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Reader says several hundred students who will arrive with the developments and several new schools will need to be built

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Ridgewood schools are already busting at the seams. Add the several hundred students who will arrive with the developments and several new schools will need to be built. Remember, the census of how many students live in the apartments was taken only at the high rise at Franklin and Maple. No count was ever taken in any of the garden apartments on Oak and on the other side of the tracks. Why wasn’t it taken in buildings that do accommodate children? One good thing could probably occur. There will be many fewer houses w/graduation and sale signs together. It would be much cheaper to rent one of our new apartments and just leave when their children graduate. That is what many of current apartment dwellers do when their last child graduates now.

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Reader says The past council was open about how they wanted to destroy everything about the town that made it unique and charming

3 amigos in action Ridgewood NJ

The present council is worse than the previous. The past council was open about how they wanted to destroy everything about the town that made it unique and charming. This council is devious and destructive. Watch them tear away at the islands around the train station next. And dig deep because parking meters will demand your coin from 8 a.m to 9 p.m. to fund an ugly , muggers paradise parking garage. I can just read the headlines now. Train riders robbed, injured, late at night coming home from NYC on train and getting their car from top floor of expensive garage. Expensive garage will have garbage strewn around and taxpayers will have to pay for the clean every day. Meanwhile the employee parking lot at Cottage Place is always empty, only a few cars parked there. What wonderful planning by the council. THE PAST COUNCIL KEPT TAXES DOWN. Not with this stupid council. Remember , never say never, I thought I would never vote for Aronsohn and gang, but I will next time. At least I will know what I am getting. Disappointment is too painful.

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Readers Continue to Comment on the Flagrant Abuse of Power of the Previous Administration in Ridgewood

Ridgewood 3 amigos

So first Roberta and Paul use public funds illegally to influence their stupid parking garage vote. Then we find out that Roberta, under the reign of Paul, has signed a contract that is in direct conflict with the resolution, costing us (according to the CFO last week) upwards of $200,000. Wow, Roberta, you were aces. Thank you so much for the breath of fresh air that you left on our fair town.

Active “vote yes” promotion of the parking garage by elected office holders and village employees was always wrong, wrong, wrong, and NOBODY should be criticized for complaining. Whether they live in Ridgewood or not. This was a thumb in the eye of village residents and a flagrant abuse of the reins of government. The fact that we have neighbors willing go on record with complaints against such behavior is a blessing we don’t always deserve.

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Reader says Roberta and the 3 Amigos ought to be made to reimburse the village for the cost of the video

Ridgewood 3 amigos

They worked so hard to get the garage for their own selfish purposes that it seems unfathomable that we are still talking about doing it. It was a stupid, stupid idea driven by the wrong reasons. Please, NO GARAGE–just repair the surface and rework the spaces to create more (done badly from the get-go). It shouldn’t be hard or expensive. And by the way, besides the wrist-slap fine paid to the state, they ought to be made to reimburse the village for the cost of the video, paid for with property tax dollars. That was the killer part!

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Reader says You wanted to make the village into your vision of a “Montclair light “. You lost

Ridgewood 3 amigos

The carpetbaggers came to town, they hedged their bets, bought some real estate,.they had confidence their puppet council would accommodate their demands so they can build build build , pocket the profits, and leave while sticking the taxpayers with the tab for a garage to enhance their bets, You made a bet. You wanted to make the village into your vision of a “Montclair light “. You lost. Now do us all a favor and go home, back to your real home which isn’t 07450

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2016 Year End : the Village of Ridgewood’s Biggest Losers

3 amigos in action Ridgewood NJ

file photo by Boyd Loving

December 31,2016

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood Nj, the staff of the Ridgewood blog has assembled the biggest winners and the biggest losers in Ridgewood for 2016.First the Village losers;

Far and away the biggest loser was former Mayor Paul Aronsohn, voters rejected not only his future vision of Ridgewood, voters also rejected everything about it from staffing, political appointments, planning and anyone who supported and promoted him. The only upside was that he united the Village against him and his triad of power mad ill-mannered and deceitful proponents. For many, the Aronsohn Mayorship was a huge step backward and marked the low water point for the entire history of the town. Voters rejected Aronsohn by giving his opponents a landslide victory over his chosen Village council slate.

Garagezilla; according to proponents for 80 years the Village has needed parking, looks like it might be another 80. Garagezilla was the victim of an ill-conceived design, dubious motivations and extremely poor execution. What ever happened to Municipal planning?

Other major losers this year were Valley Hospital for their continued failed vision of expansion. Valley’s self-absorbed blindness has also guaranteed it once again the “poor neighbor award”. Valley may someday get their way but they are also assured to be a victim of own arrogance opening the door for a huge property tax assessment.

Ridgewood developers were also big losers, first and foremost by supporting the failed regime of Paul Aronsohn, secondly, by being so ill informed thinking Ridgewood wanted to become Union City. A misplaced support for the former mayor has left Village developers under a cloud of suspicion, tarnishing their names and reputations and failing in their business endeavors.

And finally, the Village Financial Advisory Committee, formed by former Mayor Aronsohn to help push his pet projects through, sabotage opponents, and create a pool of like-minded power made self-absorbed flunkies. Every single FAC recommendation has gone up in flames and now their new attention is set on attacking the new Mayor Susan Knudsen . The attacks follow the same ill-mannered , innuendo driven , and sexist rants that have and continue to make fools of the all the wannabes on the FAC .

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Readers say ,Lighting in Van Neste Square has Finger prints of previous Administration

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First we have Roberta and the boys applying for a grant to rip up the brick and remove the walkway in the center of the park. Then we have installation of a tree illumination system, installation of conduit in trenches, installation of pathway lighting, installation of concealed electrical outlet boxes, installation of an audio system and other ancillary items buy the Conservatory all within the same month. I don’t believe in coincidences . Pay special attention to ( audio system and other ancillary items). I believe that one of the members of the Conservatory is a former Council person who tried to spearhead a campaign to put a gazebo in the center of the park.

Previous mayor was dead set on having horrible “concerts” and other noise wreck the peace of downtown. Is this supposed to attract apartment renters/buyers? It’s a park, not Madison Square Garden. Installation of audio systems in parks should not be happening. Thank goodness the current council refused to sign the grant application (worked on, as usual, by manager’s assistant Janet Fricke, whose tenure should end before the next manager arrives) for ugly concrete (replacing the donor-named bricks, which were going to be moved to some area in a corner or something) and a stage or fountain in the center–it’s nice having NOTHING in the center–that was thrust under their noses by the previous village manager with an urgent plea to sign because the deadline was (of course) nigh–an old village manager trick, and not only by her. Collusion by the Village Engineer, who must be replaced, was major. Get those people out of there. Cronin is no better in plotting and planning ways to wreck the place and doing lots of work before the council even knows about it. Council must remain highly vigilant about these unnecessary projects intended (even now) to make Aronsohn’s construction-union supporters happy, and quash them at the earliest opportunity.

Town must stop accepting gifts of things that we don’t want or need. “Conservancy” is a joke. People cynically join groups with a name that sounds good but represents the opposite of what they have in mind. It’s depressing. REAC’s first report was to say that synthetic turf was great, etc. “Parks, Recreation, and Conservation Board”–as long as it’s sports. I give up on all of them.

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Reader says Aronsohn regime left to us to disentangle and nullify any progress made because it never corresponded with what was best for the village of Ridgewood

3 amigos in action Ridgewood NJ

Essential to understand that everything proposed and pushed for under the Aronsohn regime, including his years on the council before becoming mayor, and no doubt before he ran in the first place shortly after moving here, was a Lego block in his long game to power. All along he was advised by paid marketing professionals who cared nothing for the populace but were paid to further one person’s career (sound like the Bridgegate trials?).The connections, machinations, and deals could fill a book. It’s left to us to disentangle what happened and to rescind and nullify any progress made in that direction, because it never corresponded with what was best for our village.

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Reader says If the Aronsohn projects go through, Ridgewood downtown may never recover

CBD high density housing

RE: October 4th,the Ridgewood Planning Board will be discussing the Conflict of Interest complaint
Get out and speak up. No, get out and shout. If the Aronsohn projects go through, our downtown may never recover and the Aronsohn blight will spread through town over the next decade. We’ve all spent a lot of tax dollars to maintain this town, let’s not give it up to a handful of land speculators who have to be laughing gleefully at the stupidity of the Aronsohn council majority.

More importantly, the conflict issue raised by these citizens calls out to all of us. Is this how we want our local government to be run? If these allegations are true, we need to put that truth into the light of fay and take appropriate action. If we don’t, what message do we tell the next generation? Just as importantly,, what message do we send to the next round of land speculators who want to take over another section of town for their own profit? Do we want that message to be: “Sure, get some friends placed on our planning board and walk all over us.”

So,email or call your planning board representatives. Show up at the meeting. Write tot he town council, especially those we just elected and tell them you want action.

Please also consider sending the following note to the Planning Board and our Mayor via email:

Dear Mayor Knudsen, Chairman Joel and Planning Board Members,

I am aware that a group of concerned residents delivered a Motion of Complaint to the Ridgewood Planning Board, under By Law Sections 2.13 and 7.21, dated September 16th. Their motion brings to light a series of conflicts of interest and unacceptable mistakes that impacted the high density housing votes. It spotlights the truly defective process by which these highly unpopular ordinances (3489, 3490, 3491 and 3493) were passed. It is not right for Ridgewood residents to have such important decisions made, and the future of our village impacted, by a forum influenced by potential personal conflicts and/or mistakes. Preventing such actions is clearly the intent of the Planning Board’s own By Laws.

Therefore, I fully support the motion made by these residents. I ask that the Board stop all current high density site plan reviews and promptly begin a complete review of the residents’ complaints. Should any conflicts or mistakes be found, the Ordinance votes and Ordinances themselves should be rescinded and reevaluated via a proper and untainted process.

Secretary Cafarelli, please forward/print this email to all Planning Board members.

Thanks for considering this request.

EMAIL TO:
Mayor Susan Knudsen, Mayor (sknudsen@ridgewoodnj.net) Michael Cafarelli, Planning Board Secretary (mcafarelli@ridgewoodnj.net)
My email address: (leeda325@gmail.com)

 

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Reader says it always appeared that Aronsohn sold Ridgewood out to developers and other profiteers with whom he wished to curry favor

Ridgewood 3 amigos

In my humble opinion, it always appeared that Aronsohn sold us out to developers and other profiteers with whom he wished to curry favor. Its shameful Yes, we have parking issues. They were never addressed by the Aronsohn administration because his focus was on those who seemed to want to profit from government largess and not Village residents. Distribution is probably our main “problem” – – and its good to see the new council recognizing that and attempting to address that issue before spending millions on a new garage. Yes, we may need a new garage, but let’s see what some of the other solutions are first. I thought Voght laid it out very nicely a meeting or two ago. Yes, let’s spend a few thousand on signs, parking and street re-alignment and then see if we need the garage. Keep up the good work!!

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Reader says Village Manager, Human Resource, Village Engineer, Superintendent of Parks and Rec. are running this town not the new council

3 amigos

First of all why is Christopher Rutishause e-Mailing plans for the park to Bill Gilsenan? Why is Gilsenan getting involved in the park? Im tired of all the so called Demigod running this Village. Paul Vagianos, John Saraceno Ed Sullivan, Tom Hillman and now Bill Gilsenan. Their names were not on the Village ballot for council. This council has to watch very closely what goes on because there has always been a small group self proclaimed Demigod who try to run this town from behind the scenes. Simply voting out the 3 Amigos is not going to stop this because its Systemic.

VM, Assistant to the VM, HR, Village Engineer, Superintendent of Parks and Rec. and the above named are running this town not the new council. Poster just need to reflect back to some of the fiascos that have happen in the last 4 years to find the common thread. Wise up new Village Council and get a grip on this. Don’t let them distract you while they plan or plot.

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Readers Analyse Ridgewood “Garage Vote”

pro garage signs 2

 

The first election was presumably simply for a parking garage. Many of us voted “yes” because we do need a garage. When Aronson and crew decided that we voters “really meant” to vote “yes” on that monstrosity that he wanted, a second vote was held. On that we voted “No” because it was supposed to be “Did we want to bond money for ‘A’ garage” but Aronson inserted the amount for the largest garage that he wanted. He also set the vote on the earliest possible date, while he was still in office so he could presumably still break the ground for his dream. And yes, our new Council members did say they wanted a garage but not “that” garage. So, to me, what the voters wanted was still a garage, but not something of that size. And they wanted the new Council to handle the details with input from the residents of Ridgewood.

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file photo by Boyd Loving

We voted against the monster garage.People were duped into voting for the monster garage in November. We were reassured that we were voting for A garage, not any specific design.
Then some hard working residents started a petition drive against the monster garage. No one ever said that they were against building a garage. They just want the right size in the right location.
Council members who were elected said that they would look into a redesign/relocation. No one running said that they were against a garage. There will be a garage.

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file photo by Boyd Loving

One current council member admitted publicly during the campaign in the spring that he had been among those bamboozled by lies and omissions about the garage (he did not put it quite that way) and voted yes in the November referendum. He was among many. Had a true depiction and description been made available, including the fact that the thing was going to Occupy Hudson Street, and if it had been explained, as was the case, that a “yes” vote was not for a concept, but for the largest drawing–formally “approved,” by mayoral fiat, by the Historic Preservation Commission’s relatively new chair (appointed by the then-mayor), without checking with the members, and by the mayor’s personally created and hand-picked Financial Advisory Committee–how many residents would have agreed to it? Only those with something to gain, those who pay no attention, and those whose finger slipped in the voting booth. I think the “yes” votes would have amounted to about 150, including mistakes.

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Reader says I feel sick about the endless pathetic attempts to manipulate and deceive Ridgewood by Aronsohn and his minions

3 amigos

Does anybody actually believe the kid had anything to do with that letter? A show of hands, please. Letter ends, “Let’s get it done”–has a teenage boy ever said or written that sentence, especially about a parking garage? Comical idea. But mostly, I feel sick about the endless pathetic attempts to manipulate and deceive us. Are Aronsohn’s minions being treated to the marketing programs of White Horse Strategies? They’re working so hard to fleece us. More important, could all these selfish, destructive, impossibly contemptuous people please shut up and go away or become honest? Either will do. Tired of identifying their ploys and rejecting them.

the letter: https://www.northjersey.com/opinion/opinion-letters-to-the-editor/ridgewood-news-letter-new-driver-frustrated-by-lack-of-village-parking-1.1640429

 

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Reader says its Time to Ban the Ex Mayor and His Supporters from Grand Standing at Public Meetings

village council meeting

file photo by Boyd Loving

Clearly, this was an attempt on Ms. Winograd’s part to generate a newspaper headline that the current Council was seeking to limit public comment.

Siobhan Winograd is on the anti-Knudsen team.

Let’s list the mouthpieces for the former megalomaniacs so that we’ll know we can ignore everything they say. Sonenfeld, obviously. Willett and Weitz. Winograd. Halaby, Griffith.

Why would the former council members, who were defeated resoundingly, come to the meetings to attempt to advance their failed agendas?Are they just spiteful? Do they need to grow up?

Hot button issues bring a lot of people to public meetings. To limit their input would be wrong and would make them feel that their voices do not count.

There were a lot more residents speaking against the garage and high density housing than in favor of the projects. Maybe this attempt to limit public comment is an attempt to limit dissent.

Those with a financial interest in the projects, and their paid staff, will continue to go to the meetings. It will provide more time for them in front of the mic.

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Former Ridgewood Council Attempts to Advance Failed Agenda

Ridgewood 3 amigos

August 12,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Why would the former council members, who were defeated resoundingly, come to the meetings to attempt to advance their failed agendas? Are they just spiteful? Do they need to grow up?

Clearly, this was an attempt on Ms. Winograd’s part to generate a newspaper headline that the current Council was seeking to limit public comment.

According to the Ridgewood News which slept through the entire election Winograd was “compelled” to speak looking “to relieve the contentious energy that has been brewing for months”. The “contentious” energy was voted out of office and their agenda was resoundingly rejected . Perhaps if the Ridgewood News would have posted a few per election letters to the editor they would know that.

Once again Paul Aronsohn and the “3 amigos” show a limited understanding of Ridgewood and how things work. Hint : its considered very low class and disrespectful for failed council members to attempt to undermine the new far better ,more open , independent thinking council.