July 4th 2022 Celebration in Maplewood

Plans for July 4th in Maplewood.  I am sharing this here since so little information has been circulated on the Maplewood July 4th Celebration.  Source is Maplewood Department of Community Services.


I'm confused.  NJ News on TV channel 12 has been publicizing that Maplewood is having a celebration starting at 9:25 on Monday, one of three celebrations they are showing in NJ.  Judging by the appearance of the park, they are not ready for this - no fencing.


mrmaplewood said:

I'm confused.  NJ News on TV channel 12 has been publicizing that Maplewood is having a celebration starting at 9:25 on Monday, one of three celebrations they are showing in NJ.  Judging by the appearance of the park, they are not ready for this - no fencing.

Maplewood's Police Department just sent a Nixle Notice that the Channel 12 report is wrong. There are NO fireworks this weekend.


krnl said:

Maplewood's Police Department just sent a Nixle Notice that the Channel 12 report is wrong. There are NO fireworks this weekend.

For the sake of all of the critters, happy to hear there are no fireworks!


We’re just sitting in our yard (Maplewood) I can hear fireworks SOMEWHERE close by…


Scully said:

We’re just sitting in our yard (Maplewood) I can hear fireworks SOMEWHERE close by…

millburn 


mrmaplewood said:

I'm confused.  NJ News on TV channel 12 has been publicizing that Maplewood is having a celebration starting at 9:25 on Monday, one of three celebrations they are showing in NJ.  Judging by the appearance of the park, they are not ready for this - no fencing.

This is part of a larger problem with local government communications where it’s impossible to reach every SOMA citizen. Every event I attend locally, someone always complains that they didn’t know about it.


ridski said:

This is part of a larger problem with local government communications where it’s impossible to reach every SOMA citizen. Every event I attend locally, someone always complains that they didn’t know about it.

Several years ago the old post office had been closed for roughly 3 months. And I saw a guy walk all the way up to the front door and try to open it. Twice. 

Some people are just oblivious to what's going on in the world around them. 


ridski said:

This is part of a larger problem with local government communications where it’s impossible to reach every SOMA citizen. Every event I attend locally, someone always complains that they didn’t know about it.

Communication is a huge problem.  Official notification of events, programs, and services is done almost exclusively over the Internet in the form of email blasts and social media posts.  However, many residents either do not have Internet access, or do not use social media, or do not know these forms of communication exist.  As long as Internet posting is the quickest and cheapest way of disseminating information, this problem will persist. 


ML - obnoxious - maybe the guy was from out of town and just googled “post office”. 

Joan - it’s 2022. The internet has been used to communicate events and local news for decades already. 


algebra2 said:

ML - obnoxious - maybe the guy was from out of town and just googled “post office”.

Naw, it was just my way of giving the ill-fated ol’ gem a little love tap. Twice.


algebra2 said:

ML - obnoxious - maybe the guy was from out of town and just googled “post office”. 

from the expert on being obnoxious. With keyboard courage. 


ml1 said:

from the expert on being obnoxious. With keyboard courage. 

I hope he never changes his name to “calculus”….


algebra2 said:

ML - obnoxious - maybe the guy was from out of town and just googled “post office”. 

Joan - it’s 2022. The internet has been used to communicate events and local news for decades already. 

That is the problem.  Some older Americans who did not grow up with the Internet are uncomfortable using it.  Low income families often cannot afford WiFi.  Families new to the area and those whose lives remain centered elsewhere, do not know about the town email blasts or which social media sites offer the best information about local happenings.  Word of mouth used to be an effective workaround but COVID concerns have significantly limited personal contact.  Snail mail is slow and expensive when mailing in bulk.  Proliferation of robo calls and scam calls has reduced the likelihood of people answering the phone if they do not recognize the caller’s phone number.  We need to find a better means of outreach.


joan_crystal said:

That is the problem.  Some older Americans who did not grow up with the Internet are uncomfortable using it.  Low income families often cannot afford WiFi.  Families new to the area and those whose lives remain centered elsewhere, do not know about the town email blasts or which social media sites offer the best information about local happenings.  Word of mouth used to be an effective workaround but COVID concerns have significantly limited personal contact.  Snail mail is slow and expensive when mailing in bulk.  Proliferation of robo calls and scam calls has reduced the likelihood of people answering the phone if they do not recognize the caller’s phone number.  We need to find a better means of outreach.

Joan - the best means of outreach is the internet and has been since the turn of the century. And regarding the few who don’t have an internet connection, they can use the library’s WiFi. 


algebra2 said:

joan_crystal said:

That is the problem.  Some older Americans who did not grow up with the Internet are uncomfortable using it.  Low income families often cannot afford WiFi.  Families new to the area and those whose lives remain centered elsewhere, do not know about the town email blasts or which social media sites offer the best information about local happenings.  Word of mouth used to be an effective workaround but COVID concerns have significantly limited personal contact.  Snail mail is slow and expensive when mailing in bulk.  Proliferation of robo calls and scam calls has reduced the likelihood of people answering the phone if they do not recognize the caller’s phone number.  We need to find a better means of outreach.

Joan - the best means of outreach is the internet and has been since the turn of the century. And regarding the few who don’t have an internet connection, they can use the library’s WiFi. 

Wow.  Proving ml1’s point.  Lecturing Joan. 


jeffl said:

algebra2 said:

joan_crystal said:

That is the problem.  Some older Americans who did not grow up with the Internet are uncomfortable using it.  Low income families often cannot afford WiFi.  Families new to the area and those whose lives remain centered elsewhere, do not know about the town email blasts or which social media sites offer the best information about local happenings.  Word of mouth used to be an effective workaround but COVID concerns have significantly limited personal contact.  Snail mail is slow and expensive when mailing in bulk.  Proliferation of robo calls and scam calls has reduced the likelihood of people answering the phone if they do not recognize the caller’s phone number.  We need to find a better means of outreach.

Joan - the best means of outreach is the internet and has been since the turn of the century. And regarding the few who don’t have an internet connection, they can use the library’s WiFi. 

Wow.  Proving ml1’s point.  Lecturing Joan. 

With a no-creative-solutions-allowed approach.

Perhaps what could be helpful is a centralizing source to summarize events and announcements from the many disparate communications (with a very filterable database). And provide access via multiple means. Problem is that may be a high-effort/high-cost approach. Maybe it could be crowdsourced.


Jaytee said:

Scully said:

We’re just sitting in our yard (Maplewood) I can hear fireworks SOMEWHERE close by…

millburn 

Millburn's fireworks are 7/4.


If the challenge is reaching older people, it's likely many of them still read newspapers. Any important township announcements should go out in press releases to the News-Record if they don't already. 


cubby said:

Millburn's fireworks are 7/4.

The fireworks in question seemed to come from the parking lot of Ivy Hill apartments... or the parking lot of the pre-school on Irvington Avenue.


Sounds like you are talking about yet another website. 

sprout said:

With a no-creative-solutions-allowed approach.

Perhaps what could be helpful is a centralizing source to summarize events and announcements from the many disparate communications (with a very filterable database). And provide access via multiple means. Problem is that may be a high-effort/high-cost approach. Maybe it could be crowdsourced.


Not necessarily. It could be a website/electronic board that is interactive and posted in some other locations (community center), or printed and distributed at some regular interval via paper/newspaper, etc.

I was just trying to kill two birds with one stone... the other bird being for the social-media savvy who miss the announcements that only went out from the town via Nixle, or from the Rec Dept list that you need to have registered something in the past to be on their distribution list, etc. The large number of electronic distribution outlets makes it difficult to stay aware of events and opportunities around the towns.


sprout said:

Not necessarily. It could be a website/electronic board that is interactive and posted in some other locations (community center), or printed and distributed at some regular interval via paper/newspaper, etc.

I was just trying to kill two birds with one stone... the other bird being for the social-media savvy who miss the announcements that only went out from the town via Nixle, or from the Rec Dept list that you need to have registered something in the past to be on their distribution list, etc. The large number of electronic distribution outlets makes it difficult to stay aware of events and opportunities around the towns.

Just utilize local FB groups. Dean and Sheena are on there 24/7. 


And there is still a fair number of people who refuse to use FB (undersigned amongst them).


tomcat said:

And there is still a fair number of people who refuse to use FB (undersigned amongst them).

If you refuse to use one of the best free sources available, and also don't sign up for town emails etc (also free) then you really shouldn't complain about missing information. 

Not free, but The Village Green is a great source for local news and information and well worth the subscription cost.

If you don't use any of the above, but are an internet user (which is obvious since you are here), then I just don't understand.

I'm not sure of the best answer for the (relatively few) people who do not use the internet at all in any form (no email or social media or online news.)  I think they are primarily elderly people and the numbers who don't use the internet are diminishing pretty quickly, so perhaps the Two Towns group can work on something for them. I think that very few people are totally without WiFi these days for financial reasons and there are library WiFi services (along with helpful people there.) I also believe the towns are working to provide WiFi in some areas of most need. In this day, for better or worse, the internet is the easiest, least costly and fastest way to get news out and it really isn't hard to find and follow the good sources if one is motivated to do so. 



What about the billboard at the park? Tack up a flyer or something. 


I think you are all demonstrating my point. There is a lot of information scatter due to the evolution of media and social media, which led to it being noncentralized. 

Info locations can include Facebook, Twitter, Nixle, Village Green, MOL, NextDoor, Maplewood AND SO recreation departments' eblasts, town flyers, the News-Record, School and District announcements on their websites and eblasts, HSA and PTA announcements on websites and eblasts, county robocalls, mailings, physical billboards with papers posted, and incorrect TV news announcements...  


You left out websites and eblasts from community based  organizations informing their members and followers of their upcoming events.  SOMA TwoTowns For All Ages has a community calendar listing community events shared with the organization that goes out to subscribers at the beginning of each month.  Emphasis is on events of interest to seniors so school based and youth activities would not be listed.  

For a location for a single source updatable community activity database, I would recommend posting to the about Maplewood section of the library website (comparable location for South Orange) and having hard copies available at the library buildings.  

 


Looks like the bike parade had a nice turnout!  Dean Dafis posted this:


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