[mcmama]

I was stuck for four hours yesterday picking my kid up from school on Englewood NJ East hill.

East Hill is a very wealthy neighborhood which is a conduit to major highways into NYC. In recent years, the traffic there has increased. If you are going east, you head through east hill. People pay property taxes in the six figures. Yet, the roads are in terrible condition, snow plows are never available, and it takes until January to get the leaves picked up. And East Hill has a lot of leaves. Because East Hill has a lot of beautiful trees.

Why they didn't close the schools is beyond me. They usually close them if there is a flake in the forecast. The private school mentioned in the article is near the private school my son attends. They can't do an early closing because people come from a 20 mile radius.

AAA made me wait two and a half hours in a car with not very much gas, only to tell me that the englewood police were not letting anyone through. The police were right in front of me. Their attitude was who cares about you. The only reason I was on the road that I was on was because a police officer directed me to go there. AAA told me the police were sending the tow. The police knew nothing about it. As night came, it was especially treacherous. If my friend had not gotten on the phone for a solid hour and called AAA, the police, and every tow truck operator in the area, I would still be there. Frozen. Or in the hospital from abandoning the car and walking. With my son. They HAD to let the operator she finally got to come through because he had the police contract. But they were giving him attitude too, until I got out and started screaming off my head again and they realized, oh good, we're getting rid of her. My friend found out that AAA tow trucks were done in the area at 6 pm. And I was not on the list they sent to the police.

Did anyone else get stuck? When I drove to school to pick my son up, it was not a big deal because i took a less traveled road, which is mostly maintained by the town of Tenafly, a much better run local government. But coming down that hill in Englewood, there were all sorts of problems. Jeeps and SUVs were spinning out at 5 mph. There was less than an inch of snow on the ground. The Hill gets ice, because it is nearer to the Hudson and a higher elevation - so the ground is colder. It ALWAYS gets ice. SO WHY DO THEY PRETEND THAT THIS NEVER HAPPENS?????

I cannot wait to move to Florida where people expect emergencies and are prepared for them. Both the police and the motorists were endangered last night because the roads are not properly maintained despite heavy use - and there is no planning for emergencies. But property taxes continue to go up, and in that area, they are high even for luxury homes. Comperable mansions in other towns around here have taxes that are under $50,000 a year - many of these are more like $150,000 a year - but those roads, the iciest and most dangerous because of the incline, are the last to be tended.

I hate NJ. You can't even have a decent life with millions of dollars here.