the staff of The Ridgewood Blog
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Mayor Paul Vagianos recently balked at a $300k plan to complete a pedestrian safety/sidewalk installation project (approximately 1200 feet of sidewalk) on the south side of West Glen Avenue between North Monroe Street and S Hill Road. Instead, the Mayor has proposed spending $100k to extend the existing sidewalk by only 400 feet, which would result in its termination mid-block on West Glen Avenue, between North Monroe and S Hill Road.
A mid-block termination point would serve no purpose other than to provide a safe pedestrian route between North Monroe Street and the homes that front the existing sidewalk, and the proposed 400 foot extension. The Ridgewood Blog, along with multiple residents who live on or near West Glen Avenue, strongly believes that the $300k plan to complete the entire 1200 foot sidewalk between North Monroe Street and S Hill Road (on the south side of West Glen Avenue) is a no-brainer, and should be authorized by Village Council members immediately.
We will also say that Councilperson Evan Weitz was completely out of order when he blamed the Citizens Safety Advisory Committee (CSAC) for falling down on the job with respect to the sidewalk completion project. Instead of accepting responsibility for being asleep on the dais, Weitz alleged that CSAC failed to notify Council members of how necessary the project was, and that is why the Council defunded it earlier this year. Give it a rest Mr. Weitz; we all know that you and the others (except for Councilperson Lorraine Reynolds, who you insultingly accused of grandstanding this project solely for political purposes) screwed this one up big time. Nice try at deflecting the blame though.
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We need a safe sidewalk. Do it right
Sorry but Glen Ave is just not a safe road. Nobody should be walking on that road.
Not needed. Cross the street. If you miss sidewalks everywhere, move to a city. There are no sidewalks on plenty of other streets as well. Accidents can happen on ANY street.
What’s the plan to tackle a potential increase in crime over the next five to ten years?
Well why did the old mayor stop there. This was done on the old council time. Well’ blame the old council for this and the foot bridge. These problems have been around for the past few years.
stop the BS
All of a sudden W. Glen is an issue. Cut the bs and lets concentrate on the important issues.
Who walks anymore?
Why on earth would they not do the entire sidewalk to S Hill? What is the point of doing it halfway?
The village is not equipped to put safety first when they have a big field to build for the sports machine that they have promised. When promises are made, they want to complete those projects however it is okay to parcel out safety projects that are of real concern to residents? These are your tax dollars and safety should be made the biggest priority, not a multi-purpose artificial turf field with a sports cafe and all of the other bells and whistles you know will be added down the line. That is what this VC cares about, plain and simple. It is sad because the families living on both West and East Glen are immobile when it comes to traversing their neighborhood. They will near bankrupt this Village with their pet projects.
The village is not equipped to put safety first when they have a big field to build for the sports machine that they have made promises to. When promises are made, they want to complete those projects full steam ahead…however it is okay to parcel out safety projects that are of real concern to residents? These are your tax dollars and safety should be made the biggest priority, not a multi-purpose artificial turf field with a sports cafe and all of the other bells and whistles you know will be added down the line. That is what this VC cares about, plain and simple. It is sad because the families living on both West and East Glen are immobile when it comes to traversing their neighborhood. They will near bankrupt this Village with their pet projects.
The old council was only in office long enough to complete the sidewalk to a certain point due to cost. The project was going to be phased in over a few years so as it wouldn’t take funding away from other needed infrastructure projects.
I guess the good people of West Glenn Avenue didn’t donate enough to these assholes’ campaigns. The four of them are just scumbags.
Must you be reminded that the mayor, deputy mayor, and Councilwoman Reynolds were all part of what you’re calling the “old” council.
If the sidewalk is NOT completed then it will be a sidewalk to nowhere
Stick to the plan! Finish the sidewalk. This plan will benefit students, the elderly, moms with strollers and more for years to come. If you are really concerned with the environment then we need to make our suburbs more walkable. I see plenty of kids walking on the edge of the street, add sidewalks and they will be able to walk safely and others will join them!
Also – I gotta wonder if the VC is legally allowed to change the plan… this is a county road, where did the funding come from?
Why the sudden interest on W. Glen? There haven’t been sidewalks there forever. If you want sidewalks move to the city, or Hackensack. Stop the distractions and let concentrate on important issues.
sudden ????????????????????
Important issues are hard to solve.
This is easy.
… and provides a nice photo opp when completed.
Yes, the sidewalks should be finished this year. But and we mean, but they had enough money in the budget last year to complete this project in a shut off. Bought and we mean but they took those funds and put it over to the W. Sal Rd. project so there’s no bullshit. If they started the project, they should’ve finished it. But politics got in the way and sports groups have a lot of money and power, and they divert funds from the sidewalk job to the ballfield project and that’s the story.
There are about ten residents who are very active on Facebook denouncing the plans for Schedler. They post daily about how awful it would be to have a baseball field in their neighborhood.
They have begun posting about the safety of Glen Ave for pedestrians. Same people responding to each other’s comments. Now they are linking the defunding of Schedler to money for the sidewalk.
Glen is a dangerous road for cars. Don’t walk on it. Don’t attempt a left turn onto Glen Ave.
Sell Schedler to the highest bidder and return the state’s money. I personally would not like driving that far for youth baseball. The Ridgewood/Hohokus/Paramus vortex.