June 6,2016
Text copied from post by “Take Back Ridgewood”Facebook page :
The referendum petition which over 1200 Ridgewood residents signed and submitted under Home Rule to the village clerk, called for a referendum question in November election with the following text:
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“Shall Ordinance No. 3521 authorizing the Council of the Village of Ridgewood to issue $11,500,000 bonds or notes to finance the cost of constructing the Hudson Street Parking Deck, currently contemplated as a 4 story, 5 level Parking Deck, be ratified?”
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Our Mayor and current council majority are forcing this election before they leave, and they changed the referendum question to:
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“Shall ordinance No. 3521 submitted by referendum petition providing for the Council of the Village of the Ridgewood to issue $11,500,000 bonds or notes to finance the cost of constructing the Hudson Street parking deck, be adopted”
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Summary: Over 1200 Ridgewood residents submitted a petition, asking for a question in November election for 11.5M bond for a 5 level garage. The Mayor and his team fast tracked that election and removed the text about 5th level from the question.
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1.Mayor Aronsohn is trying to ignore May 10th election and people’s will. If this question is voted “yes” on June 21, he will award a 5 level garage contract in his last 9 days. NO BIDDING has been done for this 11.5 Million$ contract and the details are only known to Gwenn / Paul / Roberta / Albert (I.e. Parking committee). The new council elects and Susan and Mike will have to work with this new contractor for project completion, while they are NOT being part of the contractor selection process or any other design / engineering discussions. Mayor Aronshon and his team will not be here to see through this project to it’s completion – and won’t have any accountability. Why are they hiding the contractor selection process from other council members?
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2. Mayor Aronshon is again pulling the “it’s only financing question” card, which he did in November election. He is writing to residents saying “Basically, do you support financing and building a parking deck at Hudson Street that could cost up to $11.5 million.”. He is hiding the fact that this special election was called for because of the size and design of the garage. The residents united to stop the financing because of the size of the garage.
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Please vote ‘NO’ on June 21st, and let the new council pick a contractor for Hudson Street Garage after July 1st. So they can see through the project to it’s completion and can be held accountable for picking the right contractor.
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Typical Scorched earth politics ..throwing the match behind him and a big FU. TRY CLEANING UP THIS MESS
I will vote NO as the mayor has hidden his true agenda. This garage is way to big for this lot and will not solve the parking issue in town as it will only cater to commuters. In order to solve the parking problem, we need smaller decks (not 5 story garages) at each location that we currently have.
Please ask/beg your friends and neighbors to vote NO on Tuesday, June 21. This referendum may be off many people’s radar at a busy time. They could end up deeply regretting that they failed to vote–or, worse, mistakenly voted yes without understanding the whole story, as happened to many last November.
Vote no, no, a thousand times no! Officeholders can over time become corrupt. Why at this point should we trust that anything that the three amigos do or cause to happen would be a good thing for Ridgewood? They have blatantly forfeited the benefit of the doubt.
Yep, there it is, the anti-development smugness and complacency that is destroying Ridgewood. If the residents who ran the Village back in the 1980s were here today, they would be stunned at how far the Village and its schools have slipped. Ever ask yourself why? Ever wonder why our shriveled tax base is already incapable of paying for all of the contractual giveaways and excessive benefits we’ve handed to teachers, police & fire?
Aronsohn is a liar. Every word out of his disgusting mouth is a lie. Ignore him completely.
1:11pm, when you dismiss veritable cries of anguish over the abuse suffered by village residents at the hands of the Three Amigos as mere “anti-development smugness and complacency” you reveal yourself as an insincere concern troll. Do us all a favor and express yourself some other way if you want to have your opinions respected.
1:11. What does development have to do with your perception of a decline in Ridgewood schools?
Our schools are fine. There are lots of moneymaking schemes to rank schools but it does not change the quality. Us News, Niche and Nj Monthly sell a lot of ads with their rankings. Can’t you tell if your child is thriving and being challenged without the magazines?
Are we that insecure?
We don’t want a garage in any shape of form….
111 – – I was among those here in 80’s and earlier – – what’s stunning is that we allowed Aronson and his cronies to lead us down the path we are now. Its shameful.
@1:11, Any of these proposals taken separately would have been laughed at then immediately rejected in the 80’s. The idea that one council would pass them all at the same time is beyond ridiculous.
Furthemore, the retail landscape has changed immensely from the 1980’s! of course our town will need to adjust, but added a half dozen over-sized projects at the same time is not the answer. Shame on our town for not having any vision to come up with a comprehensive plan that is right sized for Ridgewood.
1:11 – You developer types are to blame for whatever you think is wrong. Too many “my way or the highway” projects shoved down our collective throats. We’re way behind in modernizing because you guys got greedy. 67% of the people seem to agree with me.
1:11- You have to be a little out there to suggest an oversized garage is the answer to whatever “problems” we are supposed to have.
1:11, apologists for the Dastardly Trio may as well not waste their breath or finger energy. We voted them out and out everything they want to push through now must go. If it looks like a lame duck and quacks like a lame duck, it’s a lame duck.
1.11 was due to benign neglect those contracts and pensions were unsustainable even back then..gross mismanagement and nepotism
1:11pm:
People who disagree with outsize overdevelopment shouldn’t be labeled as anti-development. That is simply not true and adds to the vitriol we are all trying to move away from. Furthermore, the level of grassroots activism on the part of people who genuinely care about Ridgewood – both sides – can hardly be be called complacency! It doesn’t matter on which side your opinion falls because both sides have proven that if nothing else, people in this town are willing to fight for their vision of an improved Village. And that is why Ridgewood is a great place.
Roberta sent out an email today informing everyone about the election. That email also uses Paul Aronsohn’s line of ‘financing the deck’. Looks like she is not interested in saving her job?
It’s called “hit the deck.”
Interesting that Roberta is not using her free speech to advocate for the garage this time around.
There will be a garage. What we are working on is the size of the garage. There needs to be real compromise. No one will get everything that he wants.
Then the council must fix the master plan. Change will happen, we just need to control the development and make sure that it fits the village.
Garage is not needed outside of a permanent record of the series of back door deals and shameful attempted hoodwinking of the community.Let the Garage plans Rot on exhibit at the new Mayors office as a reminder that government serves the community rather than the special interest restaurants with other people’s cash to spend.
If hudson site can pass the 2 decker fit in standard vs cottage or perhaps the Town Garage renewal site then build it.2 floors Max.rhen lets Move On to other important issues of taxes reduced spending..combine town services with other towns and better governance.Roads are a disgrace too.Current program doesn’t work at all.third world roads in VOR.