Ridgewood NJ, to say last nights meeting was a disappointment is an under statement .
1. During the discussion about Ordinance 3523 to Establish Guidelines for Audio/Video Recording of Public Meetings – which was penned by Albert Pucciarelli – the subject of body cameras came up. Councilwoman Hauck described these cameras as “surreptitious,” which for her information means “kept secret.” Having stated this, she then went on to say that she has seen what a “body camera looks like and it looked like actually a terrorist with an explosive chest.” Ummmm….. Councilwoman Hauck, how can something be at the same time secretive and also look like a bomb strapped on the chest? Her ridiculous characterization elicited laughter from the audience, so much so that Mayor Aronsohn had to reprimand the public to quiet down. Seems that laughter is not considered civil.
2. Real Estate developer John Saraceno who stands to make a major bundle on all the development in the CBD, went to the microphone and stated that he is a father of school children and yadayada and that he is “a resident first and a developer second.” Yep, that rings really true.
3. Rurik Halaby once again went on about how the Village of Ridgewood is in a steady decline, same tired and untrue song. Ummm….Rurik….how can the village be in such a terrible decline if there are supposedly no parking places due to all the consumers who pour into town to shop and dine? Really? We need parking so desperately because there is so much traffic in town, but the town is in decline. Hmmm, doesn’t really add up Mr. H.
4. The impact studies were described with power points and charts. The take away is that none of these developments will have any impact on the schools, the water usage, the sewers, the fire department, the police department, the ambulance corps, etc. Just amazing, isn’t it?! Plop these great big buildings down all over town, fill them with people, and no one will even notice. Wow. What reality is this we are living in?
5. Residents were not allowed to ask any questions of the developers, but reportedly will be able to do so on March 23.
Can you see the strings behind Paul leading up to a catwalk that touches the ceiling in the campus center…?
Paulie V is a master !
Paul V is also big supporter of council candidate Brooks With Brooks and the two financial advisory committee members running, Paul and the guy who owns Fish are set.
Where are these charts and powerpoints? I looked on the village website and it’s pretty opaque.
11:17am-
Here is the report: https://mods.ridgewoodnj.net/pdf/manager/2016downtownimpactstudies.pdf
I wasn’t at the meeting so I’m not sure exactly what was shown on the slides at the meeting, but everything that was shown should have come from that document.
You’ll note that the conclusions of each section are “little to no impact”, but the actual analysis within each section doesn’t really support that conclusion. Total number of students increasing by >1%, traffic going up, demand for services going up 2-4x more than if commercial/retail development happened. Basically the argument is: “Bad things will increase a little bit with these developments, but not enough to matter.” That’s probably true for some impacts, but not true for others. I suggest you read the report and come to your own conclusions…
Now I’ll never be able to sell my house.
“5. Residents were not allowed to ask any questions of the developers, but reportedly will be able to do so on March 23.”
The public will have the opportunity to ask questions to the consultants who did the reports, not the developers on the March 23.
it always amazes me how consultants always find a way to say exactly what the council wants to be said.
Gordon Meth- traffic person- sang a very different tune a couple of months back when he was interviewed at BF.
Did anyone actually expect it would be any different? There was no way any contrary information was ever going to emerge.
There IS no contrary information. All the experts agree. Get over it.
Did the same with Valley.
@ 7:24, I am really fed up. How stupid do you think we are? or better yet how stupid are you? And I really hate using that word as I teach my children it is wrong, and really the lowest form of discourse but in this instance it applies. You can not tell me with a straight face that we add that number of people and cars to this town and their is no impact. It is laughable that we add three hundred people to a garage on broad and the traffic at that location eases per Roberta. The only way there is no impact from HDH is when you compare it to the alternate of putting Walmart or Home Depot there. It is going to be a nightmare and I am basically boycotting the CBD entirely. When schools get crowded I have resources to send to private, done.
Whoever believes the results of these “studies” is either a developer, family of a developer or one of our outgoing Council majority. Why do I keep having to ask: How dumb do these people think we are? Mr. Saraceno is especially guilty of this. If his ideas are so good for a town I’m sure they’ll lay palm fronds for him in Hackensack.
They take us for a bunch of fools. come on, can you really expect us to believe that they can plop four or five huge apratment buildings in town and it will have NO EFFECT on the schools, the traffic (other than adding a 4-way stop), the sewers, the water, the police, the fire, the emergency services……….really, right, yes we believe this. What a bunch of bull shit.
Why did Saraceno buy a house in this town if he thought it was so underdeveloped????
9:12pm, actually Mike Sedon caught the sewer impact. The consultants were like “oh, yes, but may be the planning board will take of it”. Then why did we pay you the money?
Walking around the 4 square blocks across from Fish and the Greeks you can see the build up too many restaurants now..All screaming for high peak demand parking to no benefit of the day to day Ridgewood Residents,In fact this trend is creating an imbalance of peak needs so it’s time to introduce a whole series of congestion taxes onto the landlords using
Resfaurants as a tool to fill their properties with high demand levels of town services,..come on down Landlords..feel free to pass the congestion tax onto the restaurants…join the misery party ahead…We the taxpayers are not the fools you think we are…Time for change..stop the Garage in its tracks..too many promises have been made by the soon to be outgoing VORC . A Trust broken is not soon to be forgotten….as our Taxes go up to support mismanagement.
In the Ridgewood News today it states that one of the assumptions for the school impacts is that people don’t move as their children approach high school. They only move when their children are younger. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? That me be true on a national level but it is most certainly NOT TRUE in Ridgewood. Tons of my kids asian friends moved in just before high school; they needed a high school which would provide them with a large number honors and AP classes. And I know lots of these families live in rentals. I love these families and don’t mean any disrespect . . . I am just pointing out that the study assumptions are WRONG WITH RESPECT TO RIDGEWOOD. Ridgewood sees an influx of older students who will live in apartments.
10:14 PM, what is your point?
Who is Saraceno and Vagianos candidates in this election. You can bet your ass they are knee deep in this. The best thing I heard this week is John Saraceno saying that he is a resident first and a developer second.
The best way to get back with the puppet master is to not eat at the restaurants and tell your all your friends.
John Saraceno probally has the nicest properties in town.
10:14’s point is that he is a developer first and foremost. He bought into this town and bought plenty. He clearly did not like Ridgewood the way it is and had every intention of changing it to suit his own investment income. He’s horrible.
Seeing many of young Men and Women ( likely students) hustling for the Valet services in town,many sponsored by the restaurants with their own
exclusive private sub-leased lots in and close in town..Schools ,Churches,
private office parking lots…you can’t really argue that the capacity is not
there for peak dining evenings esp on weekends.this is commerce and the
Young people have a hand in earning tips and wages with a little hustle in
Running to and from these offsite valet locations,PARKING LOT is a scam as the restaurants just want more volume and want us the tax payeyers to
Foot the Bills.No thanks to the Hudson Street Non Conforming and unsafe
garage build out..STOP THIS MISTAKE NOW.