I was just at Van Neste,12:30 on Friday, a veritable slice of heaven, with people on benches quietly eating what looked like bagged lunches., some people just sitting and looking, walkers along the path, some dressed as workers, others as exercisers. Super peaceful and beautiful and calm, with even a working bubbler, water fountain, that is all that is needed in the way of water. Ni big fountain, please. And please, no fences on Walnut. Why make it ugly. Does Vanianos and company envision alcohol fueled parties with loud metallica noise-muzac, going late into night, Does the village manager and company envision alcohol fueled events at Van Neste and drunken people falling off the edge. That makes me very angry. The field stone wall around the park on Walnut is all that is needed. Get rid of Roberta and her cronies already. Let those who love Ridgewood RULE.
Paul Vaggianos was the first to get up at the mic at a town council meeting a year or two ago and ask that Van Neste be changed to accommodate lighting at night and entertainment every weekend.
Vaggianos said, “Let’s bring everyone together at Van Nest on the weekends.”
I obviously remember that. I was very saddened by his suggestion. Paul Aronsohn as mayor at the time was very receptive. I spoke against the idea at council meetings. I tried. I love Van Neste as a quiet park as it is now, an oasis of calm and beauty midst the busy downtown. Very charming invention!! Let’s keep it that way. Paul Vaggianos was happy with the big garage at Hudson. I wasn’t and wrote and spoke against it from day one. Vaggianos is a business owner in town and has influence , I have no influence. I think it would be wonderful to preserve Ridgewood a for future generations to experience, no expansion, not more congested. A town with easy accessibility to the Big Apple but with a small town charming quality. And yes, Van Neste is a big part of that as it is right in the center of the CBD. It says something by virtue of letting people experience of oasis of natural beauty and quiet in the midst of the hustle and bustle of a busy but small and charming downtown. ( I love that oasis ……sentence I made up)
Park is SMALL. Stop filling everything up. A stage when not in use (i.e., 99% of the time) would co-opt open space. We need more of it, not less. Everybody seems to think their kids are future Broadway stars. Get with the program–amateur performances are for the performers. Noise in the middle of town would just drive people away. What happened to peace and quiet? You can’t even just sit on a park bench any more without acres of concrete? Even sitting in the dark on a summer night is nice. No need for Klieg lights. How about Strobes?
Ridgewood NJ,Patrolman Patrick Elwood assists with traffic as a new flag pole is installed at the Ridgewood Post Office this morning. The new flag pole replaces the original flag pole installed in 1937.
We should memorialize this caper with a village plaque to hubris and for the future generations to Trust but first Verify.Could have turned out quite differently without the hard and determined efforts to overcome those developers and some whom they called to dance to their opportunistic tune.
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.
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.
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.
We should probably all accept that our form of government allows a small minority to rule the day. Whether you’re for or against parking that’s what essentially happened twice with four years in between events. Lost in these small minorities exerting their will is the fact that we cannot make progress on parking; an issue that, like it or not, a super majority of your neighbors and out of town shoppers/diners would say is the biggest problem in the CBD. So we fight over specific solutions.
Anyone that’s been here more than a week and a half laughed out loud when someone recently had the genius idea to build parking at the Town Garage site. Why? Because 10 or so years ago, we went through this same process with a design, bonding, etc. for a garage there. What happened? A small group of people objected and the project was killed. Fortunately our spasm this year happened before we bonded so we don’t need to service debt that won’t be used. Anyone care to go back into the meeting minutes to see if someone suggested Hudson Street as a better alternative then? Round and round we go.
So we may seem to be left with glacial progress on big issues. But maybe not. Let’s have the argument once and be done with it: let’s form a Charter Commission to review the town charter. Maybe we need a ward system, allowable under the terms of our charter, to ensure single issue (again, for or against, no difference here) council-people from one section of the village don’t rule the day. Perhaps a different charter altogether is in order. But something needs to change or we’ll find ourselves with a different kind of village leadership: leadership that wears black robes and doesn’t ever need a single vote for re-election. It’s already begun.
Thank God people spoke. I want to Thank all of those who took the lead on this. Those who so forcefully pushed this monster are the worst enemies of our village. I have been driving around all weekend day or night and have found PLENTY of parking at every corner and not farther than 5 mins away to walk to ant restaurant or store. Our village is lovely the way it is, it just needs improvements but nothing major. I hope the new council identifies the obvious and doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel with monstrous “investments”.
No garage at Hudson and S. Broad, please. That parking lot could be rejiggered for whole lot less than $11.5 million and counting to provide more spots. But restore the lane at the north end of the rows in the middle that previously enabled people to go all around the lot seeking a space. Blocking it off to insert a couple of more spaces was wrong. Parking garage contingent: please read all the information and rethink. A garage at that location would be of benefit only to local building owners and the would-be developers of apartments who could legally use the existence of such a garage to reduce even further the paltry number of parking spaces they intend to provide, merely worsening the situation and putting us back to Square One or worse. Unfortunately, careful manipulation of the populace replaced honesty for too long. Look deeper, for the real motivation, and shake yourself awake–do not believe the hype of the departed council members or the yaps of their hangers-on or those with a personal stake in this (Vagianos, etc.).
Well I went to Raymonds for lunch yesterday and had a choice of four, yes four parking spaces within direct line of sight of the restaurant. The restaurant was packed, people waiting for seats. Now I know all you garage supporters will say that this was mid August so of course there was plenty of parking. But town was jumping, people were in Van Neste, Raymonds was crazy busy, and yet there was tons of parking. Like 8:11 said, some kids will do anything to get their parents to buy them a car, including write letters about how there has been a parking problem for 20 years and the author is only 18. So ridiculous.
On Friday, August 1, The Ridgewood News published a letter to the editor entitled: “New driver frustrated by lack of village parking.”
Not surprisingly, the author of the aforementioned letter, Mr. James F. Schimmel, failed to mention that his family owns the commercial building located at 20-26 East Ridgewood Avenue, which is less than 150 feet away from the proposed Hudson Street parking garage.
Certainly, the value of said property would increase if the parking garage were built and rental fees for it could be increased as well.
Yet another letter writer who chose to omit key information from a letter to the editor about the proposed parking garage. When will it end?
Boyd A. Loving
Ridgewood resident
Note: The Ridgewood News opted not to publish a response from me, almost identical to the above letter, regarding Mr. Schimmel’s letter.
Fixing things that need fixing is a great idea. This park however looks beautiful. Paver bricks might have a limited life span, but based on the appearance of these bricks they still have plenty of life. Why change them out for ugly concrete “decorative” paver blocks? How ridiculous.
Fix the things that need fixing. Don’t waste taxpayer money on demolishing perfectly nice things to make something else. So ridiculous. This is not like a living room that you feel like redecorating. This is a park with many commemorative markers. The fact that YOU don’t know any of these people commemorated on them does not make them meaningless.
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.
Ridgewood sale days under attack by aggressive parking police .witnessed this last Friday at 12 15 aside the book store cottage place.
Merchants should look into this interms of a ticket amnesty for mid day to 6 pm for special Ridgewood sale days .try to get over ourselves RIDGEWOOD good will be remembered forever…parking tickets on sale days guarantee no repeat visit by that out of Towner…why would they come back..give them a thank you for coming flyer waiver reminder if the Meters can’t be waived.
Aronson left us these problems and we need to deal with them now, ourselves. How much money is too much to unravel what was done? Besides, this is not a witch hunt – – this is a targeted effort to try and determine the truth of repeated allegations of improper favoritism in Village life. There is a reason there is a law on the books that allows the council to conduct this inquiry. This is exactly the situation where an investigation is required.
