I try to keep my local political opinion out of Tips From Town. It hasn’t been easy. I am not a journalist, but I appreciate ethics and it is my understanding media outlets have an obligation to equal and fair reporting. Of late, there have been complaints The Ridgewood News is presenting one side more than the other, and has been making it difficult for residents to place informational ads, quoting arbitrary rules and guidelines. These same rules and guidelines do not seem to apply to developers. Hopefully, this is simply poor management and/or an oversight at the newspaper, but either way, the two sides of this discussion are not getting equal exposure. So, I post this opinion piece. Happy to post one from the other side if you care to pass this along .
https://www.tipsfromtown.com/the-future-of-ridgewood-looks-bleak/
The election is less than a month away and I don’t know where any of the candidates stand on important issues.
Do they have websites? Is there any campaign material? If the Ridgewood News were truely an unbiased local paper they would send questions to the candidates for answers and publish all responses.
I know that the League of Women Voters will have a forum but I expected more. What if the forum does not adress my questions?
What do you think the village should do about parking in the CBD? Do you think that we even have a parking problem?
Do you think that the housing density should be 25 units per acre? Do you think that it should be higher or lower?
How many high density projects can the congested downtown absorb?
Will you challenge the latest Valley Hospital Plan and ask for more concessions?
What can be done to end the cycle of empty-nesters fleeing the town because of high taxes? Do you think that there is a benefit to offer a tax break to stabilize the demographics and prevent an overflow of students in our schools?
Will you ask that all council and committee members disclose all conflicts of interest – perhaps without being asked by an angry and skeptical public?
google their names in the blog search bar , there is copious amounts of news
Perfectly stated. I share so many of her concerns and I hope her message can reach many other people who “are not political”.
8:42, Jeff Voigt and Bernie are the only two who seem to want to protect our village from massive over-development Our current planning board and council have taken a hatchet to our master plan while receiving 0 concessions: no real reduction in size of expansion (3% is laughable), no guaranteed senior housing, no monies put aside for infrastructure needs, no taxes out of Valley, paltry low income housing units, etc. You can easily find their positions online or in the paper. I can’t even find a third candidate to trust.
Yes, 102 MILLION DOLLARS bleak…..
Actually, I think our future has never looked brighter. The council trio has acted so repugnantly that they have sparked a new Village activism.
The shennigans of Mayor Airbag and his cronies have been put in the open. Villagers have realized its their own fault for sitting idly by while the trio started to sell us out and drive our town into the ground. Its not too late to undo the damage that’s been done and to come our even better. Its going to cost us more time and money then if we had just kept an eye on Mayor carpetbagger (or better yet, not been taken in by his words and kept him out of office.) Citizen groups are at the ready to file legal challenges to the ordinances the trio passed in the waning days of their rule. Seek those groups out, offer support, get involved now because it really isn’t too late, although it will be shortly. Above all – – look carefully at the council candidates. Are they more of the same? Who is backing them? What is their positions on the issues. Find out now, before it trully is too late Don’t let Mayor Airbag’s antics get you down. Get involved!