the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, a Ridgewood family has filed a federal lawsuit accounting the Village of Ridgewood of being in violation of the the Americans with Disabilities Act . Funny to happen in a town when its former Mayor Paul Aronsohn who is currently serving as New Jersey’s statewide Ombudsman for Individuals with Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities and Their Families – a position to which he was appointed by Governor Phil Murphy in April 2018. As such, he serves as the administration’s lead advocate and ally for New Jersey residents in need of critical services and supports ranging from early childhood through adulthood.
According to a Facebook post :
“For the past few months my family has been fighting a crusade with the Village for pedestrian access for my autistic adult son Daniel. If you or someone you know has experienced challenges with the Village concerning accessibility requests, please contact me. I will listen and, if you’d like, provide well-informed guidance.The Village has failed to meet its fundamental legal obligation to appoint an ADA Coordinator. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires every municipality with 50 or more employees (that’s the RPD alone) to appoint an individual who is knowledgable about the ADA and able to intake and consider ADA requests — and for good reason. Our entirely reasonable, cost-effective accommodation requests on Daniel’s behalf have been stonewalled, ignored, passed around or met with apathy and, at times, ignorance, by perhaps well-intentioned folks who have no experience with autism or intellectually disabled people. Last week, as an absolute last resort, we filed a federal lawsuit against the Village, a Village my husband grew up in and we have called home for 11 years. Incredibly, still no response. Daniel’s NJ Transit Disability Card arrived last week. We will press on so that he can have pedestrian access to walk into the Village for breakfast at West Side Bagels or take the bus to a job, school or the mall, a measure of independence for which he has spent years training.”
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He can’t cross Clinton Ave. to the new sidewalk on the west side yet there have been no sidewalks ever?
Widen the road and put sidewalks in on both sides. It will save money in the end.
If you’ve been paying attention, the street has always been closed off, so opening it up causes the issue. I guess you missed that part.
Streets are normally open. That’s why they call them streets.
When your kid is special in more ways than one, amiright?
No you are not and what kind of a person are you? What has happened to this village when you have a person like you moking a special needs individual. Go pick on someone else, you loser.
I don’t see anyone “moking” [sic] the kid. Special needs individuals like you, on the other hand, are always fair game.
Doesn’t Uber come to your home?
Sidewalks on both sides seems to be the conclusion. Infrastructure and all children’s safety are what taxes are for. It’s not for paying for a gated community where only residents, their vendors, landscapers, and delivery drivers can come and go as they please but not allow others to drive through that street, how is that safe for any child?
No one has ever stopped anyone from accessing Clinton Avenue, except for the brief, two times a day the avenue is closed during the school year.
But now that they’ve commenced building the sidewalks, I hope they discontinue the twice-a-day closure. Now that the sidewalks will be in place to make the children safer, there should be no need to restrict road access to cars. And I want to be able to park there.
Making the street one way and limiting parking would solve this problem. Adding another sidewalk after the town spend 600k on one is brain dead. The town didn’t think this all the way through. That’s really the issue.
Making the street one way and limiting parking would solve this problem. Adding another sidewalk after the town spend 600k on one is brain dead. The town didn’t think this all the way through. That’s really the issue.
Ahhh, now I understand why the years long anticipated sidewalks on W. Glen (where other younger autistic kids live) were usurped in favor of Clinton. Too bad they didn’t keep pushing the VOR, a federal lawsuit affects EVERYONE negatively in the long run.
ADA lawsuits are big business in the country – there is an entire industry dedicated to making claims.
GrubHub delivers.
And how many attempts has the town made to install ADA-compliant sidewalks over the course of the 11 years this person has lived there?
I wish it were clearer precisely what “pedestrian access” is being requested and denied or ignored. Comments suggest sidewalks. Why are they essential?
Wait until people stop bitching about putting sidewalks in on goffle road. People walk right in the road it’s so dangerous.
Village of a Ridgewood is going to pay for this one.
“Incredibly, still no response.” No response is a response and the Village’s staple reply.
Yes, there should be sidewalks and curbs on Cell Road, that’s one road that is extremely dangerous for kids to ride their bicycle on and walk on the side of the road. It’s like a highway. I can’t believe it this age the county can afford to put sidewalks and curbs on that road, no excuse
There’s no pedestrian access to walk into the village? Huh? And this is an ADA issue? I mean, if you can go grab yourself breakfast, or take the bus to a job or school, how disabled are you really? Lots of so-called able-bodied/neurotypical people can’t even muster up the gumption to do that. I’d ignore this whining too.
You should see the Eastside. There is no way for pedestrians to get to the Westside of Ridgewood.
If you’re referring to that intimidating black roiling river that divides the Village, there’s a small boat that goes back and forth all day and night. Just toss the ferryman a token and you’re good to go.
Or just use the sidewalks. They’re everywhere.
Don’t you think there’s a good reason for that? I’ll tell you what I was told when I moved here.
You don’t want to live on the east side. The west side is nicer. The homes are nicer. The people are better.
So basically don’t make the west side accessible to the poor losers from the bad side of the tracks.
Are you serious?
The Village of Ridgewood is not ADA friendly, let alone compliant. Just look at the outside seating in the Central Business District. There is no way anyone with disabilities can maneuver.
Are you disabled, or just helpless?
please read this older article about Build a wall Paul
https://theridgewoodblog.net/reader-says-paul-vagianos-he-feels-he-is-above-the-law/
Vagianos only cares about pleasing the sports people he promised the field to and to how he can make more $ through his business ventures.
Is The Stable ADA compliant? Access to All levels and within?
Well it’s the law.
what about sidewalks for south murray
Village Mange, Keith Kazmark, working hard for the Mayor’s campaign. And no, that’s not a typo.
The VOR clearly messing up again and taking short cuts to return Mayoral favors. VOTE THEM OUT!
Not surprised the Village Engineer and Manager conveniently omitting necessary approvals and communication. #keithkazmark sucks
This is worse than the 50k, one block, bike lane to no where.
Village Manager Kazmark, a Vagianos puppet and former Mayor of West Paterson, renamed Woodland Park, spent a heck of a lot of time in his 365 days running around the village like where’s waldo, taking pictures like it was going to be part of some kind of contest. he made sure to knock on neighbors dooes with regard to putting lights up at Vets Field, however aside from an exclusive set of meetings that were not well publicized, the residents of Clinton Ave seem to have not been spoke to about substantial changes to their street. This is just plain wrong and the priorities of this town are one huge cluster fugazy. Shocking and shameful that it has to come down to someone having to get a lawyer involved because the village has its head up it ass.
What about the changes at Habernickle for a business. A new playground, a large 350,000 dollar pavilion. ( give the money to Clinton sidewalks not a business ). Double yellow lines now down the middle of the street busses in and out of the lot and constant cars for the business. Crazy what happened to that neighborhood with no regard to home owners. Park looks disgusting with flee market tents all over for the business. Just awful
They are going to fix the ugly tent set up with a very expensive ugly pavillion that no one but that business will ever use.
“a very expensive ugly pavillion that no one but that business will ever use.”
A town employee ‘go for’ says, she REALLY HAS PULL!
Will probably get an “award” and recreation crew photo for that to. Habernickle is Green Acres property.
Well, now you know why Keith Kazmark never lasted in any of his previous administrative positions.