Good evening. This is Mayor Paul Aronsohn with a special announcement about our Memorial Day activities. In light of the expected rain storms, we are making contingency plans.
Regarding the American Legion Sponsored Memorial Day Service scheduled for 11am … the Service will be conducted rain or shine, but if it is raining, we will hold the Memorial Day Service in Mount Carmel Church at the same time, 11am.
Regarding the North Jersey Masters Ridgewood Run scheduled to start at 8:15am … the Run will also happen rain or shine, UNLESS the weather becomes dangerous.
For both events, I urge you to check the Village website for the latest information. Our website is www.ridgewoodnj.net .
And for more information on the Ridgewood Run, please visit www.ridgewoodrun.com.
Thank you. Have a great holiday. And please be safe.
photo by Boyd Loving
May 29,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, The two major events on Memorial day in the Village of Ridgewood today . First there is the Fred D’Elia Ridgewood Run at Veteran’s Memorial Field, Monday at 8 a.m. and the American Legion Post 53 will host a service at Memorial Park Monday at 11 a.m. in Van Neste Square on East Ridgewood Avenue.
The Ridgewood Run is the premier road race in northern New Jersey and one of the longest running races in the tri-state area and the Village of Ridgewood Memorial Day commemoration is honoring those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Please leave plenty of time for travel the Fred D’Elia Ridgewood Run leaves many roads inaccessible .
The Ridgewood Run is a rain or shine event. In the event of dangerous weather, updates will be posted here and on our Twitter page. You may also call the race hotline at (973) 333-483
1st Place winner, Alexandra Gutierrez with Scott Garrett
May 26,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Rep. Scott Garrett (NJ-05) announced the winners of the 2016 Congressional Art Competition at Sussex County Community College in Newton this Saturday. The Congressional Art Competition is open to all 9th-12th graders from New Jersey’s Fifth District, and this year’s competition featured 90 pieces of artwork from New Jersey high schools in Bergen, Passaic, Sussex, and Warren Counties (full list below).
This year the winners were: 1st Place, Alexandra Gutierrez, “Split Vision,” Bergen County Academies; 2nd Place, Grant Brewster, “Forgotten,” Delbarton School; 3rd Place, Nicole Spangenburg, “Doug,” Wallkill Valley Regional High School; 4th Place, Nicole Spangenburg, “Rasta Man Dan,” Wallkill Valley Regional High School; 5th Place, Sophia Bevacqua, “Landscape,” Northern Highlands Regional High School; 6th Place, Nicolina Kanapinski, “Take Me For a Ride,” High Point Regional High School; 7th Place, Maansi Srivastava, “The Afternoon Glow,” Bergen County Academies; 8th Place, Sarah Vargas, “The Dreamer,” Bergen County Academies.
Each spring, the Congressional Institute sponsors a nationwide high school visual art competition to recognize and encourage artistic talent in the nation and in each congressional district. Since the Artistic Discovery competition began in 1982, more than 650,000 high school students have participated. Students submit entries to their representative’s office, and panels of district artists select the winning entries. The first-place winner from each congressional district is invited to attend a reception in Washington, D.C., and the winning artwork is displayed in the U.S. Capitol for a year. Read more here.
Students from the following schools will be participating (by county):
Bergen County Academies
Bergen County Technical High School (Student lives in district)
Ridgewood NJ, The CRR vs. PB and Valley complaint reads like a Shakespearean tragedy (or comedy), brought about by Valley’s scorched earth tactics and Gail Price’s hubris. How so?
First, during those “Whispering Woods” hearings, Valley attack dog/super lawyer Jon Drill sends an oh-so polished legal brief to the Board demanding Wendy Dockray be recused for being on Jeff Voigt’s campaign team. What a smarty pants Jon must have thought he was. But OOPS, wait a minute Jon, guess you didn’t know that Valley’s second favorite attorney, Ms Gail Price, is married to candidate Richard Brooks? (Hurrah for women who retain their maiden names.) You didn’t see that one coming, did ya? And as a good attorney like Jon knows, the ethics rules that govern lay people (like Dockray) go QUADRUPLE for attorneys. It’s called the “appearance of impropriety” standard, meaning CRR doesn’t need to prove there will be a new “Price-Brooks” wing at Valley; there just needs to be the potential for some stank. But to make it ACTUALLY stanky, when confronted with the conflict allegation in public, Gail still refused to step down as PB attorney and went straight to Facebook and threatened anyone in Ridgewood with “libel” for mentioning that she and Rich are married.
Gail hurdled “impropriety” and went straight to the “F–k you all, I know what’s best for Ridgewood” standard. That’s why I’m betting we say bye-bye to that mediated settlement, and perhaps to Gail as well. And as for Drill, though he can’t unhoist himself from that petard, I’m thinking Queen Audrey will give him a reprieve because she didn’t know Price and Brooks were married either.
MLS # 1616293
175 Oak St, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
3 Bedroom, 2 Full Bath, Col Stacey S. Hermann, Sales Associate Rose Hueneke, Broker Associate Keller Williams Village Square Realty
Check your test center, and learn about makeup tests.
RegisterNext Tests:1/23 , 3/5
SAT Test Center Closings
Information about SAT test center closings for the January SAT administration date will be posted to this page as it becomes available. If a makeup date or alternate test center information has been confirmed, that information will also be included.
SAT Test Center Supervisors are instructed to notify local media outlets when their centers are unable to open due to inclement weather, natural disaster, power failure, or other problems. Please check your local media for test center closings in your area.
If your center is listed as closed:
A new center may appear in the listing. In this case, access your online account and print a new, updated ticket with the new center information noted on it. You must bring your updated ticket with you on test day to the reassigned center.
If no new center appears, please be patient while we work to arrange a makeup date — you will be contacted as soon as a makeup is scheduled. Remember: don’t try to test elsewhere on test day — supervisors cannot admit standbys or walk-ins.
Please note: If you had a Waitlist Ticket for a closed center, your original Waitlist request was canceled, and you are not eligible for makeup testing. Please register for the next available date as soon as possible.
OCTOBER 16, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2015, 12:31 AM
BY MATTHEW SCHNEIDER
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
A Halloween experience like no other awaits those who are brave enough to step into a maze on Sheridan Terrace.
This free Halloween attraction, which is operated by Nancy and Greg Stewart out of their back yard, has been running in Ridgewood for 21 years and counting, 16 of which I have attended. Ever since the maze was over on Cliff Street at the Stewarts’ previous home, my family has made it our tradition to attempt to find our way through the maze, which is not an easy feat by any means.
September 28,2015
Lorraine Reynolds
Citizens for a Better Ridgewood
Ridgewood NJ, As you may or may not know, on September 30th the village council will be continuing the 2 night hearing and voting on the 5 ordinances regarding the high density housing. These ordinances would increase the density allowed from 12 units per acre (current) to 35 units per acre (UPA) in our downtown. Here’s a comparison as to what some other towns in our area allow: Fort Lee 50 UPA, Teaneck 28 UPA, Englewood 12 UPA, Hackensack 22 UPA. If passed, Fort Lee would be the only town in our area, similar in population, with a greater density per acre. I do believe the majority of the town is accepting of development, but on a smaller scale. Maybe 25 units per acre? Do we really want to be built up more than Teaneck? I certainly don’t want to be anywhere near Fort Lee’s density.
The planning board spent approximately 3 years in discussions and 1 1/2 years in a public hearing before voting. The village council had a small portion of their Sept 16 meeting devoted to this and now the council will be coming to the sept 30th meeting with their written statements prepared on how they are voting and why. The Ridgewood News had an editorial last week about “what’s the hurry?”. I have to agree with them. While I don’t want this to drag out, I do want the council to do their due diligence and get all of the facts before they vote. During the Valley hearings at the council level, the council brought in the traffic expert, planner, geotechnical engineer, etc and each council member asked questions of these experts and based their vote on what was discussed at council.
It appears that the majority of the council does not want to bring in any experts. They are ready to vote without asking any questions of any experts as to how this will effect Ridgewood. At the planning board level, a concern about the increase this would bring to our taxes was brought up several times by residents. The discussion was always shot down, because “it is not in the purview of the planning board to consider finances.” In fact, the village planner stated, “residential housing almost always increases taxes, we should not be doing this if we think taxes will go down, but there are other benefits to residential housing.” The council has a much broader scope of items they can discuss, finances being one of them. You may remember that Tom Riche voted yes to the Valley amendment at the PB level, but no to it at the council level. That is because the council is able to look at a broader range of issues. Finances should definitely be discussed.
I would like to see the council bring in several experts in addition to a financial expert. Water must be discussed. I know this year is an exception with the lack of rain, but we have mandatory water restrictions every year. Can you imagine an additional few hundred apartments to supply? I can’t.
Schools must be discussed. The planning board did not have a member of the BOE at their public hearings. The council needs to ask Dr Fishbein to appear at the council hearing to answer questions.
The traffic expert, the engineer, the planner, etc should all be questioned. I do hear the planner will be there, but that’s it.
I don’t know how anyone could possible vote on something so monumental without questioning all of these experts to see what the impacts will be for Ridgewood.
I urge you to e-mail our council and ask them to have these experts at the hearing, get the facts first hand, and then vote.
These people are our elected officials, and we have a right to make sure they have done their due diligence before they vote.
Whether you are for or against the increase to 35 units per acre, I think we can all agree that each council member needs to be able to ask questions of the experts to help them in their decision making process.
Below are the e-mails of all the council members. Please send them an e-mail today and forward this to friends. Thanks
Ridgewood NJ, The Mayor Paul Aronsohn and the Village Council has given in to the public outcry for a Second Meeting to hear public comments on the multi-family housing . On June 24 at a public meeting the Mayor basically told resident Boyd Loving to sit down and shut up when he suggested that more than one public hearing was in order.
Boyd was adamant that one night would make it difficult for some people to attend and that this one-night plan was completely contrary to the manner in which the Valley hearings were conducted. At that time the Mayor was unwilling to listen to this reasonable suggestion.
Perhaps recent events such as the lawsuit brought by the CBR, as well as intense public outcry about the single meeting, and even the Ridgewood News editorial, have caused a change of heart. Boyd it seems, was dare we say it, RIGHT.
Now perhaps you will listen to Boyd’s other suggestion to secure a larger venue for the hearings, so that overflow citizens are not sequestered in the basement of Village Hall and are somehow shuttled up and down stairs to the microphone.
The Ridgewood News editorial today highlights in the importance of the September 16 Village Council meeting for the future of our village, and asks the Mayor and Council, “What’s the Hurry?” (see link below)
The Ridgewood News approached CBR to make a statement about how the Village Council intends to rush the vote to approve ordinances that would allow high density housing, and asked our opinion on holding the public hearing on a night that conflicts with many Back-to-School nights. (see our statement to the Ridgewood News below)
We have asked the Mayor and Council to reschedule the meeting. We urge YOU to also email the Mayor and Council and ask them to either reschedule the public hearing, or to schedule additional opportunities for public comment in the future on this very important matter. The email addresses are below. Also, please continue to reach out to friends and neighbors and encourage everyone to attend this vital meeting on Wednesday, September 16.
Garrett said he was looking forward to what his office characterized as his first official town hall.
“There is nothing more important to me, as the representative of New Jersey’s 5th District, than hearing from my constituents. I look forward to having a thoughtful discussion about the issues affecting our state and our country on Thursday night,” Garrett said in a statement.
Posted: May 05, 2015 10:44 PM EDTUpdated: May 06, 2015 8:05 AM EDT
U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett, R-5th Dist., will answer questions on Thursday at what is believed to be his first town hall since taking office in 2003.
Garrett, a Wantage resident, will make an opening statement and take questions from the audience.
The town hall will be held at the banquet hall at Lafayette House Restaurant, in Lafayette, from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.
The New Jersey Herald, in an editorial board meeting with Garrett last fall, asked if he would be willing to hold a town hall meeting.
“Congressman Garrett said if we would come up with a venue and an agreed-upon date, he would be there,” Herald Executive Editor Bruce Tomlinson said. “We accepted the challenge and after some exchanges got it scheduled.”
Tomlinson said this event is an extension of the Herald’s role of providing information to its audience.
“We are happy to be able to facilitate this first-ever town hall meeting for constituents from the 5th District to ask questions directly to their congressman and hope they take advantage of it,” Tomlinson said. “We also trust that after this inaugural outing, he will continue to schedule more such events on his own.”
Email questions
Those who are unable to attend the event but wish to submit questions for Garrett can do by emailing them to the New Jersey Herald by noon Thursday [email protected]. Submissions should include “town hall meeting” on the subject line and also include the person’s name and town. Tomlinson said submitted questions will be worked in as time allows.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren recently appeared on one of the late night talk shows, beating the class warfare drum and arguing for billions of dollars in new social programs paid for with higher taxes on millionaires and billionaires. In recent years, though, blue states such as California, Illinois, Delaware, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland and Minnesota adopted this very strategy, and they raised taxes on their wealthy residents. How did it work out? Almost all of these states lag behind the national average in growth of jobs and incomes.
So, if income redistribution policies are the solution to shrinking the gap between rich and poor, why do they fail so miserably in the states?
Day after day, the middle class keeps leaving California. The wealthy areas such as San Francisco and the Silicon Valley boom. Yet the state has nearly the highest poverty rate in the nation.
The blue states that try to lift up the poor with high taxes, high welfare benefits, high minimum wages and other Robin Hood policies tend to be the places where the rich end up the richest and the poor the poorest.
California is the prototypical example. It has the highest tax rates of any state. It has very generous welfare benefits. Many of its cities have a high minimum wage. But day after day, the middle class keeps leaving. The wealthy areas such as San Francisco and the Silicon Valley boom. Yet the state has nearly the highest poverty rate in the nation. The Golden State, alas, has become the inequality state.
In a new report called “Rich States, Poor States” that I write each year for the American Legislative Exchange Council with Arthur Laffer and Jonathan Williams, we find that five of the highest-tax blue states in the nation—California, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Illinois—lost some 4 million more U.S. residents than entered these states over the last decade. Meanwhile, the big low-tax red states—Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Arizona and Georgia—gained about this many new residents.
So much for liberal policies creating a workers paradise.
One liberal economic think tank—the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy—recently issued a report on the states with the most and least “regressive” tax systems. The conclusion was that states should raise their income taxes on the rich to be more “fair.” Except it turns out that people are leaving the states that the think tank ranks as fair, and they are moving to the states the think tank ranks as economically backward.
The least “regressive” tax states had average population growth from 2003 to 2013 that lagged below the national trend. The 10 most highly “regressive” tax states, including nine with no state income tax, had population growth on average 4 percent above the U.S. average. Why was that? Because states without income taxes have twice the job growth of states with high tax rates. Unlike the experts at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, most Americans think that fairness means having a job.
Ohio University economist Richard Vedder and I compared the income gap in states with higher tax rates, higher minimum wages and more welfare benefits with states on the other side of the policy spectrum. There was no evidence that states with these liberal policies had helped the poor much and, in many cases, these states recorded more income inequality than other states as measured by the left’s favorite statistic called the Gini Coefficient.
The 19 states with minimum wages above the $7.25 per hour federal minimum do not have lower income inequality. States with a super minimum wage—such as Connecticut ($9.15), California ($9.00), New York ($8.75), and Vermont ($9.15)—have significantly wider gaps between rich and poor than states without a super minimum wage.
States are supposed to be laboratories of democracy, right? These laboratories are providing us with concrete evidence that Robin Hood policies don’t help make the poor richer, they make most people poorer. In other words, the blue states have tried the Elizabeth Warren “progressive” agenda and people are voting with their feet by fleeing in droves. The kinds of income redistribution policies that Warren and others endorse can only work by building a Berlin Wall so no one can leave—though I hope I’m not giving them any ideas.
The Ridgewood blog was founded in March of 2006 by James J Foytlin aka PJ Blogger . Mr. Foytlin was born and raised in Ridgewood ,New Jersey and is a graduate of Ridgewood High School .
Ridgewood NJ, – Oct. 26, 2009 – RIDGEWOOD, N.J. — The Ridgewood blog ( https://theridgewoodblog.blogspot.com/ ) was founded in March of 2006 by James J Foytlin aka PJ Blogger .[1] Mr. Foytlin was born and raised in Ridgewood ,New Jersey and is a graduate of Ridgewood High School .[2] [3]
After many years living in New York City[4] Mr Foytlin returned to Ridgewood after a divorce and the tragic events of 9/11 . Once he settled in he noticed a lack of sufficient news coverage of local events . One day a friend from Brazil[5] showed him her home town on the internet and to Mr. Foytlin’s great surprise when he tried to reciprocate he was utterly dismayed at the absolute lake coverage of his home town. After all Ridgewood is only 18 miles from midtown Manhattan[6] the media capitol of world and there was not a single picture of Ridgewood to be found . How could this be? Ridgewood is a picturesque upper middle class village of around 25,000 located in Bergen county in northern New Jersey[7] . Founded by Dutch settlers before it became an English colony[8] . The town or village as its called is steeped in rich history and tradition .Known for a large amount of Victorian era housing , a quality school system and a family friendly atmosphere.
Though busy getting reacquainted with his home town the fact that the Village of Ridgewood was so under represented on the internet continued to disturb Mr. Foytlin. Mr. Foytlin had been writing news letters for his job in financial services since the mid 1990’s . The popular flip, off beat investment strategy news letters had become email blasts with the advent of readily accessible internet.[9] By 2004 the email blasts were converted into blog format for the One Small Voice blog (https://onesmallvoice.blogspot.com/ ). [10]
Around that time the Village of Ridgewood had finally completed it’s much anticipated and long delayed renovation of the Village hall which has been flooded out due to Hurricane Floyd.[11] The renovation was marred by huge cost over runs and lengthy delays. In 2005 it opened with great fan fare , was once again flooded with the very first rain . Mr. Foytlin was more shocked by the abject lack of responsibility taken by elected officials than the fact that the $9 million dollar renovation had to some extent been a failure . That was the breaking point and Mr. Foytlin had had enough so he decided to give , citizen journalism a go and created the Ridgewood blog in March of 2006. [12]
The birth of PJ Blogger .By this time Blogging its seems had become quite the rage and mainstream news anchors such as Dan Rather had questioned the validity of information from non professionals sitting around in their Pajama’s blogging.[13] Mr. Foytlin not a fan of Dan Rather or any of the mainstream media decided to blog under the name PJ Blogger as a play on words and to plant himself firmly in the camp of the new digital media.
Innovations by the Ridgewood blog to citizen journalism.
“The Fly” is a column on the Ridgewood blog the originates from the expression ,”I’d like to be a fly on the wall “ . The idea is that every citizen has both a unique perspective and experience and these two factors can be used to gather news and opinions about local issues. Originally only of handful of people in town participated but with time the Ridgewood blog can now count on 20–40 semi regular contributors. These post are both anonymous and signed and are largely opinion as well a breaking news.[14]
The Ridgewood blog brings a free market lassie fare point of view to local issues . Mr. Foytlin aka PJ Blogger has stated that for local issues there are only two kinds of people ;the ones who say spend what every you want because I will not be around to pay the bill and the second group which are more focused on the ,”be careful this is my money your spending” . The Ridgewood blog is dedicated to the interplay of there two groups.[15]
[1][12] the Ridgewood blog website https://theridgewoodblog.blogspot.com/
[2] Birth Certificate born in Valley Hospital , Ridgewood 04/09/1962
[3] Ridgewood High School Class 1980
[4] 444 East 86th street ,530 East 72nd
[5] Monica Rocha
[6] Mapquest
[7] United States 2000 Census, the village population was 24,936.
[8] https://www.americantowns.com/nj/ridgewood/organization/vi…
[9] Fahnestock & Co. now Oppenheimer & Co.
[10] https://onesmallvoice.blogspot.com/
[11] https://www.ridgewoodlibrary.org/localhistory/lh_vh_pease.htm
[13] https://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110005611
[14] [15] James J Foytlin
Former Hewlett-Packard chief Carly Fiorina on Thursday blasted Apple CEO Tim Cook’s opposition to Indiana’s religious freedom law as “hypocrisy.”
Fiorina, a potential 2016 GOP presidential contender, said Cook had a double standard and cited Apple’s operations in other countries with controversial laws about gays and women in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
“When Tim Cook is upset about all the places that he does business because of the way they treat gays and women, he needs to withdraw from 90% of the markets that he’s in, including China and Saudi Arabia,” Fiorina argued. “But I don’t hear him being upset about that.”
Fiorina said his stance exposed a “level of hypocrisy here that is really unfortunate.”
She added that Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act contained “nothing objectionable” and that Cook’s criticism stemmed from “narrow special interests” rather than reality.
“I think this is a ginned-up controversy by people who play identity politics that has divided the nation in a way that is really unhelpful,” Fiorina added.
Cook, who came out as gay last year, criticized the Indiana measure when it was signed into law last week. The CEO said it ran counter to Apple’s policies on tolerance.
