April 20,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Several young artist participants speak about the Ridgewood Arts Council’s Emerging Artists Gallery Scavenger Hunt to be held on April 23rd at Van Neste Park from 11am-2pm.
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Water’s Journey from Rain to Drain, Daffodil Festival & Earth Day Fair will take place Sunday, April 23 from 11 a.m. to 2:00 p. m in Memorial Park at Van Neste Square. This is a free, fiun event for all ages!
Come join the celebration! There will be a plant sale, environmentally focused vendors and organizations, music and multiple activities for children including nature themed arts and crafts and educational displays.
The Conservancy for Ridgewood Public Lands and the Ridgewood Environmental Advisory Committee (REAC) in partnership with Ridgewood Water is hosting this year’s special event “From Rain to Drain”.
There will be food, educational programs and musical entertainment.
Its most significant intended purpose, and the one motivating past council members, is to compensate legally for building LESS parking at nearby apartment developments. Otherwise why would Aronsohn & Co. have cared so much that they made a video about it (on village tax money)? DO NOT BE FOOLED. Garage is a boondoggle to end them all. We have enough to worry about re: property tax increases without adding this unnecessary, voted-down, impossible-to-maintain monstrosity (at any size). ADD retail space? No, please. Let’s just reconfigure the Hudson St. lot.
Remember that the former Mayor and Mr. Saraceno conducted studies that showed that there would be LESS traffic and only 4 additional children in the schools as a result of this project. No really, they did – and expected us to believe it. The studies assumed that only empty nesters with no cars would be moving in to these apartments. They further assumed that apartment dwellers would simply walk to get everything they needed in Ridgewood and take the train everywhere else. What could possibly go wrong by trusting a real estate developer and a disgraced politician?
Members of the public suggesting that the proposed development project, when built, will produce unavoidable, intractable problems with vehicular and pedestrian traffic at the intersection of Broad Street and Franklin Avenue, reflect common sense and need not be deemed “out of order” by Saraceno’s henchmen. The idea that we need a developer’s attorney to tell us what is and is not a fact, and what to think of a given fact in terms of what it portends for our lives as Village residents, and that we can’t legitimately rely on our own minds and common sense, is insulting, preposterous and condescending. This is too reminiscent of the Valley travails before the planning board and we shouldn’t be so willing to put up with it now that we are familiar with the tactic.
Ridgewood NJ, On April 19, 1775, at 5am, 700 British regulars marched into Lexington, MA and were met by 77 American militiamen. The Americans initially began to disperse, and then from an undetermined gun, “the shot heard round the world” was fired. Ten Americans and 1 British soldier died there. Two hours later the British marched into Concord only to be met by hundreds of American Patriots. The British commander ordered his troops to hastily begin their 16 mile trek to Boston. Throughout the return, the Americans fired upon the troops – Indian style, from behind trees, rocks and bushes. By the time the British reached Boston, nearly 300 British soldiers had been killed, wounded, or were missing in action. The fight for Independence had begun!
With more battles being fought here than anywhere else, New Jersey played a key role in the Revolutionary War, While no major battles were fought in Bergen County there were a number of skirmishes between local Patriots and British troops or sympathizers. The Ridgewood area was constantly visited by Washington and his officers.
The Schoolhouse Museum’s new exhibit “From the Revolutionary War to the 1960’s Revolution”commemorates our war for Independence with actual artifacts, weapons and equipment; as well as examples of flags and uniforms from this period.
To see this display as well as other displays highlighting other significant events during this time, from wars, to the roaring twenties to the rocking 60’s; as well as histories of prominent Ridgewood area residents, visit the Ridgewood Historical Society’s Schoolhouse Museum, at 650 East Glen Avenue. The museum is open Thursdays and Saturday 1-3pm and Sundays 2-4pm. Please visit www.ridgewoodhistoricalsociety.org for more information.
Video by Dana Glazer
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Deputy Mayor Mike Sedon and friends talk about the upcoming Emerging Artists Gallery Scavenger Hunt that’s happening on Sunday, April 23rd from 11-2pm at Van Neste Park!!
Ridgewood NJ, In a long planning board session Tuesday night residents and planning board members expressed concerns over John Saraceno’s 5 story apartment and retail complex coming to Broad and Franklin. Built on the former home of the Ken Smith car dealership, the 60+ 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.
At issue to planning board members, the large increase in traffic at one of the village’s most congested and dangerous intersections of Franklin and Broad. Falling back on the Saraceno/Aronsohn modifications to the village’s master plan, the planner for Saraceno said any traffic impact had been anticipated by the new master plan and was not an issue.
April 19,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, lead tests done at both Willard school and George Washington Middle School produced only one non compliant drinking fountain in each school.
Following the NJ DEP instructions the Ridgewood School System tested 25 samples at Willard with only one fountain containing non compliant lead levels and at George Washington Middle School the Ridgewood School System took 27 samples and all but one were compliant.
Readers are already questioning the results . According to the CDC High levels of lead in tap water can cause health effects if the lead in the water enters the bloodstream and causes an elevated blood lead level.
Most studies show that exposure to lead-contaminated water alone would not be likely to elevate blood lead levels in most adults, even exposure to water with a lead content close to the EPA action level for lead of 15 parts per billion (ppb). Risk will vary, however, depending on the individual, the circumstances, and the amount of water consumed. For example, infants who drink formula prepared with lead-contaminated water may be at a higher risk because of the large volume of water they consume relative to their body size.
The pipes at these schools are probably 50+ years old. Questions remain as to weather the school ever tested these faucets before? Are the elevated lead levels only a recent occurrence and if so how long were the students subject to these elevated lead levels ?
file photo by Boyd Loving
The school crossing at Linwood towards BF NEEDS an additional Crossing Guard
during rush hours morning and afternoon.Thats an intersection
that needs a wider right turning lane from BF street up Linwood towards town.Left turns there are also very tight. That corner needs a review.Current crossing Guard does a great job but is outgunned..
Excluding the specialized high schools, the top 20 list is:
——————————————–
===== Below 1325 combined SAT =====
1) (1322) Millburn
2) (1321) West Windsor-Plainsboro South
3) (1317) West Windsor-Plainsboro North
4) (1313) Montgomery
5) (1307) Tenafly
——————————————–
6) (1302) Princeton
===== Below 1300 combined SAT =====
7) (1283) Bernards Township (Ridge HS)
8) (1281) Jersey City (Dr. Ronald McNair HS)
9) (1276) Northern Valley – Demarest===== Below 1275 combined SAT =====
10) (1273) Edison (John P Stevens HS)
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11) (1262) Ridgewood
===== Below 1250 combined SAT =====
12) (1243) Allendale – Northern Highlands
13) (1236) Livingston
14) (1233) Haddonfield
15) (1227) Chatham
——————————————–
16) (1225) East Brunswick
===== Below 1225 combined SAT =====
17) (1223) West Morris Mendham
18) (1221) Pennington (Hopewell Valley Central HS)
19) (1221) Marlboro
20) (1221) New Providence
21) (1221) Westfield
——————————————–
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Anyone want to correlate School Budget to SAT scores and see how poorly we are really doing?
MORE SOCIAL ENGINEERING.
All part of AGENDA 21 — read up on it folks.
Agenda 21 Course
Grants with nice sounding names to gain your acceptance so your freedoms are reduced and your behavior controlled.
Lesson 6: Grants are Used as a Major Tool to Implement Agenda 21
https://www.agenda21course.com/lesson-6-grants-are-used-as-a-major-tool-to-implement-agenda-21/
From NJDOT – Safe Routes to School
https://www.state.nj.us/transportation/business/localaid/srts.shtm
The federal-aid SRTS program provides federal-aid highway funds to State Departments of Transportation. The main objectives of the program are:
to enable and encourage children in grades K-8, including those with disabilities, to walk and bicycle to school;
to make bicycling and walking to school a safer and more appealing transportation alternative, thereby encouraging a healthy and active lifestyle from an early age; and,
to facilitate the planning, development and implementation of projects and activities that will improve safety and reduce traffic, fuel consumption and air pollution in the vicinity of schools.
“reduce traffic, fuel consumption and air pollution”
equals anti motor vehicle
equals Bike Lanes
equals “Traffic calming” (aka traffic jams, aka traffic frustration so you take alternate route or better yet use public transportation
equals Behavior modification
.
all of these grants are driven by the agenda to implement the Agenda 21 “utopian vision” – no cars, pack and stack housing (their term) walk to home, work, market, entertainment. (like living in retirement communities (or high cost mental institutions).
the utopian vision drives the grant – the “named benefit” (in this case safe passage to school) is just the MEANS to implement their goals.
file photo by ArtChick
by Elise Young
April 17, 2017, 4:39 PM EDT
Power loss follows two derailments, taxing regional railroads
Despite governor’s comment, cause of weekend incident unclear
Governor Chris Christie blamed Amtrak for a holiday-weekend travel meltdown on New Jersey’s commuter train line, though the federal passenger railroad said it was the state’s fault this time.
As many as 1,200 New Jersey Transit passengers were stranded on April 14 in a tunnel beneath the Hudson River aboard a train that had lost power. A statement emailed by Christie’s office on Monday attributed the incident to Amtrak, which owns the tracks, calling it an example of the railroad’s “failure to adequately maintain its facilities.’’
The investigation so far, though, was “inconclusive’’ about a cause, according to Steve Santoro, New Jersey Transit’s executive director, who spoke to reporters in Hoboken on Monday. Santoro was there to show lawmakers damage caused by a fatal New Jersey Transit crash in September.
Mike Tolbert, an Amtrak spokesman, said its infrastructure wasn’t at fault and “the preliminary cause appears to be a NJ Transit mechanical problem involving the train’s pantograph,” or power collector.
file photo by Boyd Loving
April 18,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ,In honor of National Lineman Appreciation Day, Public Service Electric and Gas (PSE&G), New Jersey’s largest utility, salutes the men and women dedicated to keeping the electricity flowing for their customers every day, in all types of weather conditions. When the public is asked to stay safe at home during and after a storm, linemen and linewomen come to work.
“I’m always proud, but never surprised, by their commitment to their jobs,” said John Latka, senior vice president of electric and gas operations for PSE&G. “On a blue-sky day, you’ll find our linemen building and maintaining the electric infrastructure that is so critical to powering our lives. During and after storms, their efforts are nothing less than heroic. They work 16-hour shifts until every last customer is restored.”
PSE&G has some 600 linemen and linewomen who play a vital role in ensuring that customers have the best-in-class service that they expect and deserve. Behind the scenes, around the clock and 365 days a year, linemen are always ready and available. And when another utility needs help with storm preparation or restoration, PSE&G lineworkers heed the call for help.
To participate in honoring line workers and their families, use the hashtag #thankalineman on social media.
Is American Retail at a Historic Tipping Point?
By MICHAEL CORKERY
APRIL 15, 2017
Along the cobblestone streets of SoHo, Chanel handbags and Arc’teryx jackets are displayed in shops like museum pieces, harking back to the height of the neighborhood’s trendiness. But rents there are softening, and the number of vacant storefronts is rising.
Today, some of the most sought-after real estate by retailers is not in SoHo, but five miles away in Red Hook, a gritty Brooklyn enclave with a shipbuilding past. E-commerce merchants are vying to lease part of a huge warehouse space, spanning 11 acres, that would allow them to deliver goods the same day they’re ordered online.
The profound reordering of New York’s shopping scene reflects a broad restructuring in the American retail industry.
E-commerce players, led by the industry giant Amazon, have made it so easy and fast for people to shop online that traditional retailers, shackled by fading real estate and a culture of selling in stores, are struggling to compete. This shift has been building gradually for years. But economists, retail workers and real estate investors say it appears that it has sped up in recent months.
