Until all the other Ridgewood problems are solved (Habernickle, high density housing, garage and most of all,Valley!) I can’t see the Village spending one cent on the library. It is already huge for a town this size and it has an auditorium that it rents out. (Check into how often it is rented and that will show you a need for maybe something extra on Sundays when they entertain but it is certainly not being put to daily usage. Why would one think the Arts Center would be any busier?
Offer developers incentives to build public parking
Editor, The Ridgewood Blog:
I get frustrated beyond belief whenever any member of the Village Council mentions all of the public parking spaces that will be permanently “lost” when the Brogan and Ken Smith properties are both fully developed (portions of both properties are now configured as surface parking lots and provide public parking to commuters and/or employees of CBD located businesses).
Yes; parking spaces will be lost during construction, but they don’t necessarily have to be lost permanently if someone on the Village Council would heed to my suggestion of offering incentives, in the form of tax abatements, exemptions, or reductions, to any developers who incorporate a public parking component into their development plans.
Believe me, if it were financially advantageous for a developer to incorporate a public parking deck/garage into their plans, they would rush to do so in a flash. Money talks, nobody walks.
So let’s get with it Village Council members – how about picking up the phone today and calling J. T. Bolger, Ned Cancelmo, John Saraceno, and Mike Smith to see what they have to say?
Boyd A. Loving
Ridgewood resident
photos courtesy of Boyd Loving’s Facebook page
August 6,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood PD Patrol Officer Anthony Mormino and members of the Village of Ridgewood Department of Public Works Streets Division assist an individual whose smart phone fell into a dry storm basin at the intersection of East Ridgewood Avenue and Cottage Place on Friday afternoon, 08/05. The undamaged phone was successfully retrieved by PO Mormino. Great job guys !
photo by Boyd Loving
Editor, The Ridgewood Blog:
During a Village Council Work Session held on Wednesday, August 3rd, Councilman Jeffrey Voigt publicly stated that he was approached by two (2) unnamed individuals who are “willing to testify” with respect to possible unethical, unlawful, and/or illegal actions that took place in connection with a previous Village Council’s introduction and subsequent passage of several ordinances related to the construction of high density, multi-family housing in Ridgewood. Councilman Voigt is proposing the formation of an investigative body, fully funded by Ridgewood taxpayers, to issue subpoenas, conduct interviews, hold public hearings, deliberate, and release findings/recommendations relative to this matter.
Although I wholly support finding out if there were any unethical, unlawful, and/or illegal actions that took place in connection with the previous Village Council’s introduction and subsequent approval of several ordinances related to the construction of high density, multi-family housing in Ridgewood, I am NOT supportive of the formation of a investigative body funded by Ridgewood’s taxpayers if Councilman Voigt, or anyone else on the Village Council, is already in possession of information that could be passed to an appropriate governmental investigatory agency, such as the NJ State Attorney General’s Office.
Why spend Ridgewood taxpayers’ money if there is already an agency that could handle this for us? Having an independent agency conduct the investigation would also serve to calm those who are already shouting “this is going to be nothing more than a witch hunt!”
If Councilman Voigt or anyone else on the Council has details of improprieties having taken place, he/they should PICK UP THE PHONE NOW AND CALL THE AG’s OFFICE – DO NOT HESITATE! There is no need to begin the long, drawn out, VERY EXPENSIVE process of forming a committee, issuing subpoenas locally, and conducting public hearings – I would view the initiation of such a process as intended to serve publicity purposes only.
Again, let’s cut right to the chase on this one – If someone is willing to testify that they are aware of things having been done that violated laws, DROP A DIME NOW!
Let’s stop the pussyfooting around and get on this immediately!
Thank you.
Boyd A. Loving
Ridgewood resident/taxpayer
We need more than ever to put down our phones and Pokeman duties to take a walk up our commercial Zone and support our neighbors and their businesses for this event. These are real family businesses and some newer stores and services who voted with their bank accounts and invested in us.
We are all Ridgewood Citizens, so park the car far away,take a nice walk and enjoy a bargain new outfit accessory service offering or a meal ,,snack coffee , ice cream or fudge and bring the kids and a neighbor.lets show our commitment to supporting and buying local.
Forget about an arts center. The VH is not an ATM for special interest projects.
Walnut/Town Garage site was always the best place for a parking project. Central location to CBD & transportation. Ground level + 2 upper levels. Install a traffic light at the dangerous intersection of Franklin/Walnut.
If the VC wanted to get us out of the parking lot business, it should look into the owners of the Ken Smith & adjacent properties to do parking on the west side of the property & responsible mixed use on the east side.
As long as the VC is transparent and has no sacred cows to feed, it can be done.
My 8-Point Plan for a Happy Ridgewood
Dear Village Council,
Thanks for listening to your Residents last night and for engaging in thoughtful, open dialogue about the issues facing our town. All kidding in the subject line above aside, I wanted to share
My list of key points from last night. You all have been thrown very quickly into a fire that has been burning in RW for years. The way out that is best for RW will NOT be comfortable or easy. You are clearly already taking some steps to mitigate future problems from the prior Council’s mess. But to really help us, and to do the job really right, it is going to be somewhat uncomfortable for a while. As I stated, for the past four years your Residents have really been the ones dealing with much of the uncomfortable stuff (along with Mayor Knudsen and Deputy Mayor Sedon) – rallying the troops, writing endless letters, filing lawsuits, being verbally abused by developers agents as well as prior Council members, Planning Board Members and their attorney, being physically threatened, being shut up, ignored, derided, etc., etc.
So, please don’t be afraid of the uncomfortable. We’re not. To truly lead, whether in business, in our own families, or in Ridgewood, we all have to face the uncomfortable to get to what makes things work better.
Here’s my list.
#1. PLEASE SET YOUR OWN AGENDA: For the past for years the developer and their compatriots in our village governance have asserted their agendas, forcing us to follow, react and defend. It’s time to be as strong as them and SET THE AGENDA. Let them react and defend for once, even if some of that has to happen in the courts.
#2. 3066: Continue your work to undo Ordinance 3066. Keep this momentum going.
#3. RESOLVE PARKING QUICKLY AND SMARTLY: Continue to solve Ridgewood’s parking issues in a sensible and comprehensive way. If the Zabriske Lot Closed Session discussion is regarding a lease for parking, that is fantastic! Keep working to get a garage size and location right. Regarding angled parking and removal of the parallel spot buffers, please review this with Mr. Jahr, subsequent to Chris Rutishauser’s comments. AND PLEASE GET SOME SIGNAGE DIRECTING DRIVERS TO THE PARKING LOTS!
#4. REPEAL HIGH DENSITY ORDINANCES: Repeal the three high-density ordinances now. We appreciated this discussion last night. Kudos. There is no reason for these laws to remain on the Village’s books as an inspiration to neighboring owners or other land speculators who might buy up Village properties and seek variances or new ordinances for more high density housing.
#5. TAKE A CREATIVE LOOK AT MEETING AFFORDABLE HOUSING NEEDS: Take a real and creative look at ways to plan properly to meet our affordable housing needs. Perhaps you can amend some of the village property zoning on Chestnut St to allow for potential future Sr. Affordable Housing developments, a need clearly defined but not honestly met by the current developers. Look at other places where this can be done and include zoning for special needs.
#6. REDO THE MASTER PLAN REVIEW: Budget for a REAL Master Plan Review NOW and demand that the Planning Board replace the improper review done this year – where they even forgot to perform the necessary polling of residents for our views of Ridgewood’s future. Replace it with a real Master Plan Review, done by an unbiased 3rd party professional firm. I know you know we need this. We need a really planning bible, not a fake one. Please put the money aside now and start the RFQs.
#7. SETTLE LAWSUITS WITH YOUR RESIDENTS QUICKLY: Initiate discussions to Settle the lawsuits brought by your fellow citizens on the High Density and Valley matters. This is your decision to make, not the decision of the Council Attorney, or the Planning Board attorney. Regarding High Density, you can tell Matt now, that you want him to initiate settlement discussions this week with your fellow citizens. It is fully within your power to set that agenda. And don’t fear objection or intervention by the applicants. That’s great as it will bring the parties together. Be strong and bring them to the table too. Right now, nobody’s talking. If needed, ask Matt to have the court to appoint a mediator to oversee a settlement. But let’s get this done now. Let’s stop the need for citizen groups to continue to litigate the preservation of our Village. And please note that #8 below will help you settle these negotiations more quickly, because so much was wrong with the process.
#8. INVESTIGATE THE DEFECTIVE PROCESS THAT LED TO BAD ORDINANCES: Take Councilman Voigt’s Investigative Committee proposal very seriously… and please do it. The Village of Ridgewood, through its Council owes Residents clarity on the matter of how these very unpopular and defective high-density ordinances got passed. You don’t have to make this a witch hunt. Just as your Residents have done in their legal filings, take a look at the most serious issues, while also reviewing some aspects of the aggressive politicking and keep it short and sweet. But don’t avoid it because it is uncomfortable. For the past four years, your Residents have not avoided anything uncomfortable in our efforts to save Ridgewood. We will do our part to help by supporting you and providing you with a list of questions we have regarding the concerns, conflicts and issues with the defective and oft abusive process that led to passing of the high density ordinances. Again… we support a focused investigation towards clarity and eventual closure.
And last, please have Roberta and the Village’s tech staff get all the planning board minutes and transcripts back up on the website in a manner that can be found.
Thanks again for doing the right thing for Residents.
Dave Slomin, Concerned Resident
Location: Kilwins Ridgewood, 121 E. Ridgewood Avenue, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
2pm-4pm
$2.00 off a traditional caramel apple
(regularly $4.95)
4pm-6pm
Free sundae toppings with any ice cream purchase
6pm-11pm
BOGO all fudge slices-buy one-get one.
the place to be in Ridgewood on Saturday!
Location: Downtown Ridgewood, Various Stores and Restaurants
Sales Days are here…
Thursday, Friday, Saturday
August 4, 5 6, 2016
Forget the weather
Sales and Shopping…in Ridgewood.
Our famous sales day are this week…
walk E. Ridgewood Avenue and side streets…
bargains galore … stop and have lunch or dinner!
We’ll see you on the streets of Ridgewood.
Rain or shine…the sale is on!
for details call 201-445-2600 [email protected]
meters are 3 hours…lots are open!
I am very concerned that newly formed committees/boards/councils etc. (arts, access, more) will consider part of their mandate to come up with countless expensive projects to propose to the council, who should bravely but firmly deflect like mad and say NO to all of them. We do NOT need a performing arts center, etc.–like many things, that was another Aronsohn plan to get his picture in the paper. It didn’t happen in time for that, so let’s scrap it. Even if partial grants can be applied for, such things always involve big bucks from property taxes. We have to stop working so hard to attract more people to visit and move here, because that just creates more problems. We cannot absorb more traffic, for one thing.
Too much regulation steals our freedoms in Ridgewood.
The cost of maintaining this over regulation is boundless.example
Overnight parking limitations call in requirement is another freedom taken away
from homeowners of small houses.Kids have cars now to get to colleges and jobs.a simple VOR car rear window sticker would solve the concerns of police on identifying any loiterers or stalkers late at nights.
Meantime the large houses on the heights have endless driveways.
photo by ArtChick
Two Like Villages With A Lot To Like
A friendly village with coffee and ice cream hangouts, a bustling downtown with great restaurants that is a cycling and a tourist destination. Sounds like Nyack — but that description also fits Ridgewood, NJ, too. Nyack native and recent NHS graduate Peter Henry offers this ‘compare & contrast’ of these two suburban NYC villages.
by Peter Henry
Nyack is special. Or, at least, so I think. I’ve grown up in Nyack, and ever since I can remember – perhaps because of some combination of the village’s diversity, its proximity to New York City, and its vibrant arts scene – Nyack has felt sui generis. Recently, though, I’ve been wondering whether Nyack is one of a kind, or if, perhaps, there are other towns and villages, far or near, that offer a similar package, and to which residents have similar feelings. So, I went to Ridgewood, a quaint, charming village in Bergen County, New Jersey.
I was first introduced to Ridgewood three years ago by Kelly, a friend who lives there. Recently, she took me around again.
https://www.nyacknewsandviews.com/2016/07/not-nyack-like-nyack-ridgewood-nj/
file photo by Boyd Loving
Editor, The Ridgewood Blog:
On July 20, 2016, The Ridgewood Blog posted a link to an Opinion Editorial written by former Ridgewood mayor Paul Aronsohn in which Mr. Aronsohn endorsed the construction of additional multi-family housing in Ridgewood, and also defended his active involvement in promoting the erection of a now contentious, multi-level parking garage at the intersection of Hudson and South Broad Streets in Ridgewood’s Central Business District.
Not surprisingly, Mr. Aronsohn’s editorial failed to include several key facts with regard to his tenure in office as they relate to multi-family housing and the proposed parking garage.
Firstly; public records available on line from the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission reveal that in 2012, Mr. Aronsohn accepted an “in kind” campaign contribution from a local real estate developer, Mr. John Saraceno, whose firm (Onyx Equities, LLC) has applied to construct new, high density, multifamily housing in Ridgewood. Undoubtedly, Mr. Saraceno, will profit handsomely once construction is complete and all units in his building are rented.
Secondly, Mr. Saraceno’s firm owns a large commercial/retail establishment located within the very block as the parking garage Mr. Aronsohn and his supporters wanted to build (exact address is: 54 East Ridgewood Avenue). In my opinion, the value of Mr. Saraceno’s property would have increased substantially if a several hundred space parking garage had been constructed within the same block as his property.
Finally, if you think that all of this wasn’t enough to raise the eyebrows of Ridgewood’s voters this past Spring, may I remind you that on July 3, 2013, Mr. Aronsohn, along with four (4) members of Ridgewood’s Village Council, attended a $1,000-a- head campaign fundraiser for Governor Chris Christie with free tickets to the event provided to them by Mr. John Saraceno. This incident subsequently became the subject of a lead editorial in The Record on July 17, 2013.
https://www.northjersey.com/opinion/the-record-pay-to-go-1.564876
Personally, I’d had enough of Mr. Aronsohn many, many months ago, and the results of a local election held in May, in which all of the candidates supported by Mr. Aronsohn for election to Village Council lost heavily, suggest that the vast majority of Ridgewood’s voters who cast ballots agreed with me that it was time for a big change in local government.
Boyd A. Loving
Ridgewood Resident
file photo by ArtChick
July 26,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Many readers have voiced concern and suspicions over Village committees, sighting the fact that several namely the Historic Preservation Commission and the Financial Advisory Committees have acted more like promoters of former Mayor Aronsohn’s special interest agenda than looking out for whats best for Ridgewood .
“I don’t like it and believe we already have too many advisory groups. They have too much clout and are not necessarily to be trusted. REAC’s first pronouncement was that turf is great. FAC said we need the biggest parking garage–and the chairman of the Historic Preservation Commission concurred, no doubt helping the first garage referendum to pass last November. I’d rather see them all disbanded and let the council do its own research. Appropriate people could still help.”
“A real concern is that the new council falls prey to this nonsense. Aronson was a disaster for Ridgewood. Continuing his policies is a mistake. Yes, there is a lot on their plate, but this council really needs to get moving fast to undo the damage he did. Fidgeting isn’t going to carry the day. And if they are not up to the task they said they were capable of performing, then they need to take a good hard look at themselves. Now is the time to appeal the Valley Hospital debacle and undo the Village massive family housing ordinances.”
Councilman Ramon Hache told the Ridgewood blog yesterday that the Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce will fill three positions on the Central Business District Advisory Committee . Ramon went on to say the point of the committee is to create a more inclusive dialogue unlike the previous administration that ignored residents wishes ,and only listened to a small group of people or packed committees with developers and or friends of developers creating a situation where Central Business Development plans were “out of whack” with what residents wanted giving Ridgewood residents no voice in the decision making process.
At the end of the day its a leadership issue ,although the new council is green they do appear to have all the necessary ingredients ;an open-mindedness,willing to listen ,independent thinking and a concern for the Village to lead Ridgewood into the future.
file photo by ArtChick
July 25,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, while the Village is looking for volunteer’s for the Financial Advisory Committee in an effort to turn it into a real financial advisory committee,by recruiting people with financial backgrounds instead of the current group of lawyers and political “yes men” that the ex mayor pushed . Many residents
have also asked to make sure the Financial Advisory Committee or FAC also post agenda’s and record minutes.
The Chamber sent out and eblast to all it members asking them for input. Readers of this blog have already voiced concern about the Central Business Advisory Committee saying, “Another way to get Paul the Greek, John Saraseno and Ed Sullivan a fast track to the Council. Who thought up this committee?”
Others were even less impressed with the idea saying ,”(CBDAC) Another new committed ! What did we elect council for?”
The mission statement for the CBDAC committee:The Central Business District Advisory Committee will work with the Village Council, residents and businesses to evaluate and initiate enhancements to improve traffic flow, parking, pedestrian safety, and the mix and balance of business establishments; while incorporating and refining the CBD’s historic elements and beauty to create a desirable, vibrant and memorable destination for all visitors.
The terms are for 2 years, staggering to serve one year term at the outset. The Point person is Councilman Ramon M. Hache who can be reached at [email protected] , or by calling 201-670-5500 ext. 201 .
SEEKING RESIDENTS AND OTHER PERSONS TO VOLUNTEER TO SERVE ON THE FINANCIAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE, AND THE CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT ADVISORY COMMITTEE
The Village Council is looking for residents who are interested in volunteering to serve on the Financial Advisory Committee and the Central Business District Advisory Committee (CBDAC).
The Financial Advisory Committee assists in the review and understanding of the financial considerations necessary to the operation of the Village and the Village’s preparation of the Annual and Capital Budgets; provides review, advice and recommendations to the Village Council on Village financial and budgetary matters; and prepares an annual report for the Village Council to assist the Councilmembers in their budget preparation. Members will preferably have strong finance, accounting, government and/or business backgrounds.
The Central Business District Advisory Committee (CBDAC) will work with the Village Council, business owners and residents to evaluate and initiate enhancements to improve the viability of the CBD, including traffic flow and patterns, parking, pedestrian safety and the balance of commercial uses; while maintaining and refining the historic and aesthetic elements to create a more desirable, vibrant and memorable destination for all visitors. The CBDAC is made up of one representative from the Chamber of Commerce; one representative from the Ridgewood Guild; five Ridgewood residents (one of whom shall be a member of the Citizens Safety Advisory Committee); and three business owners, one of whom is a property owner in the CBD.
All interested residents and others wishing to serve on these committees should send the following:
A cover letter indicating on which committee(s)the person wishes to serve
A Citizen Volunteer Leadership form (found on the Village website under forms)
A biography or resume
to: Heather Mailander, Village Clerk
Village of Ridgewood
131 North Maple Avenue
Ridgewood, NJ 07450
Deadline for submissions is August 5, 2016.
