Ridgewood NJ, In cooperation with the Ridgewood High School Social Studies department, Ridgewood Historical Society proudly presents:
“LETTERS FROM HISTORY” Contest!
Open to all RHS students. We challenge students to write a letter inspired by local history and the current exhibit at the Schoolhouse Museum.
• Write a 1-page letter about a war or revolution from the exhibit and an artifact on display. The letter must be from the perspective of a fictional person involved in some aspect of the historic time to a relative back in Ridgewood.
Examples: a soldier in World War I writing to parents; a Civil Rights worker writing to a sibling; a soldier in Vietnam writing to a friend. It should involve emotions people would have experienced—loneliness, fear, excitement, etc.—in the context of the specific time.
The museum is open Saturdays 1pm-3pm, Sundays 2pm-4pm, and Thursdays 1pm-3pm.
When you force retirees with disposable income into “exile” for 181 days per year out of state so they are not nnj residents for tax purposes, it will lead to an exponential loss of revenue .
Yes, nnj will still hose them for property taxes on the homes they keep here. But for 6 months they will be buying goods and services from their local vendors in fla . Nnj won’t get sales taxes on those lost purchases . However the grocery stores gas stations restsaursnt won’t be getting revenue here either which is lower profits and less income taxes.
Thank the moron democraps for chasing those of us out of here who pay the bills.
People had a right to be for OR against the garage. They still do. But Aronsohn and Sonenfeld had NO RIGHT to spend public funds to promote their agenda. And let us not forget Ms. Hauck, who actually hired the video company that made the video, paid for it, and then collected reimbursement from public money. Private citizens can send out any mailings they want, such as those Herr Halaby sends from time to time, and those that politicians send, and those that restaurants flood our mailboxes with. But if private funds are used, there is no crime. Surely if you are smart enough to come up with a clever numeric moniker, then you can understand this concept.
And while we are on the subject, what about Ms. Sonenfeld’s interference with citizens who were legally seeking signatures on the referendum petitions. That was grossly inappropriate, and we have videos of her self-righteous blustering performance in Van Neste.
We are so lucky to be rid of Aronsohn, Sonenfeld, Hauck, and Pucciarelli. They were fueled by egos that would not quit, they screwed us with high density housing, Aronsohn attempted to destroy two citizens’ jobs, he edited citizens’ letters to the paper before they could be printed. Sonenfeld, Aronsohn, Hauck, and Pucciarelli berated members of the public loudly and nastily. The list goes on and on. Watch closely folks, whoever these people support in the spring will be tainted with toxins.
Ridgewood NJ, Law enforcement officials from the Village of Ridgewood will be cracking down on drivers impaired by alcohol or drugs as part of the annual end of year “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” statewide campaign. Beginning December 8, 2017 and continuing through January 1, 2018, local and state law enforcement officials will conduct saturation patrols and sobriety checkpoints looking for motorists who may be driving while intoxicated.
The national “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” effort endeavors to raise awareness about the dangers of impaired driving through a combination of high-visibility enforcement and public education.
Last year, 20% of all motor vehicle fatalities in New Jersey were alcohol-related. Nationally, more than 10,000 people die each year in drunk driving crashes. The societal cost associated with these crashes is estimated to be $37 billion annually.
Law enforcement agencies participating in the Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over 2017 Year End Holiday Crackdown offer the following advice for the holiday season:
• Take mass transit, a taxicab, or ask a sober friend to drive you home.
• Spend the night where the activity or party is held.
• If you see an impaired driver on the road, contact law enforcement. Your actions may save someone’s life, and inaction could cost a life.
• Always buckle-up, every ride. It’s your best defense against an impaired driver.
• If you are intoxicated and traveling on foot, the safest way to get home is to take a cab or have a sober friend or family member drive or escort you to your doorstep.
• Be responsible. If someone you know is drinking, do not let that person get behind the wheel.
Ridgewood NJ, Bergen County Prosecutor Gurbir S. Grewal is issuing a public advisory for county residents. During the past month, there has been a rise in motor vehicle thefts occurring in the overnight hours throughout Bergen County. Residents are advised to be aware of subjects entering their driveways for the purpose of stealing motor vehicles. Local police departments are aware of the crime spree and are actively investigating.
During this crime spree, actors looking to steal vehicles check door handles to determine if a vehicle is unlocked. If the keys are left in the unlocked vehicle, the actor(s) simply enter the vehicle, start the vehicle, and drive away.
If the vehicle is unlocked and no keys are left in the vehicle, actor(s) remove valuable items left in the vehicle by the victim, and then target the next available home.
On two occasions, multiple vehicles have been stolen from the same home. During the last month, there have been 30 incidents in 19 Bergen County towns.
To reduce your risk of becoming a victim, residents should do the following:
1. NOT LEAVE KEYS, or REMOTE KEY FOBS in an unattended VEHICLE.
2. Lock your vehicles.
3. Do not leave any valuable items in plain view inside your vehicle.
If there are any suspicious individuals lurking around a driveway at any time during the day or night, residents should immediately contact your local police department.
Ridgewood NJ, Children from Ridgewood and Bergen County walk the red carpet at the winter-themed Little Skye Children’s Boutique fashion show on Saturday, December 2. The show starts promptly at 3 pm and features the season’s hottest children’s styles from the world’s top indie kids clothing designers. Sponsors include 21 Godwin salon in Ridgewood, West Ridgewood Dental Professionals and Little Nest Portraits in Ridgewood.
Little Skye Children’s Boutique is located at 171 East Ridgewood Avenue in Ridgewood, NJ. The boutique carries quality toys, books, baby and kids’ clothing from around the world at all price levels, ranging from established brands to smaller production lines. More information about Little Skye can be found at https://littleskyechildrensboutique.com. Or, please contact [email protected] or (201) 645-3132.
The bottom line is that parents and teachers are giving so much safe space that there is no thinking on the part of the student as they mature to find their way through difficulties and problems. Parents solve the child’s problems immediately and at every turn which sets them up when they are young adults for FAILURE since they have no clue how to interact to a amicable conclusion. Now the idea is just to call your opposing individual names and label them to intimidate or cry for a safe space. Those parents who have taught their children the skills to interact, accept success in a humble manner and accept failure and the consequences as a growth tool to tackle the problem differently in the future….are the ones that will succeed – you know them when you see them. These are the young adults that companies WANT to hire, the others will stumble and fall many times before figuring it out, but it didn’t have to be that way….their parents wanting to give them everything, forgot to give them the tools of life that mattered. Pity.
So what’s goin to happen to them nottin. Like the guy who stole the quarters from the meters, basically nottin.
Whereas I once mistakenly years ago put quarters in the meter next to me along Van Nest square. The meters are super close together and if you are not used to meters , you can make a mistake. My meter had no time, the one next to me had a half hours worth of time and no vehicle was parked in the space, that was the one I had put the quarters into; I got a ticket; a cop was around, I pointed out the problem. He ignored my plea and I paid a parking fine. I will never forget.
The law is absolutely subjective. If you are rich ; if you drive a fancy car; I don’t, If you are a physically attractive women; If you have influence; if you run for congress against Garrett even if you lose. If you work for the Village, even if it turns out you are a crook; you get a pass. You are welcomed back to work in Ridgewood even if you stole near a million in quarters. If I walk into a shop here, browse and decide not to purchase an item, the next time I walk in I am treated coldly.
Ridgewood NJ, given the recent finding of ethics violations against the former Mayor Paul Aronsohn and his side kick former Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld for promoting instead of educating the public ,did the Ridgewood Board of Education unlawfully use taxpayer dollars by erecting this sign on the lawn of a taxpayer owned building in an attempt to influence voters prior to the Fall 2016 General Election?
Ridgewood NJ, A van owned by John Saraceno’s company (Onyx Equities, LLC) was recently observed parked in the lot of the former Town Garage property, 120 Franklin Avenue. We wonder if this means that Mr. Saraceno is now involved in a formal business relationship with the owners of this property, just as he now seems to be with the owners of the former Ken Smith property.
If things keep moving the way they have been, pretty soon Mr. Saraceno will control more properties in the Village than the Russo-Ferraro partnership does.
photo courtesy of Healthy Choice Organic Mattress of Ridgewood
November 28,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Betsey the sheep had her day in court and according to Healthy Choice organic Mattress of Ridgewood, “Betsy was found guilty for loitering, grazing, sunbathing etc. in front of our Healthy Choice Organic Mattress store on Wilsey Square. The judge at the Ridgewood Municipal Court kindly reduced her excessive fines. Being a peaceful and respectful soul, Betsy has agreed to remain indoors until the day the town ordinances allow her to once again roam free.”
Still seems a bit of selective enforcement on the Village’s part . Now if we could only get the Village to follow through with the same action on the walls and planters that litter the side walks of the Central Business District and at times make it impassable as well as represent a fire hazard.
Ridgewood NJ, On November 13, 2017, the New Jersey Local Finance Board (LFB) issued Notices of Violation to the Village of Ridgewood’s former Mayor and former Village manager for authorizing and appearing in a video that advocated only one side of a referendum question that was pending before Village voters.
The ethics complaint was filed on June 13,2016 by the New Jersey Libertarian Party’s Open Government Advocacy Project with the Local Finance Board–the agency that enforces the Local Government Ethics Law.
The complaint alleged , “Mayor Aronsohn’s statement in the video that its purpose is to educate and inform the public about this issue, the video goes well beyond providing neutral facts. Rather, the video is clearly an advocacy piece intended to persuade Village residents to vote “yes” on the proposal. For example Mayor Aronsohn made the following statements at the noted times in the video.”
The Notices of Violation, issued against former Mayor Paul Arohnson and former Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld, both arose out of a June 21, 2016 referendum question which sought $11,500,000 in bonds or notes to finance the cost of constructing a new parking deck. Under New Jersey law, government officials may use public resources to educate ,but not to persuade voters on public issues.
The LFB concurred and found that the one sided video was persuasive and not purely educational because it advocated only one side of the question and “urg[ed] citizens to vote ‘yes.'” Using public resources to persuade voters to vote “yes” on a referendum is unfair because the referendum’s opponents do not have access to those resources and have to use private resources to distribute their message.
Arohnson and Sonenfeld, by supporting and appearing in the video, were found to have “attempt[ed] to use [their] official position[s] to secure unwarranted privileges or advantages for [themselves] or others in violation of N.J.S.A. 40A:9-22.5(c).”
Ridgewood NJ, At a recent NYU debate, psychologist Jonathan Haidt was one of several panelist who discussed free speech and the exchange of ideas on college campuses, as well as the rise of microaggressions (ideas or statements that might be subtly offensive to some people or groups).
Haidt offers several explanations as to how campuses transformed from places where ideas were freely exchanged into “safe spaces” where professors cannot interject ideas that might be deemed controversial.
People born before 1980, Haidt said, generally accept the following principles regarding life on a university:
“You are here to come to terms with ideas that might be upsetting or disconcerting.”
“We need opposition to help us learn and help us grow.”
“We know we are imperfect and prone to bias and ad hoc reasoning.”
These are individuals who generally grew up in environments in which they often were forced to confront challenges and dangers on their own. “If someone called you a stupid idiot, you either called him a stupid idiot back or you punch him,” Haidt said.
That is in stark contrast to how children were raised by helicopter parents after 1980, he said, when children were given less independence. They were taught to resolve conflicts through figures of authority. Another words they “rat” on the perpetrator of the perceived wrong .
Haidt claims , “People born after 1980 are much more likely to be in a state of moral dependency,” he said. “If somebody has done something to me, I won’t deal with it myself. I will get an adult authority, a bureaucratic authority, a diversity a department, something to punish the person who did this to me.”
American campuses are now overwhelmingly made up of students born after 1980, many of whom are incapable resolving conflict on their own.
The result is a process Haidt calls erasure, in which universities and educators strip away anything that could possibly be construed as unsettling or offensive. Eventually, ideological conformity (on campuses that implies progressivism) replaces original thought.
“This makes it impossible to teach. This makes it impossible to have an intellectual community,” he said. “I’m a liberal Professor and my liberal students scare me.”
Ridgewood NJ, New Jersey scientists are urging the state to impose a strict limit on a chemical that has been linked to cancer, developmental problems, and changes to the human immune system in the latest move to curb the presence of perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) in drinking water.
The Drinking Water Quality Institute will this week consider a recommendation to set a limit of 13 parts per trillion (ppt) for perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) as the level at which human health would be protected over a lifetime of exposure.
The limit, proposed by the DWQI’s health effects subcommittee, would be the strictest set by any state, and would build on New Jersey’s growing status as a national leader in the regulation of a family of chemicals that are found at higher concentrations in New Jersey’s drinking water than in most other places.
The plan to regulate PFOS follows similar recommendations for two related chemicals, PFNA and PFOA, which are being assigned “Maximum Contaminant Limits” (MCLs) by the Department of Environmental Protection after research by DWQI scientists over the past three years.
PFOS and other PFCs were made for consumer products like fabric coatings and nonstick cookware over more than 50 years and were phased out by the main U.S. manufacturer in the early 2000s because of concerns about their health effects.
According to Ridgewood Water , “PFOA and PFNA are contaminants that belong to a class of man-made chemicals called PFASs. PFASs are not found in the natural environment and have historically been used in nonstick cookware, upholstery, carpets, waterproof materials, fire-fighting materials, and food packaging. PFASs do not break down easily and remain in the environment for a long period of time. ”
Ridgewood Water has been participating in DEP unregulated contaminant testing for PFASs since 2009. Ridgewood Water has been proactively working to introduce treatment for PFASs in our system long before this announcement, beginning with the decommissioning of the Carr wells in Ridgewood in January 2017, which possessed the highest level of PFOA in the system. Ridgewood Water is scheduled to install a Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) filter to strip the water supply of PFASs, and we expect that the Carr facility will be back online producing treated water by the last quarter of 2018. Ridgewood Water will be initiating a robust testing protocol by the end of 2017 to determine if other system locations require treatment.
Ridgewood NJ, according to Kerry McDonald is a Senior Contributor for Intellectual Takeout , ” Parents are fed up. As mass schooling becomes more restrictive, more standardized and more far-reaching into a child’s young life, many parents are choosing alternatives. Increasingly, these parents are reclaiming their child’s education and are refocusing learning around children, family, and community in several different ways.”
It started as a trickle but now over two million U.S. children will be avoiding the school bus altogether in favor of homeschooling, an educational choice that has accelerated in recent years among both liberal and conservative families.
On top of homeschooling, an additional two million children will be educated this fall in charter schools. According to recent U.S. Department of Education data, the number of students currently enrolled in charter schools increased from 0.9 million in 2004 to 2.7 million in 2014, while the number of children enrolled in traditional public schools declined by 0.4 million during that same period. Taxpayer-funded but administered by predominantly private educational organizations, charter schools allow parents flexibility in choosing a school that is better aligned with their expectations and their child’s needs. Charter schools are often exempt from district policies and collective bargaining agreements that can halt innovation and experimentation, allowing them more instructional and organizational freedom. Demand for charter schools often outweighs current supply, with statewide charter caps, admissions lotteries, and long waiting lists leaving many parents discouraged and angry.
When Gov. Chris Christie leaves office , one of his clear legacies will be the growth of charter schools in New Jersey, with school enrollment more than doubling in his eight years in office.In July , his administration finished the job, announcing the final approval of five more schools to open this fall. That brings to 89 the number of charters that will be open when Christie steps down in January.
There will be close to 50,000 students enrolled in charters this fall, according to the state, up from less than 25,000 when he took office. More than 56,000 seats will be authorized with the latest approvals.
Advancing technology has also played a key roll . As online learning improves and expands, more parents are choosing virtual schools for their children over traditional public schools. Data from the non-profit organization, International Association for K-12 Online Learning, find that 310,000 young people in grades kindergarten through 12th grade participated in fully online programming in 2013, up from 200,000 in 2010. In addition to homeschoolers, charter school students, and virtual learners, more than four million children will avoid a traditional district school this fall to attend a U.S. private school.
![High_End_MV_Thefts[1]](https://theridgewoodblog.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/11-27-17_High_End_MV_Thefts1.jpg "Bergen County Prosecutor : RISE IN THEFT OF HIGH END MOTOR VEHICLES")
