May 27,2015
readers and the staff of the Ridgewood blog
“James, you have been anti Valley from the get go. Arrogance? What arrogance? The patience and dignity that the Valley has shown in the face of all the petty attacks it has been subjected to by narrow-minded critics is the embodiment of Grace and Dignity. The Ancient Greeks defined beauty as grace ubder presure. By that count Valley is one beautiful organization. And yes, it is the Crown Jewel of Ridgewood.” Rurik Halaby
It’s interesting how the developers, Valley and the unions are all the same in trying to bully Villagers, and foist their unsustainable plans on Village taxpayers. Valley consumes Village services for free and apparently wants ever more, the developers want densities that will burden our schools, water, sewerage and transportation infrastructure, and the unions want us to pay for CBAs that offer excessive wages and benefits to people in their early 50s and 60s even though we’re all living longer. The common denominator here is “screw taxpayers” who are too busy commuting and raising kids to notice. Enough is enough, we’re being taxed to death. No more.
Ordinance 3066 = Pfund’s Folly was just to allow Valley to try and railroad the Village that built Valley in the first place. Audrey and her board are out of touch, and would be well advised to find new people less interested in Hospital system “empire building” and more interested in being a good neighbor and paying a PILOT for all of the Village services they consume; instead they are suing the same Village who without its good graces, Valley wouldn’t exist in the first place. Shameless behavior and this blog has been right to highlight it.
Tell me, do you think that once the “Grace and Dignity” group gets past the lawsuit they filed against the town that has been taking care of them since 1951, they just might consider taking the “Crown Jewel” and moving it to an area that could better house the monstrosity they want to build here ? I mean, let’s face it, if your “world class” in Ridgewood why can’t you be the same in say, Mahwah ?
The truth is the hospital shot it self in the foot with a lot of arrogant very bad decision making , bad management at its finest , The details of which have been spelled out on this blog over and over ad nauseam . Bad plan ,poorly executed ,leads to disastrous results ie , HUMC might make a run at buying Valley.
why the need to build empires?
Valley wants to stay here because Ridgewood does not charge them for services provided and no other town would put up with that. Residents of Ridgewood are charged if the Fire Department is called more than a certain number of times. Valley has them there regularly and no payments. Why are they so special? They get a lot of other services for free also. It would cost them money if they had to move and you know “Money” is almost their slogan.
Crown jewel, my foot. The arrogance and contempt of Valley for our residents was played out night after night after night at the hearings and by their attorneys’ behavior. Crown fool.
What unions? You must be kidding me throwing the unions into this. Next you will blame the unions for isis.
I remember Ridgewood without a hospital — it was built by thousands of Ridgewood residents giving the monies to build it.
The old timers remember and the political hack just look to disrupt.
The Crown Jewell that spends hundreds of thousands to keep nearby hospitals closed??? The Crown Jewel that wants to crowd out its neighbors? The Crown Jewell that wants to widen streets to let more traffic into town?? The Crown Jewel that won’t take no for an answer and wastes our tax dollars and callously solicits donations while it sues the Village?
Please, tell me Mr. Halaby’s quote was a hoax. No one is that naive, are they? Nor can someone be that ill-willed and ill-mannered to condemn those of us who live in town from wanting to preserve our Village. No one is “against” Valley — they are just against over-development. We are for preservation. And someone from a neighboring town feels free to criticize us? Where does anyone get off with the nerve to label those of us who speak up at meetings as “narrow minded”??? How perverse. How unseemly.
“The old timers remember and the political hack just look to disrupt” What that mean 12:00 ?
Without the ability to upgrade and stay with the times, Valley will be left in the dust by the Hackensack Meridians of the world. In 20 years, the debate will be what to do with the old hospital property on Linwood.
Very good point Sandy. Valley consumes multi-millions of dollars worth of Village services every year without making any payment-in-lieu of taxes (PILOT) to the Village for those services, which you rightly point out they consume for free on the backs of Ridgewood taxpayers. Yet they pay their not-for-profit CEO $2 million a year. Something’s amiss there. Here’s a great model for a PILOT task force in Ridgewood based on Boston’s experience (https://www.cityofboston.gov/assessing/PILOTProgram.asp), but despite repeated suggestions to the Council and Village Manager, they refuse to negotiate openly with Valley