New Jersey has the highest property taxes, foreclosure rate and is the most expensive state in the nation to own a home. Common sense and basic economics tell us that there is too much supply and too little demand, with high taxes and a dense population distorting total housing costs upward.
Now we are facing the equivalent of housing Armageddon. A non-profit entity with ties to developers is attempting to force towns across the state to build 280,000 affordable housing units in the next nine years.
Ridgewood NJ, Pam Christian, Keller Williams Village Square Realty has listed the most expensive house in Ridgewood .This $4.6M Home Is Most Expensive Listing In the Village. The home is a beautiful 6 bedroom, 7 baths ,6,716 sqft Tudor home on one of the most desirable streets in Ridgewood.The magnificent six-bedroom Tudor offers unparalleled views of Manhattan , once graced the pages of Architectural Digest thanks to the handiwork of famed decorator Victoria Hagan.
The stately and elegant, yet comfortable, this premier residence features rich architectural details throughout and impressive amenities including a luxurious master suite, four additional en suite bedrooms, a state-of-the-art kitchen with butler’s pantry, three fireplaces, a gym, wine cellar, surround sound both inside and outside the home and so much more. The 1.38 acres of impeccably manicured grounds are equally impressive, boasting an expansive stone patio; heated pool with retractable cover; pool house with kitchenette, full bathroom and laundry; and a three-car heated garage. The home truly is a one-of-kind masterpiece that must be seen to be believed.
Ridgewood NJ, Pianist Drew Petersen will be featured with the Ridgewood Symphony on Friday May 5th at 8:00 PM. Drew, currently a masters student a Juilliard, just won a major piano competition – The American Pianist Award ($50,000 prize!). Read more at: https://www.northjersey.com/…/oradell-pianist-23-…/100374270/
This is going to be a very exciting concert.
The Ridgewood Symphony Orchestra (RSO), with Artistic Director and Conductor, Diane Wittry, will perform its final concert of the 2016-2017 season on May 5, 2017, at 8:00pm at the West Side Presbyterian Church, 6 South Monroe Street, in Ridgewood, NJ.
The program will feature Oradell native Drew Petersen, playing Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1.
The Ridgewood Symphony will also perform Jean Sibelius’ Karelia Overture, Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations, and the world premiere of composer Craig Morris’ Enigma Fantasy.
Advanced ticket prices for the performance are $25, $20 for senior and $10 for students. At the door prices are $28, $23, and $13. For tickets and more information call: (201)612-0118, or go to the RSO website: www.RidgewoodSymphony.org.
MORE TICKET OPTIONS AND IMPROVED NAVIGATION FOR NJ TRANSIT MOBILE APP
May 2,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, NJ TRANSIT’s latest mobile app upgrade has a redesigned look that brings additional features and functionality to the home page screen. Bus customers also will be able to use the app to purchase one-way, round-trip and discounted 10-trip tickets. In addition, the enhancements provide customers with service alerts and service information for specific train stations or bus stops at a glance.
The new app will be available to Android users first with iOS release to follow, possibly within two weeks. NJ TRANSIT is rolling out the new version so that it can make any needed refinements before it is available to its larger customer base of iOS users.
“Technology continues to evolve and with that, NJ TRANSIT is continually working to improve our customers’ experience with our app,’’ said NJ TRANSIT Executive Director Steven H. Santoro. “I heard first hand from our customers that they also want service information right on the app – this version does just that.”
“Our mobile app users also demand a clean, functional interface, and this redesigned look provides for one-tap access to each of the most popular features. We are proud to be an industry leader in mobile ticketing, and we will continue to look for ways to put the latest technology in the hands of our customers,’’ Santoro added.
Visually, the crisp look features a new home screen with a tile layout, larger buttons, and clearer colors for easier viewing and selection of the options. Tiles provide access to tickets, train schedules, DepartureVision and MyBus right from the home screen. A Quick Buy tile provides for one-tap purchases of favorite tickets. DepartureVision and MyBus will display and auto refresh right on the home screen.
Additionally, DepartureVision and MyBus information on the home screen are auto populated based upon your favorites.
NJ TRANSIT bus customers can now purchase monthly passes, discounted 10-trips, roundtrip and one-way tickets for both interstate and intrastate travel.
The use of mobile ticketing through the MyTIX program has grown steadily since its introduction in 2013 and now has more than 1.25 million customer accounts.
The NJ TRANSIT mobile app is available for free download on any web-enabled iOS or Android device. To purchase tickets, customers simply install the app and create an account, which will securely save a customer’s profile information and purchase history.
You hate taxes but love buying stuff. So what’s better than reducing your tax burden by purchasing a slice of pizza or new floors for the house?
A growing number of New Jersey municipalities are introducing property tax rebate cards into the community — an idea birthed by Marlboro Township in 2012.
Residents register cards with their homes, and when they present their cards upon making a purchase at participating businesses, portions of those purchase are eventually shaved off their third-quarter property tax bills.
Since May 2016, Union Township residents realized $4,350 in property tax savings as of February with the Union VIP card, according to Fatimah Raymond, executive director of the town’s Special Improvement District.
Ridgewood NJ, No leak, no injuries, and only minor damage. Could have been a disaster at the Speedway Gas Station, 465-475 Goffle Road, Ridgewood on Monday afternoon, 05/01. Ridgewood Police responded.
In an editorial a year ago, NJBIZ noted that Sports Authority was hitting the showers and closing its stores. Sports Authority stores? No offense intended, but who remembers them now?
Since then, the drop in brick-and-mortar retail sales and the closing of stores throughout New Jersey has become what we feared just 12 months ago — the new normal.
Reports of store closings come almost daily now. J.C. Penney, Macy’s, Payless, HHGregg, Rue21, Bebe — they all have closed stores in New Jersey and elsewhere in recent weeks. And the pace is accelerating. Credit Suisse has said that more than 8,600 stores will close in 2017 — a deluge worse than the record 6,163 stores that closed in the recession year of 2008. That would translate into 147 million square feet of retail space, the brokerage firm said in a research report. Sears, which owns Kmart — Sears! — has said it has “substantial doubt” that it can survive.
It all reminds us of Ernest Hemingway’s famous line in “The Sun Also Rises” about how a character went bankrupt: “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” Online commerce, of course, is the culprit. Approximately two-thirds of American consumers prefer to shop online, according to surveys.
The bad news about retail stores in New Jersey has been somewhat mitigated by the opening of seven Amazon warehouses in the state in recent years and plans to open three more. The largest so-called Amazon “fulfillment center” opened in Carteret less than two weeks ago, with more than 2,000 employees working in a 1-million-square-foot facility.
I am curious why this plan was not considered less than eight years ago when the train station parking lot was last altered. Did Chris R not think it was a good idea then, was it never considered? Parking was surely an issue 10 years ago. Why are we considering renovations to a parking lot that was so recently modified – are we admitting that it wasn’t done very well, or at least did not maximize parking back then? Perhaps this was considered and determined to be a bad idea.
Would like to see the town engineers at the parking lot at 7am and again between 6 and 7pm when the traffic is at it’s highest. Adding more cars will only serve to create more gridlock at the traffic light on Ridgewood Ave. If more cars are added maybe something could be done to the traffic light to allow the cars to get out of the parking lot when trains arrive.
Ridgewood NJ, The “rendering” of new apartments at Broad and Franklin by John Saraceno’s architect leaves a lot to be desired, like a connection to reality for starters. So let’s break down the reality of what Saraceno is planning. Built on the former home of the Ken Smith car dealership, the 66 unit apartment with thousands of square feet of retail space is allowed under new village laws championed by Ridgewood resident Saraceno and then-mayor Paul Aronsohn.
Frontage:
Franklin St- 198 feet
Chestnut St- 119 feet
Height: 5 stories, putting it above all neighboring buildings and higher than the train station. Saraceno says his 5 story building is 50 feet high. The “tower” is 57 feet. The new Chestnut apartments several hundred feet away are four stories and 53 feet high.
Parking:
155 parking spots, the arches at the ends of the building on Franklin and Chestnut are the lot entry/exits. The Chestnut entry is near the new 43 unit high-density apartments being built on the old vehicle inspection station lot.
Reminder:
Saraceno and Aronsohn, who partnered to raise the density in this area to 35 units, said these two and three bedroom apartments won’t have a lot of school age families. The Ridgewood school budget has grown ~25% in less than 10 years on just about flat enrollment.
The Saraceno, Aronsohn, Hauck, and Pucciarelli dream of turning Ridgewood into high-density heaven is just a few months away. The most densely populated county in the most densely populated state in the union is about to get more crowded. Ridgewood used to be a place to get away from that, no more.
The upscale grocery chain is valued at almost $12bn, but six straight quarters of declining sales have led to speculation of a takeover bid. What went wrong?
Lunchtime customers at Whole Foods in Manhattan’s Union Square had little trouble expressing the shortcomings that have led the once high-flying, organic-focused retailer to become linked with a takeover.
“I love the sushi, but I wouldn’t shop here except maybe for a special ingredient,” said Argentinian software designer Benjamin Vinas. “People say Whole Foods is for pretentious people, and I can see why. It’s too expensive. I don’t have the budget.”
Vinas was not the only customer to express a similar point of view. Others said that for their groceries they went several blocks north and west to lower-cost rival Trader Joe’s, where products may not be so exquisitely selected but are, in general, more uniformly discounted.
Maria Johnson, a postgraduate student, said Whole Foods’ pricing, with some items marked competitively and other expensive, was inconvenient.
May 1 2017 7:30 PM to 7:30 PM
Location Ed Center, 49 Cottage Place, Ridgewood, NJ
The public is invited to attend the meeting, or watch it live on Fios channel 33, Optimum channel 77, or on the “Link in Live” tab of the district website at www.ridgewood.k12.nj.us.
Ridgewood NJ, 2017-18 School Budget Info:
On Monday, May 1, the Ridgewood Board of Education will hold a public hearing prior to voting on the proposed 2017-2018 school budget. The hearing will be held at the Education Center, 49 Cottage Place, starting at 7:30 p.m.
Click here to view the following budget summary in PDF format:
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood district parents and guardians will have the opportunity to provide anonymous feedback to the Board of Education in May, through a satisfaction survey distributed by email.
The 2016-2017 satisfaction survey will solicit parent / guardian opinions in a variety of areas, ranging from the quality of their children’s education to their satisfaction with school facilities. The middle school and high school surveys will also include questions on the district’s 1:1 Chromebook Initiative, which distributes laptops to all students in grades 6-12 for use at school and home.
The survey period will run from Tuesday, May 8 through Friday, May 19. All district parents and guardians with email addresses on file with the district will be sent a link to the brief survey for each school that their children attend. Instructions will be included to complete the questionnaire based on their youngest child’s experience at each school.
The surveys are set up to be completely anonymous and cannot be tracked back to responders. Survey results will be collated and shared with the community and used by the Board of Education and administration as part of their evaluation of district policies and practices. A dedicated email address has been set up to take questions or concerns about the 2016-2017 satisfaction survey at [email protected]
Mark Krulish , Staff Writer, @Mark_Krulish2:57 p.m. ET April 27, 2017
RIDGEWOOD — In an effort to add parking spaces at the train station, the council is weighing a plan to reduce the size of a grass median and create new spots for compact cars.
The design, presented by Village Engineer Chris Rutishauser to the council Wednesday, calls for narrowing the island on the western side of the train tracks by 4.5 feet to accomodate parking for compact cars on both sides of the median. The new layout would add 41 spots.
Ridgewood NJ, Bergen County is sponsoring a free event – “A Historical Portrayal of Jackie Kennedy Onassis” presented by the American Historical Theatre – Tuesday, May 2 at 11 a.m. in Village Hall Court Room. All are welcome!
There were a lot of beautiful people from out of town in Ridgewood for some kind of Hollywood-style movie premiere (on a smaller scale) at the Warner Quad theater yesterday evening. Dollars to donuts the rainbow-flag dust-up at Village Hall was a pre-planned “astroturf” event brought to us courtesy of these glamorous visitors who doubtlessly regard Ridgewood as just another flyover town populated by provincial rubes in dire need of progressive enlightenment
