Wednesday, September 19, 2012
The town's human services director says Parsippany offers alternatives for those stranded in a food desert.
In a recent study, the U.S. Department of Agriculture included Parsippany-Troy Hills in its list of "food deserts," municipalities where access to healthy food (in the form of restaurants and legitimate supermarkets) is limited or near-impossible for some residents. But the township's Human Services Director Barbara Ievoli says there are ways for residents to find the nutrition they and their families need. According to the federal government, 6.2 percent of township residents—including more than 600 children under 17, nearly 300 seniors and nearly 8 percent of those who live in apartments—are affected negatively by the dearth of nutiritional options open to them. Many—particularly those without cars—depend on processed foods available at …
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Town Council bows to pressure and halts occupany law change; family with disabled child again faces losing their home.
Ranya Tawfik said she learned a tough lesson at Tuesday's Township Council agenda meeting at Town Hall: "Parsippany doesn't care about my family." That was the reaction she shared with Patch after the council, citing citizen fears over overcrowding in apartments and single-family homes, decided not to go forward with proposed changes to Parsippany's maximum occupancy ordinance. Council President Brian Stanton said a new means to protect residents who find themselves in violation of the law will be explored. "That's going to take time," he said. "It's not going to happen overnight." And that puts Tawfik, her husband and their 4-year-old disabled daughter in jeopardy, she said. The proposal would have allowed waivers to be given to …
Friday, May 18, 2012
Two recent disputes involving residents of local apartment complexes and the town's housing department raise questions.
The news is happy for a married couple with a disabled daughter who live in a Parsippany apartment. After spending a few days in fear because of an eviction threat reportedly from the township's Housing Coordinator Rena Plaxe, Mayor James Barberio came to the rescue, assured that 12-year resident Ranya Tabik and her husband had done nothing wrong. He promised them they could stay in their Dartmouth Village apartment and told Patch a misapplied ordinance that limits the number of people who can live in a one-bedroom apartment based on the square footage of the dwelling will be changed. The news so far is not as pleasant for Lisa Etkin, who says she has experienced severe problems with having heat consistently over the past three years in …
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Barberio said law designed to prevent apartment overcrowding wasn't intended to hurt small families.
A distraught married couple with a disabled child, facing threatened eviction from their apartment, turned to the Township Council and the mayor for help--and got it. Ranya Tawfik, a tenant of Dartmouth Village Apartments on Baldwin Road, stood before the council and pleaded their case "I'm currently in the process of being evicted from the apartment I've resided in for 12 years," she said. The story involves an ordinance in existence that limits the number of people who can live in a one-bedroom apartment based on the square footage of the dwelling. Tawfik said that when their daughter, who is disabled, was born four years ago, she and her husband suddenly were in violation of the law. Their living situation was not a secret. "Two years …
shelly
12:23 pm on Monday, April 8, 2013
But there are never any two bedroom available in knoll gardens unless you know somebody, people will have to move to the slums on newark, paterson, jersey city then you just have to risk you kid getting shot, so what not Parsippanys problem. this is the way the world works. more ›