file photo by Boyd Loving
As a 20 year resident who had three children go through the schools I offer the following thoughts. Ridgewood is not an easy town to live in and is getting more difficult every year. The school system and performance has steadily declined while the costs are out of control, $100M budget today will be how much in 10 years? The teachers are nasty, do not help the kids at all, and many of us require multiple tutors to get the kids good SAT and college test scores. How many of us had to use tutors? The town in-fights on everything from a sports field to housing to development to traffic. We spend money to improve the train station, but many residents cant park after 7:00am, there is also no way to pick-up or discharge passengers. We add a bike lane in the busiest section of town and back up traffic in all directions for untold miles. Anyone ever able to get a new stop sign or police enforcement on a road that supports speeding, have to wait for something awful to happen before getting attention? Every spring people plant lawns and gardens and every summer, Ridgewood (only Ridgewood) sends out the ‘deputies’ to fine those who water their lawns.
The taxes on my home have almost doubled in 12 years, value has not risen (in fact may have fallen) while services, roads, parking, etc have all remained stagnant.
After 20 years and with a sense of regret we will fold the tents here and move on. I am sure someone will move in a be very happy as we were, but I do suggest we all understand that times are changed and not for the better
A common theme is people are giving up and seeing that despite their own investments in the town and active support for decades they are throwing in the towel and cashing out.Its the sum of many things small large and medium..while taxpayers mostly stating this with regrets..
We try to turn that Page is some way or the Page turns us as history and a former homeowner in ridgewood..homes here are a big investment tax wise upkeep fees and general cost of living..NJ STATE TAX ETC
The main industry that was the lifeline of a place like Ridgewood – Wall Street – is hemorrhaging jobs left, right and center. People no longer have the ability to sustain the on-going costs of homeownership while also saving for retirement.
In the past, people may have still swallowed the running cost as you were at least sitting on an asset (the home) that would increase in value, making for nice savings into retirement. That is done – home prices are going nowhere.
So unless there is a compelling reason, people are not going to sit around paying those high property taxes and maintenance costs, on top of ever increasing state and federal taxes.
And as we move out a new family with school age children will replace us.
The town has no regard for long term residents, the contributions we made and continue to make to he community. My 4/5 bedroom home will serve a new family with children in the schools. My kids are finished with the schools. 70% of my taxes are easy money for the district. The town is foolish to not attempt to retain long term residents. After 30 years I am done too.
Go visit the village hall. The village manager’s office and director of operations office for water department. Looks like luxury hotels – they both have 2 assistants / secretaries – to do WHAT??
Go visit the recycling center – you will see young new employees sitting in their trucks – looking at their phones, instead of helping the residents who go there to drop the trash.
Create a family chart for people who work for the village – there is too much nepotism, where unqualified people are being hired.
Lookup the vendors who were given big contracts – you will find their owners working for some other nearby municipality.
It’s all interconnected web of municipal employees rewarding each other on the expense of the tax payers. There is really NO reason why they need close to 1000$ per home per year to provide municipal services.
Look at the outrageous cost of our BOE ($102mn, or $1bn pace over next 10 years), and excessive contracts for police & career fire dept. These teachers and public safety officials are cleaning up while the rest of us get taxed to death paying for their sweetheart and excessive contracts… #taxedtodeath so teachers, police & fire can have $10 co-pays and lifetime defined benefit pensions & platinum health plans. Enough is enough.
This town took a turn for the worse about 20 (maybe 25?) years ago.
It just had so much positive momentum that it took this long for that reality to catch up…
Hey 1:41 PM, you keep saying your being taxed to death, but you ain’t dead yet? what’s up with that?
I love that your Unions give money (your union dues)to the politicians that steal money from your pension plans lol
We have lived here since 1971 and our taxes have tripled even though our house remains the same. The school system used to be one of the top in the nation and now we are no where near the top of the state. It used to at least provide something for the top students as well as those at the lower end. Now that classes in the elementary school have to be geared to the average student, the special Gifted programs are long gone. Our children were not challenged in the late 70’s and 80’s in the high school and I hear from current parents that it is no better. Even the number of National Merit and National Merit Certificate students has declined.
We do have a high national rating in our handling of students with special needs. (I have met a number of people, including neighbors, that said that was the sole reason they moved to Ridgewood.) Even though that is a worthy accomplishment, it increases our taxes and reduces the amount of money available to our other students.
1:29 and 1:49- Right on the money ! At one time it actually made sense to pay high taxes to live in Ridgewood. Not any more. You really are better off with an occasional “visit.”