Ridgewood Blog Poll : Biggest Issue in Ridgewood is Taxes

Parking   31 %
Unelected Special Interests   6.9 %
Urbanization 11 %
Taxes          33.1 %
CBD                 2 %
Development    7.3 %
Cost of Living   8.7 %

September 16,2017

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, the long running Ridgewood blog poll  gave us an interesting take on what residents feel are the biggest issues in the Village . As expected taxes garnered 33.1 % of the vote , trailed by a close second Parking with 31% .Urbanization came in a distant 3rd with 11%  followed by cost of living 8.7% , surprisingly development at 7.3% ,unelected special interests 6.9% and last the Central Business District (CBD) with a mere 2%. The CBD number may be more of a parking issue and a cost of living or Urbanization issue but despite all the hub bub from certain sectors ,no one seems to think its an issue .

While our crack staff concluded that even if you combined Urbanization and development it still only came in with 18.3% , which was still a distant 3rd . Adding unelected special interests ie developers and out side political interference that would still leave it in 3rd place with a 25.2%.The conclusion being that most residents do not object to development but perhaps its the size and scale that seem to raise the ire .

Taxes as expected is the number one issue in town and in New Jersey and its also the number one reason for people leaving the state , the assumption being residents vote with their feet and see no evidence that taxes will even stabilize anytime soon. Feeding the say yes to everything because your moving out on graduation day and most likely meaning that all the “Age Friendly” Ridgewood stuff is just a complete waste of time.

We don’t think the polls told us anything different that we expected , but given all the talk from local officials  about trees, ball fields , schools , the CBD, quality of life issues , most readers seem ready to park their cars in a new state as soon as soon as the graduation pronouncement is made.