Mark Krulish , Staff Writer, @Mark_Krulish6:54 p.m. ET Feb. 23, 2017
Ridgewood — Testimony on behalf of an applicant proposing a multifamily housing development on Chestnut Street concluded in front of the Planning Board on Tuesday, though more steps remain before a final vote is taken.
The board will have the opportunity for its own experts to testify and undergo cross-examination. There will also be time for public comment on any aspect of the proposal before a final attorney summation and board discussion.
In 2016 alone, more than 6,000 New Jersey hosts earned over $50 million by renting out their home or a room to visitors through Airbnb.
Representing a 100 percent increase compared to 2015, New Jerseyans welcomed approximately 257,000 people for a short stay last year, according to figures released this month by the San Francisco-based company.
Airbnb said the typical New Jersey host earns $6,200 in supplemental income annually, often using the extra cash to make rent or mortgage payments, save for retirement or repay student loans.
Typical listings are occupied 44 nights per year, the company said, and the average length of stay is about four nights.
“We are proud to see that more and more New Jerseyans have discovered home sharing as an opportunity to share their community with visitors from around the world, and earn a little bit of extra money along the way,” said Josh Meltzer, head of northeast public policy for Airbnb. “From the Jersey Shore to Jersey City, Airbnb hosts are ambassadors to the Garden State and we are grateful they have embraced home sharing as a way to welcome thousands of visitors.”
New Jersey’s top five cities by number of guest arrivals:
Jersey City: $11.35 million through 53,828 guest arrivals Union City: $4.3 million through 22,592 guest arrivals Ocean City: $2.7 million through 15,403 guest arrivals Weehawken: $3.2 million through 14,166 guest arrivals Atlantic City: $1.4 million through 11,244 guest arrivals
At a recent council meeting I asked the council to consider asking our CFO to prepare a report on the feasibility of a property tax reduction, such as 10%, for seniors–whether all seniors or only those with income under a certain level (based on income tax returns) TBD. Other towns do this. It’s fiscally sound for all: a house sold by one or two seniors will go to a family with children, further burdening the school system. With our new all-day kindergarten, and the strong possibility of numerous new apartments looming, we will attract more people with very young children attending school from K through 12. Seniors are around during the day to keep an eye on the neighborhood when others are at work. Seniors volunteer and patronize stores, restaurants, the movie theater, and services such as hair salons on weekdays. A tax reduction each year, especially as taxes rise but a fixed income does not, might help some seniors to remain. Another point that needs to be far more widely known is that seniors with income under a specified amount are entitled to a property tax reduction through the state. The council and website should announce this and provide details, links, forms at Village Hall, etc.
NJ’s public sector pension plans are expected to be mostly insolvent by 2027 as the pension demands of retirees far outweigh the capital appreciation and new contributions to the fund. That’s what happens when you assume 7.95% annual pension fund returns (not adjusted for inflation) and 1980s era mortality data to pay for “special” retirements after 25 years of service. The fact is people are living longer than they were in the 1980s. So NJ has public sector retirees who will earn more from their pension (plus health plan benefit cost savings before Medicare kicks in) than they did in their 25 years of service. For example, the average PFRS retirement age is 52. If that retiree lives to 84,the recent expected average male lifespan in the US, then they’ll draw a pension for 32 years vs. only 25 years of service. This is nothing more than a Ponzi scheme where retirees are taking out much more than the <10% they actually contributed from wages could ever earn in the pension funds. Simply, the pension math no longer works.
There is no ‘fix’ possible. We are well past the point where a ‘fix’ could be implemented.
The optimal path now (something that Christie intentionally/unintentionally followed) is to hasten the demise of the unsustainable pension liabilities. Restructuring is inevitable, the sooner it is done the better it will be for all sides – pensioners as well as taxpayers.
Ridgewood NJ, in a 2017’s Best & Worst States to Raise a Family Wallet hub the Study gave New Jersey high marks rating the Garden state 7th best state in the nation for raising a family.
The survey was predicted on the idea that ,”raising a healthy, stable family sometimes requires moving to a new state. And the reasons are often similar: career transitions, better schools, financial challenges or perhaps a general desire to change settings.
But wants and needs don’t always align in a particular state, which might offer, for instance, a low income-tax rate yet subpar education system. Consequently, a family must make unnecessary sacrifices — the kinds that are easily avoided by knowing which states offer the best combination of qualities that matter most to parents and their kids.
To help with the evaluation process, WalletHub’s data team compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on 40 key indicators of family-friendliness. Our data set ranges from “median family salary” to “housing affordability” to “unemployment rate. Read on for the complete ranking, relocation advice from experts and a full description of our methodology.”
The WalletHub analysis used 40 key indicators of family friendliness for its ranking.
The study ranked New Jersey as:
11th best in the country for the percentage of families with kids
9th best for child care costs, adjusted for median family income
4th best for infant mortality rate
10th best for median family salary (adjusted for cost of living)
13th best for violent crime rate
11th best for percentage of families below the poverty level
Ridgewood NJ, as many of our reader’s are well aware when you fly its mandatory to have a boarding pass to get on the plane.
Right before boarding an airplane we hold onto our boarding passes like our lives depend upon it. But after we board, many, if not all of us, do not care anymore about the boarding pass. Sometimes we leave it in the plane, other times we leave it in the hotel room, or just chuck it in the garbage.
But this careless can get you into so much trouble.According to “Krebs on Security” there is personal information encrypted on your boarding pass. After someone took a screen shot of the bar code on the ticket, you will be amazed of how much personal information that person can get about you: home address, banking info, email address, phone number.
Watch the video and share it for others to learn about the risks and damage of being careless with their boarding pass!
Maurie Backman, The Motley FoolPublished 9:03 a.m. ET Feb. 21, 2017 | Updated 24 hours ago
We all want to save money for retirement, but these 5 costs that retirees face might shock you. USA TODAY NETWORK
Do you have a will or trust in place? Your loved ones could face a world of upheaval without one.
When most of us start planning for retirement, we think about things like what our living costs will be and how much money we’ll have access to. Many of us, in fact, get so focused on how much we are or aren’t saving that we fail to make one critical move: creating a will or living trust.
In a recent Caring.com study, 58% of American adults admitted to not having either type of crucial document in place. Even scarier, among adults with children under the age of 18, that figure climbed to 64% of folks without a formal estate plan.
Now the good news is that older Americans are more likely to have a will or trust than their younger counterparts. Here’s how the data breaks down:
AGE GROUP 18 TO 36 PERCENTAGE OF PEOPLE WITH A WILL OR TRUST 22%
37 to 52 36%
53 to 71 60%
72 and older 81%
Data source: Caring.com.
Though it’s not surprising to see that almost 80% of younger Americans don’t have a will, it’s an attitude that can hurt Millennials as easily as it can folks 20 or 30 years their senior. And while you might think you have plenty of time to draw up a will, or that not having one isn’t such a big deal, it’s a mistake that could be far costlier than you might imagine.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans shrugged off rising mortgage rates and bought existing homes in January at the fastest pace since 2007. That has set off bidding wars that have pushed up prices as the supply of available homes has dwindled to record lows.
Home sales rose 3.3 percent in January from December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.69 million, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday.
Steady job gains, modest pay raises and rising consumer confidence are spurring healthy home buying even as borrowing costs have risen since last fall. Some potential buyers may be accelerating their home purchases to get ahead of any further increases in mortgage rates. With few homes available for sale, buyers are pressured to rapidly close a deal as they find a suitable property.
The typical house for sale was on the market for just 50 days last month, compared with 64 days a year ago. Strong demand is pushing up median home prices, which jumped 7.1 percent from a year earlier to $228,900.
Just 1.69 million homes were on the market nationwide in January, near the lowest level since records began in 1999. It would take just 3.6 months to deplete that supply at the current pace of sales, matching a record low reached in December. Supply is usually equal to about six months of sales in a balanced housing market.
The supply crunch will likely get worse during the upcoming spring buying season, economists say, as demand typically rises by more than supply during that time.
Ridgewood NJ, Controlling “exactly what people think” is the job of the media, MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski boldly declared Wednesday morning.
Here’s a transcript:
SCARBOROUGH: “Exactly. That is exactly what I hear. What Yamiche said is what I hear from all the Trump supporters that I talk to who were Trump voters and are still Trump supporters. They go, ‘Yeah you guys are going crazy. He’s doing — what are you so surprised about? He is doing exactly what he said he is going to do.'”
BRZEZINSKI: “Well, I think that the dangerous, you know, edges here are that he is trying to undermine the media and trying to make up his own facts. And it could be that while unemployment and the economy worsens, he could have undermined the messaging so much that he can actually control exactly what people think. And that, that is our job.”
Brzezinski’s comments are a reminder of darker days in Ridgewood , when the previous mayor made a concerted attempt with his allies to squelch free speech in Ridgewood. At the civility forum in February of 2015 over 300 residents sat there and took it when they were told by various speakers they were not allowed to speak unless they said what they were told to say.
Civility forum moves forward to squelch public dissent
February 25,2015
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ed Koch once said,”If you agree with me on 9 out of 12 issues, vote for me. If you agree with me on 12 out of 12 issues, see a psychiatrist.”
But not according to Stephen Borg, Publisher and President, North Jersey Media Group, who insisted that the whole problem is that since people have found their voice through social media they have come to so many different opinions civil discourse has fallen.Things were so much better when North Jersey Media had a monopoly on public discussion and could always dictate terms. Borg implied that elites like himself are the only ones qualified to make those decisions. Borg pointed out how this blog and its anonymous posters are the greatest enemy to not only American Democracy but to the dominance of North Jersey Media Group. While I was rather flattered that the Publisher and President, North Jersey Media Group thought this blog shook the very foundations of civil discourse and was viewed as the barbarians at the gate, I would suggest the far larger problem might be the totally bias and slip shot reporting of his Media Empire. Borg set the tone for the evening which came down silencing critics and reasserting the elitist “we know better than you ”, so time to be quite.
Plein Air Essentials- A Lecture by C.A. Jerez
Sunday February 26 at 2 PM – 4 PM
Ridgewood Art Institute
12 E Glen Ave, Ridgewood, New Jersey 07450
Any interest in painting outdoors?
C. A. Jerez, longtime member of RAI and instructor of our Monday nite Oil Painting Class, will give a lecture on Plein Air Essentials.
Mr. Jerez was a disciple of the famous Art Students League instructor, Frank Vincent Dumond. In his work, Mr Jerez is able to capture the life of the subject by identifying the essential components of an object or scene and depicting them in the most simplistic manner to convey complete realism without neglecting the artistic elements of form and strong composition. He uses uses prismatic color and light effects to create a sense of distance and drama while capturing the weather conditions and the specific time of day.
Admission fee for this event is a $5 donation to The Ridgewood Art Institute and all are welcome.
The issue of door to door solicitors in Ridgewood came up for discussion to ban the practice in Ridgewood, at past town council meetings well over 10-15 years ago due to residents complaints of solicitors. At the time, the mayor felt a complete ban on registered solicitors would also affect/include the girl scouts/boy scouts/h.s.band from their door to door sales of cookies, plants, etc. and it was decided not to procede with a ban.
As far as the girl/boy scout cookies sellers, there’s been less of them, I only had one this year. Most of their troops set up at the local grocery stores and get bigger sales, and its safer for them. Their parents sell/get orders from co workers. Everyone knows when the RHS band has their plants and fruit sales, can order online, they always deliver to your door anyway.
Times have changed, each year in spring thruout the season, the door knockers ramp up in greater numbers. As long as they obtain a permit from the town, and not all bother to get a permit, there’s been an influx of peddlers from cable companys, pest control, new windows, painters, home improvements, lawn treatments, solar panels, driveway sealers, magazine sellers (they use a team of children), donations, the list goes on. Just love the line of some canvassers – we’re doing some work in the neighborhood and wonder if you’re interested in home improvements. Some use aggressive measures. All one can do is to put a “No Solicitors” sign on the door.Hopefully its about time to enact a complete ban on door to door solicitors in Ridgewood. (With an exception for the girl/boy scouts ? and RHS band sales).
Why is New Jersey forcing senior citizens to flee the state?
After decades of contributing as full-fledged members of our communities throughout New Jersey, we find ourselves increasingly forced to flee the state due to the burdensome and discriminatory nature of property taxes for seniors on fixed incomes.
New Jersey has the highest property taxes in the nation, an average of $8,500 per year versus the national average of $3,800. However, you know these facts. What you don’t know is that for senior citizens, who often live in adult communities to reduce their expenses, the property tax burden is disproportionately higher — often 17-20 percent of a senior’s annual income, and climbing.
The issue of taxes is always a complicated decision for leaders, to allocate resources equitably among disparate interests and groups. The Abbott decision, for example, appropriately (and importantly) required the commitment of state education funding to support urban districts. But funding decisions by the governor and state Legislature, over time, had unintended consequences as well.
The shifting of aid to education in some areas of the state, without increasing overall state aid to education, has resulted in communities being forced to fund local education through higher property taxes. The unintended — but real consequence of this trend — has resulted in retirees (on fixed incomes) being forced to pay disproportionately higher taxes.
MEET THE MAYOR – MARCH 4, 2017 – 9:30 A.M. TO 11:30 A.M
February 21,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Mayor Susan Knudsen will hold office hours in the Caucus Room on the 4th floor of Village Hall. Please call the Village Clerk’s Office at
201-670-5500 ext. 206 to make an appointment to meet with Mayor Knudsen. You may also stop by during these office hours to speak with Mayor Knudsen, but those with an appointment are seen first, at their appointment times.
Ridgewood NJ, Fox News host Brenda Buttner and Ridgewood resident died after a battle with cancer at age 55. Buttner, was a mother of two daughters.
Brenda Buttner, was the host of Fox News Channel’s Bull and Bears, and she She also frequently contributed to Your World with Neil Cavuto.
Fox News reported that Buttner joined the network in 2000 after blazing a trail for female business reporters on CNBC. She also had served as a correspondent in Washington.
Buttner received numerous awards for her work, including a Cable Ace award in 1996 for best business programming (The Money Club)and a National Clarion award in 1990 for best news story. In addition, many of her personal finance articles have been published in popular publications such as The New York Times and Ladies’ Home Journal.
She was an honors graduate from Harvard University and spent two years as a Rhodes Scholar at Balliol College, Oxford University, England.
Glen Rock NJ, A house fire at 506 Prospect Street in Glen Rock on Monday evening, 02/20, was battled by firefighters from Fair Lawn, Glen Rock, Hawthorne, Midland Park, and Ridgewood. At least one (1) firefighter was injured while fighting the smokey blaze. Ridgewood EMS assisted Glen Rock EMS at the scene, and Ridgewood PD units assisted Glen Rock PD with traffic control.
