional’s abilities. Anything else is probably a net negative for hardworking teachers and a net neutral for the kids we’re trying to help. Just one former student’s opinion…

– See more at: https://savejersey.com/2014/06/kyrillos-california-tenure-new-jersey/#sthash.3GPFmDS8.dpuf

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Why I’m pulling my kids out of public school

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Why I’m pulling my kids out of public school
By Lynne Rigby
Sunday, June 8, 2014 6:21pm

Lynne Rigby with her husband and five children. “Today’s public school atmosphere is all about accountability and not about the actual needs of the child,’’ she writes in her open letter to Gov. Rick Scott and school officials. “Not everything in education can be quantified.’’ Lynne Rigby photo

Editor’s note: More than 150,000 people have read a posting byLynne Rigby, a 40-year-old Seminole County mother of five children, on her website, lynnerigby.com. Rigby, a former teacher, addressed it to Gov, Rick Scott and Seminole school officials. The following is a condensed version.

I am a parent of five children in Seminole County schools, aged 4 to 16. My husband and I are deeply embedded in this community. We are both successful products of Lake Brantley High School. I graduated from the University of Georgia in 1995 and came back to Seminole to teach kindergarten; he is currently the pitching coach for the Lake Brantley varsity baseball team. We stayed here so our kids would be blessed with a similar educational experience.

This year has been completely disheartening for us. You see, I’ve been okay with FCAT … show what you know, I get it … some sort of accountability. That was until this year. My third-grade son, Jackson, has had mostly As, a scattering of Bs through his Bear Lake Elementary career, much like his brothers. However, he has had the Discovery Education tests added to his school year. I saw his score on DE in first grade and it was scary low, in the 20s. But his teacher said he was doing fine. Same thing in 2nd grade, though knowing that FCAT was looming, I began to panic a bit.

We read out loud together each night through the summer, talked about the books as we read, and I believed that would pay off on the first DE test of third grade because he was doing really well. I was wrong. His first DE test was similar to others, but now his teachers started panicking because their pay depends on it. He was sent to remedial LEAP and ultimately a math pullout group. All the while he has had mostly As and a few Bs.

Disconnect. That’s the word that plays over in my head. How can he do all his homework on his own, never struggling with any topic and get such a low percentile on a test? Then, an epiphany. What is the validity of this test? How does it relate to our curriculum?

https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/why-im-pulling-my-kids-out-of-public-school/2183493

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Key to student success lies in the home

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Key to student success lies in the home

JUNE 10, 2014, 5:17 PM    LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 2014, 5:17 PM
BY CHRISTOPHER DE VINCK
THE RECORD

Christopher de Vinck is the language arts supervisor at Clifton High School in New Jersey. His 13th book is “Moments of Grace” (Paulist Press).

LET’S CREATE a national program called “No Child Left behind,” and flood the schools with standardized tests. Let’s change the name and call it “Race to the Top.” Let’s put kids in uniforms. Let’s increase the school day. Let’s pay teachers less money. Let’s pay teachers more money. Let’s create charter schools. Let’s create schools just for boys. Let’s create schools just for girls. Let’s have kids pray in school. Let’s create common core standards. Let’s blame the college teacher-education programs. Let’s blame the teachers. Let’s blame the parents. Let’s give the governors and the business community the keys to the schools. Let’s flood the schools with technology. Let’s call schools boring. Let’s blame the curriculum.

Don’t you see how foolish we have been? Don’t you see that all of these initiatives are focused on the politics of education and not education? Don’t you realize that none of these attempts has made any difference in the education of children for the past 40 years?

Based on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (the nation’s report card), the average reading scores for 17-year-olds today is not significantly different from the scores in 1971.

For the past 43 years our nation has been dodging the real reasons why our system of education has been stagnant.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/opinion/opinion-key-to-student-success-lies-in-the-home-1.1032741#sthash.mqxaCdMj.dpuf

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Two attempted child luring incidents reported in Bergen County

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photo by Boyd Loving

Two attempted child luring incidents reported in Bergen County

JUNE 7, 2014, 3:31 PM    LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 2014, 3:35 PM
BY AARON MORRISON
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

Authorities in two Bergen County towns were dealing with reports of attempted child luring Saturday.

In Elmwood Park, a 10-year-old girl told police Saturday morning that a man driving a red sedan asked if she needed a ride. When she refused the offer, the man yelled at the girl and he sped off, said Sgt. Ralph Sigona of the Elmwood Park police. Detectives were reviewing security footage from a building near where the alleged luring attempt took place, added Sigona, who did not release the location of the incident.

Tenafly Schools Superintendent Lynn Trager described a similar incident, reported to police Friday evening, near the Stillman Elementary playground at Windsor and Tenafly roads. A student was approached by an “older teenager with short hair” at approximately 9:30 p.m.

The teen asked the girl to come with him, but she ran away and informed an adult, Trager wrote in an alert sent to parents.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/two-attempted-child-luring-incidents-reported-in-bergen-county-1.1031213#sthash.jNk0qP1h.dpuf

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Concerns about hospital proposal

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Concerns about hospital proposal

JUNE 6, 2014    LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, JUNE 6, 2014, 12:31 AM
PAGES: 1 2 > DISPLAY ON ONE PAGE

Concerns about hospital proposal
Marcia Ringel

To the editor:

At two recent Planning Board meetings, residents were invited to share their concerns about Valley Hospital’s expansion proposal. This letter roughly reiterates my statement on May 20.

A child says, “I want a pony.” The parent says, “How about a puppy — or a guppy?”

Child’s counteroffer: “How about a slightly smaller pony with setbacks and an above-ground parking lot?”

The family doesn’t spend eight years discussing where a horse could be stabled or what it would eat. Just: “No pony.”

Valley Hospital’s revised proposal is a slightly smaller pony.

In the past 42 years I have entered Valley as an inpatient, outpatient, parent and visitor. But Valley feels less caring to me now. Our community has been treated with contempt by our community hospital, marketing madly with millions saved in taxes on the backs of this community. What began as David and Goliath morphed into David and Godzilla.

I feel perplexed as my neighbors must repeatedly remind our elected and appointed officials that we love our village, begging them not to destroy it in the name of progress or for fear of litigation.

I feel alarmed that almost every year a new group of residents has felt compelled to band together to protest the handing over of our public lands and space.

I feel betrayed by our Board of Education, who wimped out when they should have spoken out.

I feel dismayed that this issue has overshadowed five council elections.

Ridgewood neighborhoods are adjacent to schools, fields, parks, shops and a hospital. We lived in harmony for many years. That delicate balance must return.

Several decades ago the late Barney Van Dyk told me that he wanted to include indoor seating in his ice cream store, nestled among homes on Ackerman Avenue. But he graciously accepted the zoning board’s refusal, understanding that zoning laws protect residents. Ice cream is still eaten in the parking lot.

We have no dearth of fine hospitals. Even New York is coming: Memorial Sloan-Kettering in Basking Ridge and in the fall, physicians’ offices in Paramus for the Hospital for Special Surgery.

Village Planner Blais Brancheau’s recent report said Phase 2 of the hospital expansion might not happen. Of course it would, as would Phase 3, causing decades of unstoppable derangement — a tax-exempt Juggernaut that no wall, buffer or traffic island could mitigate.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/opinion/opinion-letters-to-the-editor/letter-concerns-about-hospital-proposal-1.1030466#sthash.qhqYB8WM.dpuf

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Ridgewood council to vote on changes to Garber Square road project

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Ridgewood council to vote on changes to Garber Square road project

JUNE 5, 2014    LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JUNE 5, 2014, 3:37 PM
BY BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER

Ridgewood Council members this week offered their preliminary support of recommended changes to the controversial Garber Square improvement project, and their decision will be official when they vote on a village resolution June 11.

Resident protest and input over the past three weeks prompted municipal officials to revisit the plans, which call for the installation of a bicycle lane in each direction of Garber Square from the train underpass to West Ridgewood Avenue. To accommodate the bike lanes, a majority of Garber Square was reduced to one motor vehicle lane for each direction of traffic.

Though the village will continue that portion of the project, officials have agreed to reduce the width of the median separating easterly and westerly traffic from 8 feet to 4 feet. A smaller median gives the village “flexibility” in the event engineering officials opt to reinstate the second traffic lane and eliminate the bike path, according to Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld.

“It’s a fallback if congestion that is untreatable does occur,” Sonenfeld said at Wednesday’s council work session. “We’re not trying to cause congestion, but we’re trying to slow down traffic.”

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/ridgewood-council-to-vote-on-changes-to-garber-square-road-project-1.1030107#sthash.6B8TyDIm.dpuf