Mayor vows no delay to underpass work
trust us, we’re experts, we don’t need data or a study, full speed ahead.
In a heated Village Hall meeting Tuesday night with at least 30 residents in attendance, Ridgewood officials including the mayor did little to allay concerns about the outcome of the construction at the Franklin Ave. underpass. Mayor Paul Aronsohn vowed the project would go on as planned despite repeated requests to stop and study possible solutions. While vowing to make changes to the project, the mayor did not give any detail what the changes would be. The often loud and contentious meeting saw village engineer Chris Rutishauser under constant questioning to reveal facts and studies that led to the redesign of the heavily traveled east/west artery. Rutishauser admitted there had been no study, no hard count this year of the number of cars that travel the road, no estimation of the number of bikes and no counter to residents’ concerns that removing lanes would add to traffic congestion and therefore reduce overall pedestrian safety. Rutishauser was often combative with residents and seemed ill prepared for the onslaught of doubt and skepticism over the project. The best traffic data Rutishauser could offer was 7,000 cars traveled that area a day but he did not know how many years old that data was. Left unsaid by Rutishauser was the increase over the years in traffic at the underpass. While Police Chief Ward had the lone hard fact and data point of the night: 86 accidents at the trestle since 2008, he gave no context to the data point and did not say how that number compared to other high traffic areas of the village. Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld called the project “a leap of faith”.
Other key revelations at the meeting:
No study of existing traffic patterns
No facts to support the road changes
No immediate change to traffic lights, changes that officials admitted would help facilitate left turns at the West side intersection. No timetable was given for acquiring those much needed newer lights.
The project was designed with bike lanes to draw federal tax dollars under the complete streets planning doctrine.
The theory behind the project is to “calm traffic”, a planning concept used overseas that involves narrowing roads and other measures designed to actively slow cars.
No clear answers why the village failed to seek public input on the changes to the main artery.
James – could you post a link to the webcast of this meeting when it is available?
Playbook:
Blame Gabbert, Pause, Repeat,Then look for a distraction.
Hopefully that will work because I need my $500,000 personal bike lane.
#1: The webcast is unavailable for technical reasons…its all good though, it was a love ‘fest, trust me. -unidentified village manager.
So they designed a plan that will increase traffic congestion so they could get $146,000 from the Federal Gov’t (Our tax dollars) for a $500,000 project (Also our tax dollars) to “calm traffic.” Does any of this make sense?
Standing room only with at least 60 residents attend ing. Metin was not run by anyone.meeting was as mess like underpass.
what, a leap of faith’ manager are smoking that new fake pot. my god.
is this a joke.
I drive an ambulance through the underpass everyday to Valley. It is always an nightmare. You will have a hard time trying to convince any EMS ( Police, Fire, Ambulance) service that this is going to to be OK! Do we get ” The calming effect when we have a Cardiac situation on board, trying to get to Valley ?? ” The whole idea is crazy. How can a project like this get the ok without any one knowing about it?? I have to notify my neighbor if I am going to have a garage sale! This town is going down the crapper!
The layout of this underpass was already a deterrent to speeding. The sharp curve and close lanes left little room for speeding. Other than the pedestrian crossing at Broad and Franklin (which could have been made safer with the use of a pedestrian crossing light) the traffic flowed surprising well. This new plan is going to frustrate drivers and the consequence will be more pedestrian accidents on Franklin Ave. A bike path that leads to where? I am getting so tired of this current leadership. Residents who love this village are spending way too much energy, time and money to protect this village from others with personal agendas and monetary motivations.
Where is the Mayor’s staunch supporters on this ie THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE . No comment boys you get involve in everything else.
Bet you will not see any of this on our Mayor’s self serving website.
DOM DOM why are you so silent ?
I’m so sorry not to get to see the video of this meeting. I would love to see that smug Engineer being grilled. He is so bad for this town.
Why can’t Aronsen answer any of this?? I have been here for 67 years and have seen some really bad decisions , but this is the worse I have ever seen.Why are we letting the Village engineer make this decision??? A bike lane ” Calming effect??? ) I quit , I’m leaving with all the others who will be shopping in Midland Park, Wyckoff and Paramus. July 4 th parade will be fun also. Watching the Mummers dance around barrel barricades will be fun. Like a circus. New Village manager has shown she already isn’t ready for this job. You can always stop something as you get ready to take over. She didn’t do that. She knew of this and had no comment
This is Aronsen’s Power Hungry, Liberal, Obamacare Strategy.
Shove projects down residents throats.
“They don’t know what is good for them.”
“They will love the new traffic, overbuilt downtown and giant hospital complex once it is done.”
“To Hell with common sense and the Residents concerns”
Just spending and overdevelopment to benefit cronies.
#14. You would have made more sense if you left out the first line. That just made you seem like an “Agenda21” conspiracy theorist.
Who got Chris Christie mad?
when this big job is done and it don;t work. then who will be blamed.
hummmmmmmmmmmm.
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.
Despite Mayor Aronsohn’s assertion to the contrary, and despite Councilwoman Hauck’s lame “I stood in the hallway so there weren’t three Councilpersons in the room” excuse, Tuesday night’s meeting at Village Hall about the Garber/Wilsey Square Improvement Project should have been widely publicized as an official meeting.
Clearly, this was an deliberate plan on the part of Village Council members to circumvent certain requirements of the Open Public Meetings Act. No minutes taken, no documented list of attendees, no official record of the meeting whatsover – how convenient.
This blogger now questions the legality of changes made to a plan, as a result of feedback collected during a “private” meeting, that were unanimously approved by the Village Council in September of 2013 during a legal, Open Public Meeting.
Shouldn’t the Council be forced to approve a new resolution that formally memorializes the changes which were verbally cited by Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld during this week’s Village Council Work Session?