The Suggestion Box – How would YOU fix the town?

lakewood downtown clock red square tlsEach day, readers complain about many aspects of this town and how it’s being run. So, instead of just complaining, how about offering some real suggestions and ideas.In the comments section below, feel free to list ideas of how you would improve specific departments or issues in the town – whether it be ideas in regards to property taxes, revenue ideas and more – and we’ll forward the thread to appropriate township officials to review.

Perhaps the appropriate department may just decide to implement some of your ideas, thereby improving the quality of life for all residents of Lakewood.

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88 COMMENTS

  1. Brilliant idea. Thank you for giving us a platform to voice it. I was wondering if there was a way to implement a custom computer generated program evaluating bus routes. Each run generated will evaluate the time (traffic) the route will take, route, and fee the company should charge. I still have no busing for the second year. We cannot expect bus companies to absorb runs that aren’t money making – it isn’t fair.

  2. Every issue we currently face were all avoidable had people planned accordingly. The growth we see today was foreseen decades ago yet the infrastructure was not built out accordingly. I suggest we stop whining and start planning. We know the direction our town is going and we could and should plan accordingly.

    1) Technology: we need to understand that software can do just about anything. Every Township department can use automation which would allow for scalability and efficiency. There is no reason that in 2017 I would still be required to drive to downtown and walk into the inspections department when I should have been able to do everything online from my office. Towns across the country are doing this so no excuses about how its not possible or regulations prevent it. Its simply not true. Software would also allow the township to handle 250k residents without hiring another person.

    2) Speed Limit Signs: Ever notice people driving well below the speed limit causing a slowdown in traffic and suddenly they speed up? Ever wondered why? Well I’ve been paying attention and noticed this happens when the slow driver notices a speed limit sign and is reminded to speed up. I believe if we would add more speed limit signs on some of these roads it will help improve congestion a drop.

    3) Revenue: The township should start thinking of ways to generate revenue. Cities across the globe have all found ways to generate revenue within a business structure (in contrast with tickets and fines and meters which are not).

    4) Health: We have all seen the explosive growth and its amazing but we fail to give our children and adults the necessary outlets for optimal health. Our parks a few and far apart and overcrowded. I recommend eliminating the baseball fields and replacing them with basketball fields so you can instantly quadruple the number of player per park. We should also require developments to provide basketball courts for adult just like we require swings for children. We can also provide bike rentals at our parks and lakes just like CityBike for in NYC. This will improve our quality of life.

    5) Transparency: I think there are many great people frustrated with many different areas. Each have their own perspectives and their own creative solutions. But more importantly I think the residents aren’t in sync with the local government and they dont know how to share their concerns and ideas to help improve our town together. We should create a website where everyone can provide ideas and everyone can share their thoughts. It would require the township officials to be active on this site for it to be effective. Ideas the township is working on should be shared with the public as well. It is a for effective way to build trust and transparency along with great feedback from residents, far better than public sessions at the township meetings will ever provide.

    I’m sure we can all think of more ideas to help improve our town. Lets stop whining and start thinking. There is no reason we cant turn this ship around without fighting everyone.

  3. more crossing guards by schools and busy streets and more sidewalks

    especially oak street, there are 6 schools on that one block between vine and albert. Many children who live too close for bussing have to cross oak street in the middle of the road since there is no sidewalk on one side.

  4. Obviously we are all concerned about property taxes, bussing, excessive housing and development etc which leaves many to believe that either government is corrupt or incompetent. I don’t believe either, but it would definitely help if the TWP in every aspect would be more helpful and transparent to its tax payers. For example, I had a major property tax issue and the only way to get out of it was the tax dept taking 20 min to verify certain bank transaction for my property. I won’t mention here any names but calls and emails were not returned and when visited I was basically thrown out “call your bank we don’t have the time for that”. A culture change is needed which is “treat your tax payers as your employer and boss”. Government works for us and not the other way.

  5. Great Ideas! If we can focus on what we have and channel our high energy towards being positive, instead of all this negative energy that is full of Hate and Destruction, we actually can get things done that will make Lakewood more beautiful. What people forget is we have schools, camps, stores to shop and many beautiful families that what to do good for society, lets focus on how to build on that and not work backwards with destruction and Anger.

  6. An immediate halt to all new developments. If what our offi ials are saying is true, every new house that goes up is a net loss to the township. Hence taxes go up. Until there is a real solution to traffic congestion and the school funding formula we are going to prohibitive for the average taxpayer to live here.

  7. They gave the land away already, but move the police Dept out by the public works,move the inspection Dept into the police operated,, tear down the inspection Dept building and pave it for parking. That should alleviate some parking problems in town with the police cars & officers private cars not there. Leave a substation there for walk ins and court. Get the police dispatchers out if the basement and move them to the police station.

  8. Close the lakewood public schools. Send the children to other towns, and pay that stipend. It will be less expensive, by far, than trying to maintain the crumbling buildings and mismanaged system. Take a tip from successful businesses….if it is not a core competency – outsource it!

  9. No more vacating streets. Let’s create more cross streets. Let’s not continue clogging our existing streets with all the cul de sac’s traffic pouring in to one road. We need a grid and more streets to aliviate our traffic. This is the problem with rt 9 going south. On your right the whole stretch from Central til chestnut is 4 streets that aren’t dead ends.

    • Yes, I agree strongly. There need to be many more cross streets; there are way too many cul de sacs. The cross streets will help with the traffic congestion immensely.

  10. First of all I agree more than 100 percent with # 6. I am well aware that we all can agree that certain issues need some improvements, But please lets not forget that we all leave in a beautiful town. full of CHESED, What about our BIKUR CHOLIM HATZALA AND ALL THE GEMACHS, We should never need it but ts good to know they are here, When we lived in N. Y. we constantly had to keep on moving to look for better places to live, Here it is BARUCH HASHEM the opposite, Yidden keep on moving here, I will stress again some thinks do need improvements, When we looked for a house in 1984 and because of my father ALAV HASHOLEM we had to live near a shull. It wasnt too easy, Now BARUCH HASHEM there are shuls almost on every block, yeshivos all over town. Kosher butchers and supermarkets all over town, Why are we complaining,? There i s a yiddish saying A CHESORN DI KALE IS TZU SHEIN. YIDN ZINDIKT NIT, [If you dont understand yiddish after the tax season get in touch with me and i will teach you] Now I am busy working for a very nice heimishe firm preparing tax returns, [ I am aware I am not allowed to mention the company’s name, ] It is close to Purim so forgive me for my long MEGILA, And lets all have a FREILACHN GESUNTN PURIM, AMEIN,

  11. @bubbie zelda
    The “town” is awesome but the prob is more that ppl from out of lkwd keep on moving in
    And we don’t want them here!
    Compared to bk it’s gr8 but compared to the old lkwd (like 10 years ago) this town changed so much that now there is what to complain about ?!

    • I am offended by your comment that you do not want outsiders to join Lakewood.
      I’m curious; were you born and bred in Lakewood? What about your spouse? What about your parents and inlaws?
      Will you make sure that all your children only marrry original Lakewooders or will you not allow them to move here otherwise?
      Somewhere in your recent ancestory, someone wasn’t born here but decided to move here.
      You are just an outsider like others moving in now…..

  12. How about enforcing traffic laws? Everyday I see close to 100 cars illegally parked, cars not stopping at stop signs, and cars going the wrong way down one-way streets.

  13. I had an idea which I wonder if it will work. Having just come back from visiting Israel, I noticed that they have roundabouts at many intersections. I think that would work really well here in specific at the intersection of Pine St and Martin Luther King Drive. There is no stop and go like by a stop sign. When there are no cars on Martin Luther King then the cars on Pine will just go straight through. Otherwise the cars will approach slowly but there is a constant flow of traffic. I think it is definitely worth a try (before spending money and putting up a traffice light). Im sure this can work at other intersections around town instead of putting up a stop sign. I didnt know who to approach with this idea, so I appreciate if you could pass it on to the right department/officials.

    • We don’t have room for our roads, where do you think there will be room for a “roundabout”. The one and only that we did have was a complete failure and a traffic nightmare.

  14. Please remind all drivers that it is illegal to cross over or make a left turn on to Rt 9 during the day from the streets that have no traffic lights. (There are signs at every corner about this) When this does happen, there are a lot of cars held up behind the car that is trying to do it and for cars that are racing down Rt 9 it is very dangerous when a car crosses over in front of them. Maybe the police can enforce it.

  15. I agree i moved here 10 years ago to learn and bh still am and its a different place. This is not the place i moved to loved and idealized. Its full of many people kh but not ones that lakewood was built for. Houses are not for bnie torah and i am just starting. Stop building especialy 600k houses for out of towners and stop marketing it to them so some builders will make money. This is a yeshiva town not flatbush or boropark. And if it will be build with brains not with favors… cross streets more business in industrial park and less schools get rid of blue claws airport l.d.c. And l.i.c. We need transparency and it should be easy to see what the oilam wants in way of future projects. Put all major projects up for a vote not just things rammed through the planning board and others without a consensus.

  16. Create a full fledge bus system just like in major cities. It’s going to eventually have to be done anyways we may as well do it now. At a minimum the L bus should be going up and down 7th st during peak driving hours (lunch time & supper time)

    • Bus routs are a great idea but what traffic nightmare will be created on Rt9 or any other street when the bus stops to pick up or discharge passengers?
      Fix the roads they all need to be wider.

  17. As Lakewood expands we need to make sure that we don’t turn certain (not all,just some) streets into Cul de sacs. Cul de sacs in certain areas can create serious traffic problems in the future by prevent parallel roads from alleviating traffic on roads with traffic problems.

  18. 2 things #1 the Kennedy Rt 9 area there needs to be barriers preventing people from making left turns across 3 lanes of traffic into the chase parking lot as well as barriers preventing people from turning left from Rt 9 into Chemed and Spirit parking lots. This is dangerous and in the case of Kennedy/ chase parking lot causes traffic. even if you just put up those reflectors that stick out of the ground 3 ft would help. #2 generate revenue by making more fees for development if you come with a plan to the zoning/ planning board for more than 1 residence or a commercial lot increase the fee and charge per application as well as a increased property tax for all projects under construction.

  19. Also when constructing new developments it should be mandatory to make a thru street if all the developments had more tan one entrance/ exit it would significantly ease the traffic situation in this town. i am a little fed up with residential property developers squeezing profits from the town without making improvements to the township as a whole. you can also require them to make more park areas instead of just a small dusty lot with a tiny slide on it to meet the zoning requirements

  20. 1st street should not b aloud to make a right onto route 9!!!
    it makes all the traffic flow all that worse is desaster
    i think that would help a lot of the stand still by the green lights

    • There is nothing wrong with a smart right turn into the right lane- only a left turn. If the left turn lane onto Rt. 88 was twice as long, traffic there would move smoothly, and a right turn wouldn’t get you annoyed (only into the right lane- obviously!). It would also have to be illegal to make any left from 1st street onto the 9.

  21. Give a grant/incentive for all people who moved here since 2010 to relocate to Atlantic City. In no time it would become revitalized as a large frum city by the ocean. Home and apartment life could grow to be robust over time with frum shopping along the avenue. Its close to Baltimore and Philly. The “development” in Lakewood is crisis level. And now we are experiencing what nearby towns with degreed city planners were cateful to avoid.

  22. Some thoughts:
    1- tracking devices on all of our school buses so a- parents can know when their buses arriving instead of standing for long intervals in different weather conditions on corners and b- we can understand where the buses are for the safety of our children

    2- left turn signals for busy intersections such as route nine and James/pine

    3- more sidewalks around town now that there are more people walking places especially in areas where there are schools the children are walking half a mile to school because they do not qualify for any passing

    4- transparency to the taxpayers as far as where are all our hard earned tax dollars are going – especially our property taxes

  23. We need a system we can perhaps call “throughway system” where all the roads go through two larger streets instead of dead ends and cul-de-sacs everywhere which are the main cause for a lot of traffic.
    Also we should open up the road that don’t go through yet like Arlington at Pine Street, and Towers by Albert Avenue ect.

  24. I think this is an excellent idea:
    A. I feel that taxes are way too high.
    For a long , our leaders felt, the more people that move here, the morebtax revenue would be generated. When thenooposite was true, the more people that moved here , the higher the taxes went , the more people coildnt afford housing , the more people were required to rent their basement just to cover the taxes, maybe if we could pretty please put a pause on the density hosuing, for rhe moment.
    B: The one thing people have been asking for YEARS hasnt been done, a traffic light on MLK. Why?
    C: the street signs on central ave at night are not visbile at all
    I have more but dont want to overwhelm

  25. The reason people drive slowly isn’t because of lack of speed limit signs. Get off your phones while you are driving. Seriously, stop it

  26. 1st of all thank you for this forum.
    The township must go back to the original grid Street system they must stop vacating roads and reopen the roads they vacated possibly through eminent domain such as Kennedy Boulevard which runs from Kent Road all the way through to Ridge Avenue. They must open Vine Street which runs parallel to Route 9 and reopen any streets that they might have vacated for private people versus the public at Large.

    • Terrific idea! Also, is there any reason the 2nd opening out of that development, the one leading to Henry st, was fenced off? Thank would help the issue, too.

  27. I would those funds to build a public giant swimming pool. And fund a community baseball league where the community come together every monday night for a game. And i would ban! Cigarettes. booze. Soda. Salt. Butter. I would impose a 6. Water bottle a day law to flush out toxins and a mandatory 1hour of intense cardio for all ages.

  28. Respect the environment. Do not litter. The lake paths & Lake Carasaljo
    are strewn with plastic bottles and bags, soda cans, & etc. Solution: more garbage cans, signs, & remind people who are littering.

    • I agree – i posted this comment but for some reason it didn’t get posted I think Forest should go north, madison south, clifton north, lexington south, odd streets west, even streets east –
      The streets are way too small for all the vans passing through in both directions – one way is a simple solution but pretty obvious –

  29. All efforts to enlist state and county to widen rt 9 all the way to rt 70, rt 88, county line rd , oak st and cross st.
    No money? Use just one year of the revenue of new gas tax

  30. 1-I am saying it for years one house come down one house come up only
    -2 left turn signal all over on County Road specially

  31. Need to change back to single family, no duplexes. Too crowded. Slow the new development. No wholesale variances. Etc. Lakewood is a great place

  32. Who puts a sidewalk in middle of rt 88 by the tracks?!?!? Once your giving approvals for houses, make them give back a little and widen the street not make a bad intersection much worse

  33. Create more open space & parks for people to enjoy themseleves in. And for the millionth time.. ACCEPT parcels of land already dedicated & set-aside for play areas!!

  34. Arlington is too narrow for it to be a throughfare like MLK. eliminating parking on both sides of the street would be a disaster for Arlington Ave residents and would create a dangerous situation in the vicinity of the Arlington Shul which hundreds of pedestrians and drivers frequent on a daily basis.

      • pple that live on the street do not want a one way street, it will be much harder and create more traffic on all the streets leading to martin luther. They are already hard to turn out of. A drive that would be 30 seconds can turn into more then 5 minutes if you have to drive around to martin luther to get up the block if its only one direction.

  35. A REAL public transportation system. The reason why the L bus failed is because of a schedule that nobody wants to try and remember. The bus has to run non-stop throughout the day every day in a predictable fashion. In a big city, there is no such thing as standing at a bus stop during the day for nothing. If there would be a bus every 20 or even 30 minutes without fail, a very many more people would leave their cars at home and go stand at a bus stop and by now there would be at least 5 or 6 more routes.

  36. Can there be sidewalks made on cedarbridge? There is no way to walk from Arlington to the woods or from the woods to hampshire heights etc safely…

  37. Shorter bus routes back and forth on coordinating and/or predictable schedules (think Jerusalem)
    – central to 70 on river ave
    – 88 to Kennedy on Madison
    – route 9 to westgate on central/new Egypt
    – Hope chapel to lanes mill on county line
    Etc.
    And like many have mentioned,
    OPEN THE GRID even if it takes
    eminent domain.
    And make one way streets and avenues.

  38. Every one should sign up to public school so we start getting vouchers instead of all the other programs.
    Every one is always complaining about the bussing when the main issue is that our taxes are so high and we all pay 5k a year per kid.
    Sign up 30k kids and we will All get vouchers. For some reason the town is against it and many wonder why.

  39. There were a lot of comments about density and traffic, and I agree with them, but not too many comments on the revenue side.

    The township needs to increase commercial/industrial zoning. Industrial in particular, adds revenue to the township and costs the Township nothing, no plowing, or garbage pickup, it is all profit.

    All zones that are currently dual zones need to be restricted to industrial only. Some residential zones should be changed to industrial.

    The land may not be as valuable as industrial zone, it usually isn’t but part of evey intelligent planning is to encourage industrial ratables to promote growth.

    There also should be no more tax abatements. If land is restricted for industrial only use, it will be less expensive, and abatements will not be neccessary.

    Having industrial/commercial buildings go up, then giving them tax abatements, defeats the purpose.

  40. Put a moratorium on building and more housing developments until there is a study on all the infrastructure in our town could be done. All we are doing is building, sooner or later the sewers, water streets will all break down. Fix that then start building again. The planning board is putting the tail before the head and will let anyone build without any contribution to the infrastructure of this town.

  41. Make the path around the tracks safe so that you can walk it without being afraid of derelicts or beer drinkers. Not sure if a road is possible there but that would be a very convenient road through the two sides of town.

  42. Route 88. Complete disaster.
    There’s way to justify developers being able to build so close, not possible to ever widen ! Especially when it rains, I need to take my boat to get to New Hampshire

  43. Bmg should open BM’s in, different areas of town. Not all in one condensed 4 block radius. Imagine a BM on route 70.. . Everyone from the south side won’t need to shlep to the north side twice a day each way!

  44. Either make the downtown streets one way, and/or allow parking on only one side of the street – No room for the big cars everyone has.

  45. Infrastructure for township is a mess considering less roads more houses. Atlántic City may sound like a good idea. Remember Lakewood was never a Yeshiva town before.

  46. the traffic lights are messed up. It should be blinking yellow while green so if u can turn you can go and the when it turns red the turning lane turns green.

    The no left turns from the number (1,2,3etc) should be taken seriously. I think for a few weeks police should be out teaching Lakewood how to follow street signs

  47. Build a road alongside the train tracks, it cuts right through the entire town and much of the work is already done, just add some lights etc
    (Jk I know it’s big job but it may be worth looking into)

  48. Opening up pine street would not alleviate traffic. It would just cause more traffic.

    It would necessitate a traffic at the intersection of Cedarbridge and Arlington, which would require mlk light to be synced.
    It Would be pointless.

  49. Open up all, any and every cul-de-sac and dead end possible in this town. That would solve the traffic issue entirely. Also stop the building ASAP it’s not helping anyone except the developers.

  50. Open up Melville & Treeside Lane, Can Ashley be a throw street?
    There is a paper street were Pine Boulevard hits Lakewood Pine Boulevard

  51. more paralells to rt 9 needed. Have Massachusetts feed into Summer & extend Summer to James.
    left turn lanes related to 9 without a left turn signal are worthless. Kennedy, County Line, James.
    Traffic light at rt 9 & 1st would help immensely.
    Street along tracks would help Baltimore did it (Wabash Ave)

  52. Welcome in those looking to move. Don’t make them have to beg and plead for the privilege to join the schools. Remember, many of todays Lakewooders did not grow up there. Yet they are quick to sing the same song- “don’t move to Lakewood cuz it’s too crowded”. As an outsider attempting to move to Lakewood for quite some time now, it is painful to feel the rejection and face so many closed doors. I remember learning about a similar society who closed their hearts and doors to outsiders. That didn’t exactly find favor in Hashem’s eyes. He actually sent a malach to personally overturn the place.

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