very funny the "public out cry" went from "another Paramus" "another Palisade Center" to "two big stores" I love it.

It's ridiculous, let the building begin. Has anyone been to Paramus lately?? We are a far cry from that.

Um, no Hank. Were you at the meeting? The outcry continues to be "another Paramus." The people don't want this monstrosity. END IT NOW!

Yeah Joe, except that it isn't Paramus, and will never be. These Stop Mall people are long past their reality check. Long past.

The stop the mall is long past reality check. I would say a few more meetings and you will be approaching "laughing stock" status.

The outcry Joe? Lets get real. If you consider the 20 or so Stop the Mall fanatics out of 30,000 residents an outcry then you are mistaken. Lets get this straight, you keep saying that the majority of Mahwah does not want the development because the vote was 52% against/48% for. That was of the 26% voter turnout. Hardly a majority of the 30,000 residents. The reality is that it is going to be built. You dont have the power or the money to stop it and you are looking for a miracle to happen to stop it. The best thing for you to do is try to convince the planning board to get more from the developer at this point that might appease everyone, but to think that you are going to stop it is foolish.

Bring it on already... progression, jobs, commerce, a nice shot in the arm to this severely depressed economy! I want to go to the movies in the town I live and own in...Mahwah!

I agree with Lily. I want to go to a nice movie theater in my own town. The theater in Ramsey is way past it's day. And to all the Stop The Mall people, if you don't want something built, then put up the money to buy the property from them. Don't ask the Town to pay for it, you put your money up, then see how it feels to own an expensive piece of dirt.

Even if the Stop Mall group were successful, there would still be the issue of what to do with this privately owned land that's rapidly becoming the town's eyesore. Does the Stop Mall group propose to purchase it from the owners? You going to compensate them for their loss in revenue? You going to provide the additional jobs the mall would have in the area? Are you willing to subject every single citizen of this town to the possibility of their tax dollars going to award the owners their lawsuit damages if it's not built? Do you not THINK before you act? Or are you all that selfishly motivated that you conjure up wild scenarios about us becoming Paramus or having a massive increase in traffic clogging up all our local roads. What I hate about people (and this happens in every town) is the constant whining and fear mongering that takes place upon the initiation of every single new development project. We saw that with Pilot and others, and what we saw, after all was said and done, was no detrimental effects at all. And you know why, because the developers and the community worked together to make sure it was done right. It wasn't stopped, it was done right. That's going to be the same with this mall project with the added benefit that things will actually be better at the Sheraton site once the construction is completed. The Stop Mall messaging to just stop the project is beyond old & tired. Move on already and help make this mall a showcase we'll all love to visit!

I voted for the mall. Do you think your opinion is more valuable than mine? Let them build the Mall. If you don't like it sell your house and move. The majority of voters stayed home because even they think its absurd. Otherwise I think they would have made an effort to go vote no.

I would like to see how all the "Mall People" feel after it is built and is a complete disaster. I think you all should head over to Paramus and stay there.

Mahwah resident the planning board is dealing with a 600,000 sq ft mall. It seems you do not want to be confused with the facts. When you post about Paramus I laugh at loud.Your group is becoming the town joke. It's over Johnny..

I think it's really funny that there are a few aliases in this "pro mall" group on The Patch comments that belong to the same person. The writing style is exactly the same. It's so obvious. How desperate this one person is.

Hank, then move to Paramus, and the mall will be closer to you, see how easy, problem solved. Why bring Paramus traffic to Mahwah, so you can fight traffic to get to the Mahwah Mall. As I said last night, the 4 councilmen and the want to be mayor should have been dragged outside when 400 plus Mahwah residents were outraged by even the thought of the mall. A little blood spilt goes a long way in my book. Quick justice makes the next person think twice. The mall would not even be a thought at this time if a couple of people ended up in the hospital.

Ramsey has malls with similar sq footage. Why don't you say I don't want all that Ramsey traffic? Because there is none.

Oh Lord.... Blood spilling... Shooting..guns ...bullets.....people in hospitals?? What is this the wild west? Crazy! Over what? Something that is surely inevitable in some way shape or form...

Jim,
Your comments appear to me to be totally inappropriate and threatening. Let's keep these comments as they should be...no need for guns and shootings mentioned.

Wow, how many aliases can this pro-mall person cook up? You're not fooling anyone.

joe you are losing it

Jim once said... "How many times does it have to be said Mahwah does not want a mall. People; stop being such lazy sacks of crap and drive to Paramus if you need to go to a mall so bad. I say, the town council that voted for the mall on Mach 31st got off easy by just being pulled off the council. I feel they should of all been dragged outside and shot, yes shot with a real gun and a real bullet for going against 400 plus Mahwah residents . See how fast the new town council knows whom they work for. I have been quiet long enough, I voted no mall and the town agreed no mall, I don’t care if it was by just one vote more, Mahwah does not want a mall. The people that did not vote, well if you didn’t vote, keep your mouth shut and just deal with it, next time get off you butt and vote otherwise remember Mahwah does not want a mall. All you people wanting the mall, move to Paramus and leave Mahwah what it is. If you wanted a mall so bad, why the hell did you move to Mahwah.."

This is the type of people we have trying to bully our council into making one-sided decisions for the people of Mahwah. Thugs. Don't want the mall Jimmy, don't shop there. It's as simple as that. (you tea party?)

>> This is the type of people we have trying to bully our council into making one-sided decisions <<

Huh? This thing was put up to a vote, and those who cared enough to be either for or against it, represented the will of Mahwah (with the usual majority choosing to leave the question up to everyone else).

This is not "bullying" of the council, it was democratic, official vote - following the official protocol on how to conduct a referendum in this town!

The council had the option to await the the outcome of the referendum so that they knew what their consitituents expected of them. That wasn't an unreasonable expectation!

After all, this was not usual township business, like the "garbage pickup" decision that can be reversed the next year without any lasting impact. This time around, they were committing the township to a certain course in perpetuity - and therefore I feel they should have not acted like monarchs but as representatives!

JP, how is Jim a thug? What did he say that was so wrong. Everything thing he said was true,

The town went against 400 Mahwah residents.
The town voted on the mall, and the Mahwah residents that did vote, voted no mall.

Why is this so hard for you to get. The thugs as you call them is the town council that went against the Mahwah redidents on March 31. The town is 100% wrong for not allowing Mahwah residents to vote in the first place. The town council knew what the outcome would be. Mahwah residents took it upon themselves to ensure Mahwah residents had a vote on the mall matter.

And stop with the bullying JP, I am so sick and tired of hearing about bullying, in the schools, their are always going to be bullies. These kids today have to grow up to be men, not wimps, bullys JP, give me a break.

Charlie the referendum will go down in Mahwah history as the dumbest move ever made by a political group. You had the council,planning board, the whole freakin town fooled. You had them eating out of your hand! They had no idea how many people you actually represented. For a while you had hundreds of signs up,website, lawyer,media advertisements. You were feared, no one is going to speak out against you guys.Then...for some reason you guys started believing your own bs. You got so full of yourselves that you would put the mall down once and for all with a referendum. Once your numbers were counted the town official realized they were duped and perhaps made a fool of things were not looking too good for you guys. The wise 340 members of the 400 you mention figured out they better not show their face at the meetings anymore. It's over. You have no clout and I suspect members of the council etc will be pro mall just to get even with all the ruckus you caused. Please keep posting you are hilarious.

What do you get when 400 ill advised people push for a referendum?.....a nice mall with a Costco

There is no bullying going on JP, please. All I am saying is the town should of had a vote on the mall before deciding on March 31st. it should not of been up to Mahwah residents to allow the town to vote on a project such as this.

Hank, what I find hilarious is you can’t count because more Mahwah residents that voted, voted for no mall. So a mall is being built against what Mahwah residents wants and you are proud of this. Thank goodness for the people that took it upon themselves to ensure Mahwah residents had a voice in this matter, otherwise we never really would of known what Mahwah residents really felt about having a mall in Mahwah.

What I will find even more hilarious is when the patch starts posting about things happening at the mall, crime, cars being broken into, hang out for kids at the movie theater, accidents due to one entrance and one exit and who knows what will happen when bus loads of people start pouring in, nothing I am sure. That’s going to be some good reading. So lets all sit back and enjoy the show, because in the next few years it is going to get a whole lot funnier. Until then, there is no sense going back and forth, lets sit back and see what the mall brings to Mahwah.

What do you get when you put a mall in Mahwah? ….. higher taxes to pay for more policemen as the crime rate goes up in Mahwah.

If you did not push for that referendum there would be no mall.
Thanks again

JP, I remember when we were all talking about the guy who cut down trees in Mahwah and I had mentioned the movie “The Road” you had said you saw it and liked the movie. I don’t know weather or not you watched another movie on a very good documentary on the path humans are taking towards the planet. I saw it on the History channel yesterday, it is called “Earth 2100”. The Mahwah library has a copy if you are interested in watching it. I believe you will find it very interesting, I know I did.

Andy Schmidt,
Cudos to you for your informed, concise and civil discussion of the historical and developing facts regarding Crossroads. i am always disappointed by how your opposers take your unbiased information as a personal assault. you are a model citizen when it comes to political civil discourse. and i must question the objectivity (and common sense) of anyone who shares this information in support of a pro-mall argument: "Now I want to point out that over the years I have had the Macy's, Fortunoff,Wakefern,C/S grocers, BJ's and Costco accounts. Malls are built in a way that the traffic is off the road and into the mall. Palisades, Willowbrook, Roosevelt Field,Rockaway even GSP all make sure you get trapped in the mall..."
Do you think he is secretly working against the mall?

Oh wait a second Gottardo your the guy who does want the mall because our HS kids will take drugs and sell their bodies there.

I saw Earth 2100, I really liked that film as well. It is a shame what we have done to the planet and continue to do, I just did a quick google search which was “humans are they good for the planet” this is the first link that came up http://gnelson.hubpages.com/hub/Are-Humans-Good-For-Planet-Earth below is article from the website, boy if this isn’t the truth.

Are Humans Good For Planet Earth

We were never asked to take over the planet, we just did it. I am not so sure that we are doing a good job.

For millions of years the planet got along just fine without our leadership. The trees produced oxygen, the oceans produced fish, and sure the planet got hit by a meteorite or two and the climate got hotter or cooler but species survived or not on their own abilities. It was a natural thing that determined a species success or failure. Then we humans took over.

Two things happened. First we decided that we were more important than any of the other species and second we increased the speed of change. The first point should be obvious. There is not much that we won’t eat if we are hungry or destroy if it is in our way. Our numbers are growing to the point that the planet is straining to feed us. We will genetically modify other species to suit our needs. Which brings us to the second point; we have increased the pace of change. Changes before the human species were slow and measured, tested by thousands of years and hundreds of circumstances. You can read about more change in a single issue of the New York Times today than happened in the entire year of 1725. We don’t have time to absorb all the new things or all the new ideas before they are replaced by newer ones.

Did you know that when the first settlers landed in America that a squirrel could climb a tree on the east coast and not touch the ground until the Mississippi river. Now there are roads and houses and farms and ranches, the forests are gone. They were in our way.
Now add technology to the mix, I am writing this on a computer and posting it on the internet all in the same day. It is like time is being compressed and no one is watching the clock.

We are not the only important species on this planet We will not survive without the others. As we continue to change things to our will, we better remember that this planet is our home. We don’t have another plant to move to when we use this one up. It took millions of years for oil to pool under the Gulf of Mexico. . It took up a few months to foul the water of the Gulf with that oil. A hundred years from now our food will still come from the soil we poison with pesticides. We poison our rivers and other water sources like they do not matter. We are using resources at an unsustainable rate and in the process doing irreparable damage to our home. We are destroying plant and animal species at a rate that far exceeds their creation. We may be the most intelligent species on this planet but we are also the most irresponsible.

Any change affects the planet like ripples on a pond. We all have that one thing in common. We share this planet. The ripples of others affect us all. We need to consider how the change we make affects this planet we share. We need to treat this planet, Earth, like we don’t have another one to move to when we have used this one up. It is our home, our only home.

Randy, that's too big a scale for individuals to cope with. The Earth will take care of itself when it deals with humans, as it always has, with natural calamities. If you think humans rule this planet you are surely mistaken. Earth rules us, and you only need to be in the middle of one natural disaster to realize that. We are trivial when it comes to the power of this planet.

Mary you must be kidding with the comment about selling your house and move out. Might be easier to do if you don't live in West Mahwah. These comments turn my stomach.

Hello JP, I couldn’t agree with you more. Humans do not by any means control the planet, mother nature has shown mankind time and time again, it can take Humans years and years to build anything and mother nature will destroy it in seconds, you are 100% correct in your statement. I just found that article very true how humans act like we can destroy and destroy the earth and nothing would come of it. What I truly find very sad and disheartening is humans as they destroy what’s in our way for what we call progress has no regard for any other creature that may live in the forests we cut down, or kill from our poisons from what we pour in the rivers that end up in the oceans.

One part of the article I found amusing and very true was ” There is not much that we won’t eat” how true is that, all you have to do is walk into a supermarket and how many different animals and fish there is to choose from. We have made the whole world our kitchen, if it walks, crawls, swims or fly’s we will kill it and eat it on massive scales. What I really love and think it so amusing is if another animal weather it is raised by us for food or is a wild animal that kills a human it is marked as a man-eater and must be destroyed. I have no idea why humans can’t get it through our thick skulls, we are made of flesh and bones and weights on average between 120 to 220 pounds of easy pray for animals. As I have always said, if you don’t want to get bit or killed by a shark, simply don’t swim in the ocean, last time I checked a shark has not been caught trying to eat a human on land.

I mean we as humans have this idea that animals should know better then to kill and eat humans, I mean really how are we this stupid to even likes this, what is their a school in the mountains for bears and in the oceans for sharks informing their young you can kill and eat every thing but humans. I mean we can kill and eat as much as we like and that is ok, but the second what we are trying to kill and eat kills a human it is a whole different story, everyone gets upset, it is on the news, a man eating shark kills a man, what do you expect if you are swimming in the ocean, you just swam into the sharks kitchen. Humans are still part of the food chain, the only reason is our brain to build weapons to kill larger and much stronger animals then us, other wise we would all be living in constant fear and hoping that when a large predator comes into our camp site it takes some one else and not me to eat. If you look at it from a predators point of view, when they hunt they go after the sick, old and weak, well if you were a shark and were hungry would you try to catch a fast tuna and burn a lot of calories or with no effort at all open your mouth and swallow a human, we are slow in the water and very weak as well, no risk for the shark to get injured, and that is a plus plus for a predator as it did not burn a lot of calories to catch and eat us.

If there is a God, how disappointed he must be at what humans have done to his creation, which is earth and how we treat all the other species, we share earth with. As I always tell my wife when a major catastrophe happens especially from nature or a wide spread disease or just not enough food and people say why God how could you let this happen to us, what did we do to deserve this, all you have to do is look around the world and see how we have changed the planet, treat each other and treat other animals and that should be answer enough why God turns his back on us and lets nature have it’s way with us.

I mean really JP, I don’t know if you have any pets or not, but if someone came into your home and tried to hurt you or your pet and you managed to get this person out of your home would you really care if you hurt this person in the process or if he had noting to eat, I know I would not, due to what he tried to do to me. So if you look at it from Gods point of view, why should he care about us especially how we treat each other and every thing else on his planet? We as humans have faith when we need it on a personal level, other wise it is business as usual.

Anyway I have gone on long enough about this, I read where you have not watched Earth 2100 as of yet, but I think you will enjoy it as your comment when saying “the Earth will take care of itself when it deals with humans, as it always has, with natural calamities” is true and shown in this film at all levels.

Enjoy the movie,
take care.

Anyway getting back to Earth 2100, there is no doubt in my mind that we as humans will not change, it is on too large of a scale, it is a world problem, not just a US problem, and when the crap really hits the fan, it will be too late because we would of passed the point of no return, and that is truly sad as was stated in the article I found “We may be the most intelligent species on this planet but we are also the most irresponsible” how true is that.

Back in the day 400 people would show up.

JP - When is the next election for Mayor and who is going to be running?