GRIEF to GIVING
Emerson • Hillsdale • Montvale • Park Ridge • River Vale • Township of Washington • Westwood • Woodcliff Lake VOLUME 24 ISSUE 36
PA S C AC K VA L L E Y ’ S BEST H O M E TO W N N E W S PA P E R
NOVEMBER 23, 2020
HILLSDALE
Holiday Shopping Guide
See page 23
PARK RIDGE
D EA L
L AN D S O V E R S ON Y P RO PERTY Public hearing Monday, Nov. 23
BY MICHAEL OLOHAN OF PASCACK PRESS
A proposed settlement agreement to be voted on Nov. 23 by Borough Council permits a developer to build 448 multifamily housing units—including 68 affordable rental units—on a 30-acre tract of former Sony property at the heart of a years-long affordable housing legal battle. Moreover, the agreement requires 51 affordable family rental units to be built on borough-owned land near the Bearʼs Nest Inc. condominiums, in cooperation with Bergen County United Way. The proposal, posted Wednesday evening, mandates 168 affordable units for Park Ridgeʼs third round (1999–2025) affordable obligation. These include 15 rental units at Park Ridge Transit LLC's 240unit Kinderkamack Road mixeduse development (a total of 24 affordable units will be built there including nine apartments for its
See DEAL on page 284
D’Alessandro’s mission, at a milestone, is improving laws and lives
BY JOHN SNYDER OF PASCACK PRESS
The devastating loss. The trauma, sometimes relived for years. For some survivors, thatʼs the end of the story. For others, thereʼs that grief plus a rarity: purpose, passion, and toil toward a safer and more just world. How does that happen? Joan Angela DʼAlessandro Memorial Foundation founder Rosemarie DʼAlessandro took up that question when she and her son John presented at a law and psychology webinar at Fordham University on Oct. 15 that drew more than 30 scholars and other supporters. The 75-minute forum was hosted by the Fordham Law–Psychology Seminar and Psi Chi in cooperation with the Manhattan Psychological Association. A recording is available online. And the session came on the cusp of the 20th anniversary of a law DʼAlessandro spearheaded that led to another family who lost a child to violent crime to collect $10 million from the victimʼs killer. DʼAlessandroʼs message is unwavering: Never give up. “Just remember to stand up. Youʼve got to be brave, even though youʼre scared. Even though it might not be something youʼre used to doing, if you do it a little bit—even like a pinhole—it will get bigger,” she said. DʼAlessandro is at the forefront of what she calls the move-
LEADING BY EXAMPLE: Hillsdale’s Rosemary D’Alessandro shares her family’s story, and her mission of activism for kids, with an ever-growing and engaged audience. ment, a journey of activism to help ago. activism, or heroic activism, a phekeep children safe after her own The movement dovetails with nomenon that he says warrants daughter, Joan, then 7 and deliver- what Dr. Harold Takooshian, past further study. ing Girl Scout cookies, was killed at president of the Manhattan PsychoTakooshian, also editor on the hands of a neighbor 47 years logical Association, calls homicide
TOP PHOTO VIA JOAN’S JOY
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HARDLY LOAFING!
B ck in time...
Kids in the Religious School of Temple Emanuel of the Pascack Valley learn about challah—the bread’s baking and symbolism—by remote study. SEE PAGE 16
‘When you could buy Thanksgiving on Westwood Avenue’ and a special John C. Storms Museum exhibit on Christmas, going on now, both inside.
SEE PAGE 4