Readers Says People do, year after year, fall in love with “small town” Ridgewood
People do, year after year, fall in love with Ridgewood and chose buy their homes and raise their families here. According to money magazine, 2013 report, Americas top 50 small towns are not only thriving economically, they’ve also got all you could want in a place to raise a family: plenty of green space, good schools, and a strong sense of community. Ridgewood is not on the top 50 list and that is not surprising. But maybe we should strive to acquire some of the attributes that land a community on this list. The majority of towns on this list all seem to have same words sprinkled throughout their descriptions: nature, open space, recreation, preserved, protected, conservation etc. Every singe town on this list mentions some sort of recreational option and seemingly recognizes the importance of open space. Read the list and take note.
https://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/best-places/?iid=BPL_lp_header
These small towns range in size from 10,000 residents to about 50,000. In Ridgewood, we are a population of 25,000, so we land somewhere in the middle. Our Village government needs to seriously consider what is it that makes a town a more attractive place to live. They need to start using the words, “nature, protect and preserve’, a little more in their planning efforts. If these are such important factors in some of the best places to live, why do we seem to put such little value on them in our Village? There are serious efforts in this town to ridicule those who value open space and preservation. Community views in Ridgewood are often belittled behind closed doors and disregarded in public forums as well. It seems as if this town is moving farther and farther from the top 50 list and our Village leaders are leading the way. Do we value money and little else? Sure seems like we do.
