Ridgewood

Ridgewood is a medium size suburban community in Bergen County. Ridgewood is located approximately 30 minutes outside of Midtown Manhattan. The population of Ridgewood is approximately 25,000 according to the 2000 United States Census. Ridgewood is an very wealthy town. Expect to see a lot of BMW's, Mercedes Benz's, Lexus's. For a nice home expect to pay over $1 million. The taxes are extreme and when I mean extreme, it's really extreme. The downtown area which is also know as " town" by locals is full of great shops and Zagat-rated restaurants. Town is the place to be if you a Ridgewood kid or a townie( a person from another town who spends a good amount of time in Ridgewood). The definition of rich kids are displayed here everyday. Many kids in Ridgewood are preps. Expect to see polos and tiffany jewelry. Also in recent years the teenagers have become some-what hipster. Many kids shop at Urban Outfitters, Free People and Anthropology. Most Ridgewood kids go thru a Abercrombie and Fitch and a Hollister phase at the beginning of middle school and it ends in the middle of their 7th grade year. Most kids try to come off as poor or ghetto but there is an extremely mall amount of poor and ghetto people in Ridgewood, there may even be no ghetto people. The "ghettoest" area of Ridgewood is South Broad Street which not really ghetto but it is where most of the black people of Ridgewood live which is at about 1% of the total population. Asians are the biggest minority in Ridgewood. Pot is a big issue in Ridgewood as it is in many towns but it is slightly increased because of the amount of wealth and the easier availability to buy drugs. Everyone knows what goes on behind Starbucks. This town is gossip, gossip, gossip. The schools are overflowing with it, even with teachers are in on the gossip. The people who are the worst then the kids with the gossip: the moms. All Ridgewood moms have a ton of botox and fake boobs. They go into Lilly Pulitzer on E. Ridgewood Avenue and gossip about all the other moms and the kids in town. Ridgewood is a big sport town. But no sport in Ridgewood could compare to our supreme sport: lacrosse. Lacrosse is the number 1 sport in the town. It's so popular we even have a whole day devoted to it, Lax Day. Now to the schools, Ridgewood has one of the finest education systems in the state, probably the country too. The district is made up of 6 elementary schools, 2 middle schools, and 1 high school. Every parent, BOE member and school administrator believes that every child is "Special." In high school, we don't get F's, we get E's. Ridgewood is ranked at #15 on Money Magazine's 25 top-earning towns in the USA. Most of the parents, manly the dads, work in New York City. Overall, Ridgewood probably the best town to grow up in New Jersey, possibly the US and possibly the world. I love Ridgewood!