Thank your stars that Ridgewood at least keeps the semblance of non-partisan elections.
Arohnson would have been mayor for life had he run in Ridgewood with a D against his name. There is a large, and growing, contingent here who will vote for anyone – felon, crook, thief, retard whatever – with a D against their name.
I personally know quite a few party line Democratic voters who actually voted against Team Hackensack because they are unaware that the Three Amigos are Democrats.
We looked at Chatham and Princeton and Ridgewood – these were three top tier comparable towns.
All 3 towns had good schools and were very nice places to live and raise a family when we were looking to buy a house and start a family.
I think we made a big mistake.
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Unfortunately, Ridgewood has veered left and has gone downhill, both as a place to live and a place to get a good education.
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2017 School Rankings:
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PRINCETON:
#6 in NJ | 155 in National Rankings | #127 in STEM Schools | College Readiness Score 74.4/100.0
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CHATHAM:
#7 in NJ | 189 in National Rankings | #134 in STEM Schools | College Readiness Score 71.9/100.0
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RIDGEWOOD
#26 in NJ | #583 in National Rankings | Not Ranked in STEM Schools | College Readiness Score 53.6/100.0
but #1 in Tradition of excellence
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Look at those numbers.
Look at the gap between Chatham and Princeton vs Ridgewood.
Look at the pitiful 53.6% College Readiness score
Look at the $101 million dollar budget.
photo Maryland School Resource Officer Blaine Gaskill
“arming teachers” is a liberal talking point attempting to advance a FALSE NARRATIVE that all teachers will be issued guns as standard practice without any training and who will keep wear these weapons as side arms or keep them on their desks similar to other school supplies..
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“arming teachers” is actually ALLOWING teachers or other on-site school personnel WHO ALREADY are qualified, responsible and trained gun owners who will receive additional training as needed and/or fully training and qualifying personnel (who MAY be classroom teachers or school personnel) to become qualified to handle weapons in an emergency situation.
You know… like the armed security guards and police officers were trained.
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But you ALREADY KNOW THIS.
You are just selling a disingenuous narrative to divert attention from the fact that armed onsite personnel IS EFFECTIVE in STOPPING SCHOOL GUN VIOLENCE AND SAVING STUDENTS LIVES.
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Your position is not helping children. It is allowing children to be murdered.
But you also know this.
Ridgewood NJ, “Student-led” marches across New Jersey are part of the national March for Our Lives protests for gun control.
According to the Bergen Record ,the Hackensack march will include students from 18 high schools covering 26 municipalities. New Jersey’s first lady, Tammy Murphy, and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, along with other officials and clergy members, will also attend. The groups Ridgewood JOLT, Glen Rock After the March, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and Sandy Hook Promise are also supporting the march.
The “Student-led” protests are slick and well produced with the kids appearing to be nothing more than window dressing .
The focus more and more seems to be on a collection of political wannabes and helicopter parent activist pushing gun control and an anti NRA , anti Trump agenda with school safety being a mere afterthought.
Ridgewood NJ, Congratulations to Dee and Richard for winning “BEST BBQ” at the North Jersey BBQ Showcase on Thursday March 15, 2018 at the Garden State Plaza.
SMOKED offers slow smoked meats and fish. Homemade sides and desserts. Authentic, smokehouse meals eat in or take out. Complete home cooked meals to go.
Stop by and see their trophy at their Ridgewood location…2 Godwin Ave. Ridgewood, NJ 07450
Best smoked food in Bergen County…make sure you try all the other creative and delicious food…eat in or take out…Ask to see how they smoke their food or to eat in the kitchen…nothing like it.
Reader asks , ‘How could Alexandra Harwin possibly have any approach? She has absolutely no idea what is going on in town. She never, repeat NEVER, attends any meetings?
Reader answers ,” No specifics are necessary in a campaign if you blow all of the right dogwhistles. Progressive voters respond solely to emotional appeals so no true logic is necessary.She has a large email mailing list. Wait and watch her magic with it.”
The definition of non-partisan that people are using in these discussions isn’t accurate. Non-partisan elections are simply elections where candidates do not identify themselves as part of a political party. It has absolutely nothing to do with the particular issue being discussed. You are free to run for political office in Ridgewood as the “Pro-life, Anti-Gun, Pro-immigration” candidate you just can’t run as a “Republican.” Now it would be idiotic to run as the “Anti-gun” candidate because the village council has as much control over the gun laws as they do over the weather, but hey, if you want that to be your issue, you’re perfectly within your rights to run on that. And that is actually the point: without national parties, the issues tend to stay local not by law but because you can’t get elected without focusing on local issues.If you’re interested in snow day reading on the subject, here’s a reference: https://www2.pitt.edu/~cwb7/assets/papers/PB%2014%20article.pdf. That said, I do think that how the village government reacts to, funds security of, and otherwise supports peaceful protests is exactly the kind of issue that should be discussed among candidates. Oh, and I think any FB group that summarily dismisses non-trolling, otherwise polite members won’t be very effective at anything for very long.
Ridgewood NJ, as of 4:30PM, yesterday PSE&G was reporting about 600 customers are without power as a result of #WinterStormToby. Snow totals and winds have been lighter than expected, resulting in fewer outages. Additional crews are ready to respond to any outages that may occur if the storm intensifies .
Fortunately the storm seemed slightly tamer than expected .
PSEG also has tree trimmers available to clear downed trees and limbs from power lines. Crews from #Canada, #Indiana, #Michigan, #Mississippi, #NewYork and #Wisconsin are here to help restore power. Remember: Stay safe by staying away from and not driving over downed power lines!
At the 2pm conference call with Mayor Knudsen PSE&G reported
0 NO IMPACT ON ELECTIC PRESENTLY
o MUTUAL AID CONTRACTORS FROM ACROSS THE COUNTY ON HAND & READY TO GO
o STATE OF EMERGENCY = CREWS DEPLOY MORE FREELY
o HOSPITAL, MUNICIPAL, SCHOOL ROUTES PRIORITZEDAnd just a reminder REPORT OUTAGES BY REPORTING ONLINE OR TEXTING “OUT” TO 47734
REGISTER FOR ALERTS www.pseg.com/myalerts/register.jsp
AS ALWAYS, please check on elderly and/or disabled neighbors. STAY SAFE – STAY WARM
March 22 2018(All Day)
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Due to the hazardous road conditions from the winter storm, all Ridgewood Schools will operate under the delayed opening schedule tomorrow, Thursday, March 22, 2018. Under the delayed opening schedule, the school day will begin two hours laterthan usual.
School bus schedules will operate two hours later. Elementary school children who have not ordered lunch must bring a bag lunch to school as there will not be sufficient time for children to go home for lunch when there is a delayed opening.
Ridgewood NJ, As snow winds down and road conditions improve following yesterday’s storm, NJ TRANSIT will operate regular weekday service for Thursday, March 22. Customers may expect delays and cancellations due to the residual effects of the storm.
Access Link will resume statewide service at noon on Thursday.
Customers are strongly advised to build in extra travel time and check the status of the system prior to making their trip by visiting njtransit.com or utilizing the My Transit alert system (www.njtransit.com/mytransit), which delivers travel advisories to your smartphone.
Hudson-Bergen Light Rail, Newark Light Rail and RiverLINE are all expected to operate on regular weekday schedules.
The storm brought slushy conditions to parts of the NJ TRANSIT system, causing wet snow on roads and sidewalks. Extreme caution is advised when boarding or exiting buses, trains and light rail vehicles due to possible slippery conditions.
Systemwide cross honoring and cross honoring with PATH will NOT be in effect for Thursday.
For the latest travel information, customers should visit njtransit.com, access NJ TRANSIT’s Twitter feed at @NJTRANSIT or listen to broadcast traffic reports. Additionally, NJ TRANSIT will provide the most current service information via the My Transit alert system (www.njtransit.com/mytransit), which delivers travel advisories to your smartphone. Service information is also available by calling (973) 275-5555.
Travel Advice:
Listen closely to public address announcements at stations for late-breaking service information.
Build additional travel time into your trip to a station, terminal or bus stop.
Stairs, flooring and platforms can be slippery, so please use caution when walking along wet surfaces or any outdoor surface exposed to the weather. Use extra care when boarding or exiting buses and trains.
Report slippery or unsafe conditions to bus operators, train crews or NJ TRANSIT staff.
If you park, ensure your car is stocked with a snow brush and ice scraper so you can clear your car upon returning to the lot.
I don’t think this huge budget is supposed to be aimed at any particular people except for the wealthy citizens in our town whose children must have the very best in everything and are willing to pay to support it. The Board doesn’t seem to give any thought to the fact that a large number of people in town are struggling to make ends meet and are sick of having to pay through the nose so someone’s precious darling can be treated with kid gloves. And, Just for your info–if you want the best all round education for your kids, get out of Ridgewood! We went down the educational tube years ago. A huge increase in support staff in the Ed center and a corresponding huge decline in the educational system in Ridgewood. Sure, we’re probably still in the top 1/3 and maybe even in the top 1/4 in the state but that’s a long way down from being in the top 10% of the nation
1. This shows that “arming teachers” (aka having armed personnel in schools) works
2. No students were killed by the shooter because the shooter was stopped by someone onsite with a gun
3. The incident was over before the police had a chance to arrive. Students’ lives WERE SAVED.
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and most importantly:
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4. There will be NO WALKOUT to support this success story in stopping gun violence in its tracks in our schools
5. There will be NO positive coverage of this story since it does not advance the anti-gun (NOT THE SCHOOL SAFETY) agenda
6. This will be reported and fund raised as a “gun violence in our schools – anti-gun” story
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The Board of Ed knew exactly what it was doing when they changed the election date. This totally removed the possibility of voters voting the budget down and released a wild spending spree on the part of the board. They are literally saying, “You can’t stop us. We can charge as much as we want.” If the money was being spent to evaluate some of the teachers, maybe it could be well spent. Years ago we were actually told by a teacher on back to school night–“I’m tenured, I can do whatever I want until I retire.” This was the answer to our question about what she was teaching. And throwing more money is not going to improve our county rankings, much less state and national, any more than it helps the schools in Paterson and Newark to just throw money at them. “Gilding the lily doesn’t make it an any better lily.” Is any of this money going to be used to improve the lunchroom situation? It is neither sensible nor sanitary to have students eating on the floor. The board should be forced to seriously reevaluate this budget and see what they can cut and what is being directed towards actual needs, not frills to make Ridgewood look better.
Ridgewood NJ, according to FOX Business News ,”Two-and-a-half million U.S. homeowners were underwater on their mortgages as of the fourth quarter of 2017, according to property analytics provider .” and New Jersey has once again claimed the honor of leading the nation in foreclosures in 2017.According to a new report from ATTOM Data Solutions last year close to 70,000 properties went through the foreclosure process in the Garden State, still less than the roughly 74,000 in 2016. That’s far from the rest of the nation, which is experiencing 12-year lows.
Bergen County had : 3,357 (one for every 105 houses) Foreclosures, which was actually down from 2016 by -15 percent . 46 homes are currently listed in Foreclosure on Real Estate website Trulia in Ridgewood .
New Jersey is hurt in the numbers because foreclosures take longer to play out in the state, but with the new drive from Governor Murphy and the Trenton mafia to raise taxes on everything , you can be sure that added cost pressures will and drive more businesses and home owners out of the state.
*** CORRECTION – RECYCLING PICKUP***ON THURSDAY, MARCH 22ND AND FRIDAY, MARCH 23RD***
March 21,2018
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood Nj, the Village has issued a correction for it’s latest E-Notice , “As a correction to the previous E-Notice, pickup of recycling for Area 3 on Thursday, March 22nd and for Area 4 on Friday, March 23rd, will take place as scheduled, on those dates.”
UPDATE ON SPECIAL PICKUP – TREE LIMBS AND BRANCHES
The Parks and Street Departments began the collection of tree limbs and branches on March 19th, in Section A (using the leaf pickup schedule), and the volume was greater than expected. Given the fact that there will be another nor’easter tomorrow, the crews should be able to complete Section A by the end of the week, and might be able to move on to Section B. Pickup in Section B will resume next week, and once all streets in Section B have been picked up, the crews will then move on to Section C. Once all streets in Section C have been picked up, the crews will then move on to Section D. Please be patient, as our crews work to remove the many tree limbs and branches which fell during the March 7th storm.
As a reminder, the crews will remove the limbs and branches from every street in each section only once and after this pickup has taken place, there will be no additional pickups for these tree limbs and branches.
BULK PICKUP, RECYCLING, AND GARBAGE COLLECTION
The bulk pickup, on the East Side, will take place on March 21st, and our crews will do their best to complete it, weather permitting. On March 22nd and March 23rd, all garbage cans must be brought to the end of your driveway (not in the street), for the safety of our Village employees. Backyard collection of garbage will resume on March 26th, weather permitting. Please remember that our crews will not resume backyard collection of garbage unless there is a clear path to the garbage cans. Therefore, if the path is not clear, please continue to bring your garbage cans to the end of your driveway in order to have it picked up.
