Keep A Lamp On For Us, Glen Ridge

I loves my gaslamp outside my door!

$622,391 is the *average* for GR?

I've been jokingly calling my street 'the slum of Glen Ridge' for years now, but I guess it's really true!

(Which is fine with me, actually. I like our weird little street. And I can do without the $16k+ tax bill too!)

Kate..."Weird little street with a $16+ tax bill"?? You have to be close to Forest or Ridgewood to make that nut.

Sorry--it's early and I haven't had much caffeine. Maybe my comment didn't make sense.

I live near Ridgewood, but on a small street with modest homes. Our taxes are nowhere near $16k. (And our home values are nowhere near the average, either.)

great photo, liz!

Kate...If you don't mind my asking. What's so wierd abot your little street...poltergeists? Tabooster neighbors?

I'm on Ridgewood, on what I affectionately call the dodgy end of town and my taxes are no where near 16k+. I don't mind paying a little extra for the gas lights.

They are a waste of energy and money. Get rid of them. I grew up on Ridgewood Ave. I'll be glad to see real street lights on Ridgewood. The gas lamps are worthless. If you are from Glen Ridge and you support the gas lamps, don't complain about high taxes. Pay them dutifully.

I wonder if, once the Taliban reassert control in Afganistan, lasermikey will rejoin his grim-faced Pashtun brothers?

Hey Mike who asked you, we were having a nice discussion and you had to butt in. If you were reading the rest of the post we weren't complaining. I said I don't mind paying for them. Do you live in Glen Ridge any longer, if you don't just move along. Man you are a crabby person. Go hug a puppy.

Kate,

1. I got a chance to listen to your songs, you have a very lovely voice, and while I'm more of a Patti Smith kinda guy, I enjoyed them

2. I didn't realize you lived in GR, but I'm gllad you do!

3. All the houses in GR are "near Ridgewood" (Believe it or not, relative to most houses in GR, you actually live pretty far from Ridgewood - so do I).

4. I agree that your street is a very nice street, and while it is a little quirky (if for no other reason than the diagonal "line" down the middle of it), I love the trees, and the kind of different vibe it has and its great location. I've always said that the center of town is underated, and that's especially true for your block.

5. There really isn't a street (or even a block) in GR that I wouldn't consider nice. Some have too much traffic for my tastes, and many of them I couldn't afford to live on (make that most of them), but I believe we are truly fortunate to live in such a great town.

The extra cost is one thing, one I don't mind paying. The squandering of a non-renewable resource by having all 667 lamps (with three burners per lamp) burning all day, from sunrise to sunset? That I can do without.

My understanding is that South Orange installed, at a hefty cost, appliances on each of their lights that shut them off during the day. Spread out over many years, I imagine such things would eventually pay for themselves with the savings in natural gas, but even if they don't, we should still consider them. As far as I know, ain't no new dinosaurs dying to become natural gas any time soon.

Well, mikey, you do win the daily award for meanspiritedness. As ever.

(Cue the old single by The Browns, "The Old Lamplighter," to attempt to bring a tear to laserboy's ever-baleful eye.)

I'm tired of hearing complaints about taxes one day and asking for perks the next.

(Cue the Ramones, "Hey Oh! Let's Go!" because I like it.)

Laserdude,

I grew up in a roach and mouse infested welfare apartment in one of East Orange's toughest neighborhoods. I would have killed, to have had the amazingly good fortune to grow up in a nice middle/upper middle class neighborhood, especially one a nice as Glen Ridge.

I guess it's nature not nurture, huh dude?

Carl, I second that emotion about our little town. LaserMike, tell us how you REALLY feel about the gas lamps!

My tea is nearly ready and the sun has left the sky,
It's time to take the window to see old Leerie going by......

It has been a few years.

I'm not surprised that lasermike would be a Ramones fan.

Funny, when I read his posts I think of the Ramones as well. I'd like to see him "sedated".

I love our gas lamps -- especially on a foggy night.

No complaints about taxes (well, not many) from this off,off Ridgewood Ave owner. I wouldn't trade our secluded and private back yard, on this little street, for anything.

I think Gas Lamps should be sent to Guantanamo Bay, tortured, tried in unconstitutional military courts that violate the Geneva conventions, and shot in front of a firing squad. And then we should get really serious about this Gas Lamp scourge.

Yeah Mike, let's replace our gaslamps with those ugly wooden sticks that they use in Montclair. I love cloning them out in PhotoShop?.

I say we stick Mikey on one of those gas lamps and then fire it up.

Scruffy & Mike,

The article is somewhat misleading. I believe that the $44-per-person represents the total cost of street lighting, which includes both the gas lights and the electic lights (yes, there are about 50 of them in GR).

Even with the energy cost increase, the gas lights actually cost GR much less to operate than new electric ones would (and the cost to run electrics is going up too), even though the gas ones are on 24/7 (and that's not even factoring in the installation and/or conversion costs).

Scruffy,

GR & SO worked together with PSE&G to run a pilot program in SO and Orange using several different device to come up with one that worked reliably and actually saved gas. So far, the results have not been acceptable.

While gas lamps would obviously be more environmentally friendly if they were off during the day (making - aguendo - the unsupported assumption that there would be no environmental cost to accomplishing this), even as is and running 24/7, the average GR gas lamp uses less energy than the average electric lamp. It also produces less light pollution.

Amen, haylon! "The Bonfire of the Inanities"

Carl, show me the numbers. I don't buy it.

Carl, There are many, many things I enjoy about living in Glen Ridge, but one of the most surprising is a mayor (now former) who actually takes time to share information. Thanks. It is nice to know where things stand.

I love the gas lamps. On winter nights in the snow they are truly wonderful. It would as Carl points out, be prohibitive expensive to replace the gas lamps with electric lights.

Commissar lasermikhail is in very bad moood today. Georgia is on his mind. So he issues diktat: no more gaslamps, comrades!

(Cue "The Internationale.")

Really, mikey, you're such a grim twerp. Dumbness is not a sufficient excuse for your all-purpose grumpiness, either.

Gas Lamps are really nice, but the underground wiring for power/phone/comm lines is even better.

I've heard before that the gas lamps are cost effective even though they are on 24/7.
My biggest complaint about the gas lamps in our town is that they seem to be brighter than they used to be. I like the night sky and don't buy any of the "safer is brighter" argument.
We are also going to be able to keep the feel of the gas lamps and have energy savings with the advances in LED technology in the near future.
Lazerdedoodlydope, I thought once that you were unfairly picked on, perhaps one of the "special people" that should be given some slack. Now you just remind me of a jerk I went to school with that found EST when he moved to NYC in the early eighties, only to become a bigger jerk. To paraphrase, stupid is what stupid posts.

If you want your gas lamps you can have them. I have yet to see how these Gas Lamps are cost effective. Like I said, I lived on Ridgewood, they didn't light anything, and the roads are more dangerous. I lived on the dead end and even with less traffic the roads were dangerous at dusk. You like them because they are quaint but they don't do anything for public safety.

Wouldn't you say comrade cathar?

Mike,

It's not up to everyone else here to disprove each of your unsupported allegations. I'm no longer the Mayor and I don't have ready access to that information any more (I'm basing my statement on an analysis we did about 5 years ago). PSE&G publishes the tariffs, give them a call.

Keep in mind that the tariff on new fixtures is much more than on old fixtures.

Scruffy,

Thanks for the kind words.

Pokey,

I also prefer the more natural mantles (in both gas lamps and the distaff), but it's hard to fight "progress" ;)

Carl, The Star Ledgers numbers were compelling. Your suggestion was not.

Mikey

Living under the bridge on Ridgewood doesn't count

Mike,

Do you live in Glen Ridge and pay for these lamps, or do you live in another town at the Brookdale Park end of Ridgewood Ave and want to complain about them anyway?

Mike,

The Star Ledger's numbers are for the total cost of street lighting, they don't support your argument unless you are arguing that GR should remove all street lighting and not replace it.

I lived the the Bloomfield side of the dead end. I complain about them because Glen Ridge's choice makes my street more dangerous. I can't tell you how many time parents ran out in the street because drivers didn't see kids playing or walking into the park. Some home owners have installed large flood lights in front of there homes because of the poor lighting. And then there is the burglaries and car thefts that occur every now and again because of the poor lighting.

Actually, Mike, the gas lamps on that part of the Dead End are not GR's, I believe they are Montclair's

And they are not a part of the same gas system? They are not maintained by the same entity? Yet another reason to unify the towns.

Lighting.
There is to much night lighting already. When the sun goes down, it's supposed to be dark! What's wrong with you people who think light 24/7 is either safe or healthy? Install motion detector lighting for security, but turn down the lights in general. It will not only save energy, it will make you healthier.

Mike,

They are all part of the same system - PSE&G's

They are all maintained by the same entity - PSE&G

However, it is the individual municipalities that get the bill for the individual fixtures, and they get to decide what sort of fixture is installed - in this case, it was not "Glen Ridge's Choice" (as you maintained), it was Montclair's - and I think it was a good one.

Mikey, the proletariat seems much against you today. (And every day, you betcha.) Why is that, you think? To the Finland Station, and quick!

Pokey, laserboy may indeed be special in some way, shape or form to someone, something, somewhere, somehow, but no, he is not the sort of lad who, say, participates valiantly in the Special Olympics. He is just a garden variety knothead even though he has a college degree, and he forever posts through clenched teeth with a forced smile that recalls the kind of person who pulls the wings off of live butterflies.

Hey, Carl! Thanks for listening to my music, and for the kind words.

When I say "weird," I actually mean it as a good thing--I tend to like the offbeat. My street is quirky mostly because of the super-varied mix of people who live here. And for the most part, I like that very much. We've got everything from expensive condos and townhouses to modest but well kept homes from the '20s to a house that's basically abandoned and falling apart just a little. (If anyone's looking for a fixer-upper near the train, it's for sale and I can point you to the listing.)

We've got a bower of trees that meet in the middle of the street. I am sure one day some of them will collapse and bust up some stuff because they tilt at a weird angle, but they're beautiful, especially in the winter when they're covered with snow. We're next to an awesome, quiet, old cemetary that I like to visit regularly.

I certainly don't see eye-to-eye with many of my neighbors in terms of political views and some other issues... but we do actually have that "c" word (community). When I got divorced some years ago and wound up living alone here, I was amazed by the anonymous kindnesses that my neighbors did without my ever asking for help. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think it's fairly rare for this part of the country.

We're a modest little street--in which half of us live in another town--and we don't fit the wealthy image of much of Glen Ridge. But it's a good place. I was really lucky to find it.

Laser has a college degree???
As a ninth grade drop out, I am typeless.

and the distaff...I like turn of pharase

Pokey, I'm shocked. All this bitterness over Glen Ridge gas lamps.

laser buchail needs to curl up on a couch with a Guinness and read some Joyce:

".... I'll burn that book, so help me devil.
I'll sing a psalm as I watch it burn. And the ashes I'll keep in a one-handled urn.
I'll penance do with farts and groans
Kneeling upon my marrowbones.
this very next lent i will unbare
My penitent buttocks to the air
And sobbing beside my printing press
My awful sin I will confess.
My Irish foreman from Bannockburn
shall dip his right hand in the urn
And sign crisscross with reverent thumb
"Momento homo" upon my bum"

1912, Gas From a Burner

The hell with the Gaslights. The cost of heating your home is going to go up over 20% this winter for natural gas users. That will probably translate to a little more than a measly $7.81 per resident. Even PSE&G are suffering at the greedy little hands of the energy aparatchik bastards. (Then, of course, they have to tack on their cut, too.)

Kate, not to pry, but where do you live? When reading about the trees in the middle of the street, I figured you lived on GR Parkway; but I wouldnt think that is close to the train, unless maybe Walnut st. Then I thought about where a cemetery would be? There is one by Osborne near the old benson Station, but no trees in the median. And I dont know of any townhouses there either. Im confused!

Hey, JT--I live on one of the side streets between Ridgewood Ave and Broad Street, about 2 blocks from the train station.

We don't have a median--we're a narrow little street with an arch of trees from both sides that sort of meet in the middle. It's quite pretty.

There used to be a big ugly empty building at the end of the street, but they replaced it with condos and a few townhouses. At least there's nice landscaping now.

Oh, and we also have little businesses (unusual for Glen Ridge), like an old-lady beauty parlor and even a place that seems like a religious cult for young people!

Like I said, it's quirky.

And then there is the burglaries and car thefts that occur every now and again because of the poor lighting.

Most of the burglaries that I've read about recently have occurred during the daytime. You know, when there is nobody home. Prime time for burglarizin'