“We are seen as a town of soft targets.” Not sure what this means or how you arrive at this conclusion.
Ridgewood’s crime rate (measured in instances per 1000 of population) is historically low (9.3/1000) as compared to neighbors like Paramus (52/1000) or Paterson (39/1000). On a national basis, Ridgewood is in the top 17% of the safest (read: low crime) communities.
Are you implying that suburban privilege is inversely proportional to urban street smarts — giving Ridgewoodians only an illusion of safety — when in fact — we are easy pickings — or “soft” because our average income ranks 37th out of 702 municipalities — according to the 2010 census — and rich folks are easy pickings for criminals? It seems logical that a “good” criminal would want to steal from rich folks, but the opposite is overwhelmingly true. Nationwide, the poor living in poor communities are the most frequent victims of crime hence, considerably more “soft” than we are in this town.
I’m no fan of parking garages, and such structures do bring with them a degree of urban blight and perhaps a bit more property crime — mostly because they afford bad guys a convenient place to hide and steal cars and stuff from cars — which accounts for much of the Paramus spike. But by any reasonable measure, Ridgewood remains among the most crime free towns in the County, the State and the Nation — garage or no garage.
Of course Ridgewood had one of the lowest crime rates. Why? Because the demographics mean that there are very few criminals who live in Ridgewood. Places like Paterson, Passaic, Newark, etc., have very high crime rates simply because they are literally infested with residents who commit crime not just frequently, but simply as a lifestyle. Now having said all that, the downside of being rich and relatively crime free means that professional criminals who live not too far away will always view places like Ridgewood as rich pickings.
Put up the garage – increase the crime rate – a little social justice for the liberals who live in town…
Speaking of which, does anyone know why the lights are left on all night under the bleachers at the high school….?
Does coin boy count as criminal activity in RW or was his record expunged thanks to PTI to cover up the true extent of the crime?
Restitution?
“The downside of being rich”….
You sir, are a complete asshole.
you might want to cut back on the beers