Upper Saddle River Votes – Do We Want The Status Quo?
With election day just 2 weeks away the flurry of activities in local and state level has been dizzying with canvasing, phone calls, meet and greets and debates. Neighboring towns have provided potential voters with a chance to hear the candidates and size them up. Listen to the platform they are running on and have a chance to evaluate them.
Upper Saddle River apparently exists in a time warp where none of this happens. The question is why? And why do residents tolerate it?
In the words of resident Marshall Grupp:
As I travel around town I have noticed the signage from the candidates who are running for council. The Republicans promise to “Put USR First” and the Democrats want to move “USR Forward”. All worthy and noble ideas. We, as citizens of USR deserve to know how these candidates will achieve their stated goals. In most of America, the tradition of debates has served as the forum where Americans can find out where our candidates stand on the issues and what they want to achieve if elected. For as long as I have lived in Upper Saddle River, I have never witnessed a debate of any kind. Yes, we all want the best education for our children, keeping our taxes low, making sure our community is safe, providing superior athletic fields for all who want to play sports etc. With that said, we the citizens are best served when we are given the opportunity to hear from the candidates in some kind of public forum. Elections have to be about substance not election taglines. Historically, outside of election years where we are voting for a president, this town is lucky to have 50% of all registered voters vote. We are an apathetic community when it comes to election day! Which brings me to the point that this election day needs to be treated differently. For those who haven’t read the swift911’s, we are a town with many issues, from the Eruv settlement costing us, the taxpayers over $800,000 to the pollutions of our waterways, to poorly negotiated deals for both Apple Ridge and 1 Lake St.
As I stated earlier, it would be wonderful to hear from all our candidates in a public forum but I am not hopeful. Therefore, I can only say, do we want the status quo or do we want to see some change. Either way, we all need to vote!!!!!
Both campaign slogans ring hollow. None of the four candidates have any idea how to fix the problems. Florio and Durante helped create them and the two Democrats nary know what the issues are. I have no faith in any of them.