October 21,2015
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Local Patch editions publish sex offender map as Halloween warning across the state . Do you think the Patch sites should publish these maps or leave it up to parents to look up the information?
While we do agree parents have a right to know and should know , we are not sure this is the best and most effective way to notify the public .
On several occasions the Ridgewood blog has been asked by readers to publish everything from sex offenders to property tax delinquents of the Village and we have up till know differed. We did however publish the properties who were fined for for violations of the Stage 4 watering because after 15 years of summer water restrictions its seemed justified on many levels . We have also been guilty of nagging non compliant winter snow sidewalk scofflaws as well.
We have always been been concerned about creating a “witch hunt” atmosphere in the the Village or doing significant damage due to a misidentified address.
Unlike some of our detractors we try to focus on the issues and leave the personal to the personal . Some issues however seem to straddle both realms.
What are your thoughts ?