the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, the tree wells have be come a point of contention in the central business district . Complaints have raged over dead trees , lack of maintenance to an over grown mess.
The complaints have been heightened lately after Village maintenance of common areas left much to be desired .
Several store owners have complained at Village council meetings but the fact is the condition of the tree wells in town varies widely.
The complaints are motivated by attacks on the Central Business District Advisory Committee, of which some shop owners refused to join do to political issues and their misplaces allegiance to a previous Village Council.
Some shop owners take great pride in planting beautiful flowers and maintaining them throughout the season. Others put in a couple of flowers and then let weeds overgrow the entire area. Still others plant nothing at all, letting cigarette butts and other garbage accumulate. Seems like for a very small investment in May, a shop owner could have a lovely little garden in front of their place of business for five or six months.
The Central Business District Advisory Committee errored early this year by not realizing a budget for tree wells must be requested of the Village Council . The new committee is just settling in and defining their responsibilities and the error was a simple miscommunication .
Some of the wells are spectacular, like two of those shown here. the third picture, not so much. Pull those weeds, it looks a mess
Yes project Fry pretty much does what they can they do a great job. Some store owners do the ones in front of their store which is pretty cool. Some of them look Terrible. Well the Parks department did that years ago. They just don’t have the staffing. I blame it on the directors for not Replacing Workers that retired. Every department needs more work power. That’s the bottom line. As a taxpayer we are always saying replacing retired employees in police, Parks as a taxpayer we are always saying replacing retired employees in police, fire, and village hall, all the other departments suffer I just can’t understand it. From being a resident for over 45 years every department is a skeleton crew. So this is what you got. Start hiring replacement employees, if not ,start hiring contractors To do certain jobs.
I disagree with longtime residents. I think the building owner OR the shopkeeper should take care of them. I don’t think that village employees need to do this. It is not that big a deal to get a flat of impatiens in May and plant them, water them a couple of times a week, come on. And as for the ones filled with weeds and cigarette butts, shame on the shopkeepers who can’t take five minutes in the morning to spruce them up.
That second picture down, well, guess whose well that is? None other than the gasbag who has that crappy little knick knack shop on Broad.
Are you are out of your mind I have a store in the CBD. I pay rent To my landlord. It is not my responsibility to maintain the flower bed, or my landlord, we did not install it we did not want it it’s the town‘s responsibility. End of story. The individual who said that must be the management of some sort. Town‘s responsibility hire people. Or hire a landscaper to maintain it.
So true. Hire a town landscape company in town to do it. What a joke. The town has the money.
Heavy Spring and Summer rains have the crabgrass taking over across the board in every Ridgewood property..private and commercial properties.Its a jungle out there .
Come on you must be kidding. If it is in front of your store, plant a couple of flowers. What is the big deal? It will make your store more appealing.
To those who say the commercial tenant should take over responsibility for the maintenance of the tree well – how do you not see that your exact thinking is the problem! Gee, let the government take over something, then pass on the cost/responsibility to a business owner!! Sound familiar?
“Not my job” attitude is what’s wrong with our country. Who cares who the responsible party is? It literally takes 2 minutes to fix. So much bitching and moaning instead.
Then you do it . Come over and weed in front of my store. I pay more then Enough.
I think we should plant weeds .
That’s what I like .
Rain does not create crab grass.
Lazy property owners who do no put down pre-emergence get it in the lawn.
Lazy flower bed owners need to weed it.
Or let my dog pisss on it
Rain does support Crab Grass..look around at every field In bergen county .Complete crab grass edge to edge..100 percent Crab Grass invasive weeds.
Who needs trees and plants on a concrete street . Let the stores speak for themselves. Trees and plants belong in woods and fields and people’s gardens. Not in concrete shopping districts. Trees and flowers do not inspire me to shop. They depress because they do not belong in concrete areas. It’s an artificial look that drives me away.
So funny how so much natural land has been developed with businesses or artificial turf and flowers and plants put in the shopping district. Funny in a sickening way and I mean sickening.
Imagine a little kid saying, Mommy, why are plants put in the shopping district with concrete ground instead of soil and trees chopped away at Schedler and all over Ridgewood on route 17.
What will Mommy answer, Mommy will say, because putting plants in shopping district will remind people of what is TRULY BEAUTIFUL AND VALUABLE IN LIFE and that is NATURE. They may then confuse the plants and trees in the wells with the junk they see in stores and pay money for that junk and profit the shopkeepers.