ERSEY CITY—Commuters here lock their bicycles to just about anything they can find near the Grove Street PATH train station—bike racks until they fill up, then scaffolding and even small trees.
It is a sign of an emerging bike culture that could get a boost this summer if Jersey City, Hoboken and Weehawken launch their own short-term bicycle rental system.
The City Council in Jersey City plans to vote Wednesday on a five-year agreement that would create a regional bike share akin to New York’s Citi Bike across the Hudson River. Hoboken and Weehawken have already approved the plan, which would bring 800 bicycles to docking stations at mass transit hubs, parks and neighborhoods.
“It would be really cool,” said Shashi Kara, a 36-year-old attorney, as he unlocked his silver hybrid from a sign post at the Grove Street stop on his way home from work in New York. “A lot of people are definitely using bikes to get to the trains.”
The program would bring the northern New Jersey towns in line with a growing number of cities with bike-share programs. It would still be dwarfed by New York’s 6,000-bike system, and programs in Boston and Chicago have about 1,000 and about 3,000 bikes, respectively. (Tangel/Wall Street Journal)
Eight RHS Students named 2014 National Merit Finalists
Ridgewood NJ, All eight National Merit semi-finalists from RHS have been named finalists. Congratulations to Brian Collins, Monica Dawes, Debbie Ou, Brian Park, Mark Perfect, Britta Potter, Syed Raza and Jeffrey Sheu.
Photo: Assistant principal, Jeff Nyhuis and principal Dr. Thomas Gorman pose with National Merit Scholarship Finalsists Debbie Ou, Brian Collins, Mark Perfect, Brian Park, Syed Raza, Jeffery Sheu and Monica Dawes. Not pictured, Britta Potter.
PSE&G Wants to Put Its Money – and Its Customers’ – Into Building Better Grid
Company looking to invest $10 billion in utility projects rather than new power plants.
Public Service Electric & Gas once again is ramping up spending on its grid, saying it will invest $10 billion over the next five years — a 40 percent increase from its projections just a year ago.
The plans, outlined at an annual investor’s conference in New York City on Friday, reflect the changing nature of the energy industry, where many big companies find it more profitable to shift investments to their utilities with a guaranteed rate of return, instead of building new power plants, a far riskier proposition. (Johnson/NJSpotlight)
First draft of Ridgewood school budget keeps increase under 2 percent
MONDAY MARCH 10, 2014, 4:06 PM
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
The school district’s spending plan for the 2014-2015 school year features a local tax hike of 1.9 percent, the lowest increase for a Ridgewood school budget in the past 10 years.
The budget features a $86,223,037 local tax levy – a $1,614,402 increase over last year, which required a 2 percent property tax increase, Business Administrator Michael Falkowski said. The proposed tax levy for 2014-2015 amounts to about $172.09 more in property taxes for a resident with the average assessed home value of $688,358, he said.
The preliminary budget, which Falkowski presented to the Board of Education (BOE) on Monday, is now available on the district website. The budget “maintains existing district staff, academic offerings, extra-curricular activities and transportation,” he said, and “improves upon instruction” while meeting “our contractual obligations.”
Three Ridgewood residents to run for two seats on Village Council
MONDAY MARCH 10, 2014, 6:57 PM
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Three candidates have entered this year’s race for Ridgewood Council, which has two vacancies in May’s municipal election.
Residents James Albano, Susan Knudsen and Michael Sedon each filed for candidacy by Monday’s deadline, according to acting Village Manager Heather Mailander, and will vie for a seat on the non-partisan council. Each spot carries a four-year term.
Who’s Watching You Online?
Amy Payne
March 10, 2014 at 5:30 am
In recent years, the world has watched as Twitter and Facebook made political uprisings possible. In countries where dissidents previously had trouble making their voices heard and connecting with one another, these tools changed history.
On the flipside, however, everyone from terrorists to foreign intelligence agencies rushed into the open space online.
“Exploiting social networks for military and intelligence purposes is a global game,” explains Heritage’s E.W. Richardson Fellow, James Jay Carafano. “China, for example, has stepped up its efforts to recruit Americans studying abroad as future ‘sleeper’ agents. The top tools they use to evaluate potential recruits? Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and reunion.com.”
Yesterday, Carafano spoke at the South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) Festival in Austin, Texas. Carafano, author of Wiki at War: Conflict in a Socially Networked World, joined the technology and ideas conference to speak on the impact of social networking on today’s warfare.
It may come as a surprise to many of us that, for example, not all email spam is harmless. Carafano warns:
Foreign intelligence services also use social media to try to get inside our computers. That malware your officemate downloaded by clicking on the email offering “50 percent off pizza”? It might just as easily have come from a hacker working for the Chinese military as from a Russian cyber-criminal or some punk cyber-dude in California.
And what is the U.S. government doing to protect us?
Edward Snowden to SXSW: NSA Leaders Have Harmed Our National Security ‘More Than Anything’ Else
The fugitive leaker, appearing by video conference, attacked virtually every corner of the national security apparatus during a Q&A session at the festival.
America’s most high-profile fugitive visited one of the country’s most popular entertainment festivals in Texas on Monday, drawing thunderous applause from a crowded room filled with his adoring fans.
Edward Snowden, appearing from Russia through a live video stream, told attendees of the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin that Congress had fundamentally failed to do its job as an overseer of the government’s bulk surveillance programs, declaring that “we need a watchdog that watches Congress.
The former National Security Agency contractor, in a conversation with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Christopher Soghoian and Ben Wizner, also charged the current and most recent chief of the NSA as the two people most responsible for jeopardizing the country’s national security due to their preference for aggressive collection of data rather than protection of it after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“More than anything, there are two officials who have harmed our Internet security and national security,” Snowden said, his image backdropped by an enlarged copy of the U.S. Constitution. “Those two officials are Michael Hayden and Keith Alexander.”
New Jersey’s income taxes, estate taxes and property taxes are driving the wealthiest residents out of the state, a new study suggests.
The RegentAtlantic Capital report stated New Jersey’s high-income residents are learning to live elsewhere once they realize the amount of money they can save on taxes.
“New Jersey competes with other states, and not the federal government,” said David Bugen, managing partner. “The tax structure in New Jersey encourages high-income residents to move to Pennsylvania and still work in New Jersey.”
The report noted a high-wage earner could save $1.8 billion over 25 years by living in Pennsylvania instead of the Garden State.
New Jersey’s estate tax was also criticized by the report. The exemption for the tax on the deceased is $675,000 in New Jersey. No such charge exists in other locations, such as Florida.
“New Jersey is the most expensive state in this country in which to die,” Bugen said.
Unlike the majority of other states, New Jersey still prohibits residents from deducting charitable gifts on their state income tax return. Bugen suggested the state “does not encourage philanthropy,” creating another reason for an exodus of those with lots of money to spend. (Flammia/NJ101.5)
Property tax battle: Deadline looms on expiration of key law
TRENTON — Mayors say a group with an obscure and achingly bureaucratic name has been the most important tool in slowing the growth of New Jersey’s property taxes, the highest in the nation.
For the last three years, arbitrators who decide contract disputes between towns and their police and fire unions — known collectively as the Interest Arbitration Task Force — have been limited to increasing the workers’ salaries by just 2 percent.
But if the Legislature doesn’t act by April 1, that limit will expire. That would leave towns constrained by a 2 percent cap in overall tax increases but with less control over how much to pay police officers and firemen.
“We’re playing a little Russian roulette here,” said Bill Dressel, executive director of the League of Municipalities. “We could see arbitration awards potentially exceed the 2 percent cap that would put a stranglehold on municipalities to the extent that they would have to cut services.”
Gov. Chris Christie in his January State of the State speech called on the Legislature to make the cap permanent. (Friedman/Star-Ledger)
National Breast Cancer Expert to Speak in Ridgewood
Valley and Susan Love, M.D. Invite You to an Update on Breast Cancer Nationally Known Breast Cancer Expert and Patient Advocate to Speak at the Ridgewood Library
Breast cancer is the second most common cancer among American women. The American Cancer Society estimates that about 1 in 8 (12 percent) of women in the US will develop breast cancer during their lifetime.
Information is your best weapon in the fight against breast cancer. To learn more, The Valley Hospital invites you to join Susan Love, M.D., nationally known breast cancer author and patient advocate, on Monday, March 24, at 7 p.m. at the Ridgewood Public Library for An Update on Breast Cancer.
Please click here to read a story on Dr. Love that recently appeared in The New York Times’ esteemed Well column.
Dr. Love is one of the founders of the National Breast Cancer Coalition. As Chief Visionary Officer of the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation, she oversees an active research program centered on breast cancer cause and prevention.
She is best known as a trusted guide to women worldwide through her books, website and social media. The completely revised fifth edition of Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book was referred to by the New York Times as “the bible for women with breast cancer.”
To register for the program, please call 1-800-VALLEY 1 (1-800-825-5391) or visit www.valleyhealth.com/events. Space is limited so please register early to ensure a seat
AARP applauds Gov. Chris Christie and legislative sponsors for the recent enactment of, a new law establishing strong consumer protections
N.J. law protects consumers from misleading energy supplier calls
When temperatures plummet well below zero and we are faced with the risk of home pipes freezing and people who own them not far behind — the list of things to worry about is long. The last thing we need to concern ourselves with is the truthfulness of the stories we were told (often repeatedly) by third-party energy suppliers about how switching to them would result in lower energy rates. But as demonstrated by the soaring bills that have been hitting the mailboxes of many New Jerseyans this winter, it seems that indeed, many consumers were misled straight into massive energy bills at a time when they could least afford it.
This is why AARP applauds Gov. Chris Christie and legislative sponsors for the recent enactment of A3422, a new law establishing strong consumer protections on a variety of fronts, including the emerging energy market. The bill prohibits certain energy suppliers from making false and misleading claims to potential customers and prohibits suppliers’ repeated cold calls.
The bill, sponsored by Assemblyman Dan Benson (D-Mercer) and Sen. Linda Greenstein (D-Middlesex) passed the Legislature with near-unanimous bipartisan support. The bill was signed into law by Gov. Christie in January.
New Jersey deregulated its energy supply market more than a decade ago, but it is only recently that a third-party energy market has emerged with the drop in natural gas prices. Reports of aggressive marketing tactics and confusing and/or misleading information raised concerns at AARP and with members of the state Legislature. (Abramo/New York Times)
Reader says Washington needs to back off and stop interfering in situations that it really is financially ill-prepared to deal with
The article is a joke ( https://theridgewoodblog.net/is-us-losing-new-cold-war/ ) – it reads like something from the 1970′s or 80′s. Ukraine is a cat and mouse game with Russia being the cat. Both the Russians and the Chinese know that the Euros will not follow the US blindly anymore especially after the debacle in Iraq (a war based on fabrications and lies) and much more recently in Libya and Syria. The Europe needs Russia and China more than it needs the US – energy supplies from Russia are amongst the cheapest in the world and if the Europeans supported US-led sanctions against Russia, it would only hurt the Europeans as all European countries rely on Russia for the supply of natural gas and refined petroleum products. That reliance is between 40% (Germany) and up to 100% for the former Soviet republics.
Russia and China, which holds a huge percentage of US national debt, know that the US is living pay check to pay check and at any minute, either or both of these countries can create an economic nightmare for the US.
Washington needs to back off and stop interfering in situations that it really is financially ill-prepared to deal with. Giving Ukraine $1b in aid, when it owes Russia $1.5b for its supply of natural gas is a bit of a laugh. Ukraine can’t be bought and Crimea is best left in Russia’s control, after all, it was part of Russia until 1954 when it was decided to leave it as part of Ukraine, with the stipulation that Russia’s Black Sea Fleet would remain there.
The funny thing is, Ukraine is one of the poorest countries in Europe, with Crimea, especially the city of Sevastopol being a wealthy part of the country, thanks to Russian money and the fact that close to 90% of the population of Crimea is actually Russian.
So the US needs to back off and take care of its own issues before it considers to wet its feet in another situation that it will not be able to handle.
Reader says , either she is a political hack, or she isn’t. Nothing I can say will cause her to change her stripes.
From what I’ve seen of Ms. Sonenfeld’s background, she may have a left-of-center political perspective, which I regret, but she’s solid in other areas. I might say that people should be more moderate, or at least more thoughtful, in their statements, though, particularly if they are in a position to be asked to take a non-partisan position that obliges them to serve people of all kinds, faithfully and without bias or prejudice. But in the heat of a political campaign, things get said, both in letters-to-the-editor (Sonenfeld) AND in response to a reporter’s question (Lonegan) that could be phrased better and that don’t necessarily prove that the person has a ‘dark heart.’
She looks like nobody’s fool. I like the fact that she lives in Ridgewood. The last VM had split municipal loyalties (which caused problems during the aftermath of a big storm), and a regional political reputation to cultivate that had nothing to do with Ridgewood. I say this even though I might have had more in common with the earlier VM politically.
Readers debate value of Municipal Experience for a Village Manager
The bigger issue is that this candidate seems to be not qualified to run a large town like Ridgewood. She has no experience as a Boro Manager and zero experience in government. Its clear she is just someones friend. While she may have lots of friends, that is not the best reason to hire anyone. How about qualifications? What about all of the nearly 100 other resumes that were sent it. Does she have a B.A. or CFO liscense? What does the state of NJ require all the certifications, when the town hires a well known volunteer. Being a Officer at Deutsche Bank is not a true qualification. Also what is her current paid position. There seems to be more qualified people out there. Why the sudden rush?
Please let’s all just give our new VM a chance. Who cares whether she does not have Municipal experience. What we need is a strong professional manager who has managed large numbers of people and large budgets. Roberta has done both…..and from what I hear she has done both very successfully. With her Wall St background she knows how to push and push hard to bring much needed fiscal reform to the Village. As a strong executive in my hunch is she will do what all senior exec’s do in the private sector……..namely she will want to build her own management team. In the not too distant future I predict you will see a wave of “retirements” among current Village Department Heads. You can’t have change until you change those who are resistant to change.
Readers debate School lunch delivery ban and Vender lawsuit
Dr. Fishbein has been the voice of reason. The Village is lucky to have him working for it. Pick up the sammies on your way to school and bring them with you. There are lots of prepared luncheon items available at many delis, supermarkets or breakfast shops if you don’t want to make your own and don’t want to eat the school’s food. Why should the admin. staff have to be involved? The deliveries are disruptive and the staff has real work to do. Absolutely ridiculous on its own and allowing this could create a breach of security…. What an embarrassment these cry-baby plaintiffs are to Ridgewood. An absolute disgrace. You can still have your kids lunches made by these vendors, you just cannot use school resources in the delivery phase. Let’s hope this gets dismissed.
Hope they are proud of themselves using a tremendous amount of school funding defending their right to sit on their asses and negate their basic parental responsibility to provide food onto a business. Yeah for them!!!!
And to the businesses . . . you just lost my business and that of most of my neighbors. Good luck to you. This lawsuit has not basis; the BOE was willing to let you deliver but not if it used school resources. They asked you to come up with an acceptable plan. You could not. Cut your losses now….
There were no school resources used except to let the delivery people in…Fishbein is and always has been a nervous nellie who runs around crying safety every time he doesn’t like something.
Fishbein kept changing his story and the bottom line is that if a parent wants to have his kids lunch delivered, who the hell are you to mandate a wonder bread sandwich in a brown bag.
I am sure they can find a solution, but again there were precious little school resources used and that is a fact….
There were most certainly school resources used for lunch distribution. I witnessed it firsthand many times. Office areas piled high with delivered lunches, kids showing up to pick up their lunches only to find out they weren’t there or their order was wrong and turning to the office staff t straighten it out for them. Plenty of time and effort given by the office staff to these delivered lunches.
And the vendors were asked to come up with a plan but I guess they were too busy making money with their precious little resources.
Get off your ass, and either make/pack your kids lunch or buy/pack your kids lunch. You see, they can have their Parkwood anytime they want; it’s up to you if they get it or not. Oh, I’m sorry, is that too much responsibility for you to assume?….
