As a childbirth educator and postpartum doula, I tend to see couples during the most celebratory and joyful time in their lives. It’s a bit of a departure for me to be speaking about the topic of divorce, but in some ways it makes perfect sense. I am divorced, and my personal experience has given me insight and awareness into the topic. Plus, in a general sense, my job is to help people transition into a new life phase. While marriage and birth are experienced as positive milestones in our lives, divorce is an unhappy one for most families. I’m not here to rain on your parade, especially those of you in the honeymoon phase of your marriage. I’m writing for those who are struggling with a separation or divorce and who have children caught in the storm’s wrath.
This is an ode to private mediation, particularly its positive impact on children. Over my ten years of being happily divorced and of counseling families based on my own experience, I have referred at least a dozen couples to private mediation instead of traditional divorce lawyers. (Please note I am distinguishing private mediation, in which both spouses hire their own mediators, from public mediation, in which mediators are appointed by courts.) My snapshot pitch goes something like this:
Private Mediation is…
Less expensive
Less combative
Faster
Legally binding
Easier on the kids
Collaborative
Many couples have taken my advice, recognizing at the very least that mediation is going to be less expensive than hiring an attorney. Yet, still there are some who reject mediation, and I can never understand why. So I asked Dr. Michelle Rozen, a seasoned and respected private mediator in the New York area for her take on the matter.
“I feel like people mistakenly think that if they mediate, they won’t get legal advice,” she said. “I always encourage my clients to consult with an attorney for feedback during the process. But everything we do in mediation is made legally binding by a judge once we’ve come to a resolution.”
And from what I understand, typically judges are the biggest supporters of private mediation.They would much rather wrap up a marital dispute when the couple has come in prepared and already sorted out their agreement in the presence of a mediator.
“Court tears people apart,” adds Andrea Hirshman, a veteran divorce mediator and attorney. “People sometimes resist mediation because they believe they will get their ‘day in court’—in other words some kind of emotional justice,” she said.
However, this is not what happens in court. It’s not a TV show or dramatic film starring Meryl Streep. Litigation is not designed to be story time or for you to achieve emotional satisfaction because “they” will see your side and rule accordingly. Court is the opposite of that: When lawyers start to make a case for their clients, they are making a case against you. Hirshman goes on to say that the process of coming to an agreement is kept “under control” via mediation; there is an attempt to keep it amicable, cordial and collaborative. This is the exact opposite of what you can expect in litigation.
Children are probably the best reason for parents to consider private mediation over lawyers and court. There are typically an array of intense emotions surrounding a divorce. And when anger is combined with parenting, you stand a good chance of letting it bleed into your children’s lives, coloring their sense of self. In the midst of a traditional divorce and custody battle it’s not uncommon for children to require cognitive therapy. They are sometimes depressed, anxious, or angry themselves. That’s understandable because our decisions and behavior will affect our kids. “It’s not separation or divorce that hurt children,” explains Hirshman, “It’s conflict.
Conflict. Given evidence of more amicable outcomes for parents who engage in mediation rather than litigation, it stands to reason that the advantages of mediation extend to the children of divorce, too. They tend to have higher self-esteem, stay focused academically, and learn a valuable life lesson in the process. Few know this as well as social worker Brianna L. Nelson, author of “Divorce Mediation and Its Impact on Children.” Nelson writes:
“When children are involved in divorces, they can be at risk for emotional issues, especially when parents aren’t dealing with their emotions appropriately. The most common and complicated emotion during a divorce is anger in children and adults, which is a common reaction to grief and loss (Emery, 2004; Raisner, 2004). Consequently, if parents are not processing their emotions such as sadness, grief, or anger, it will negatively affect the children by causing more conflict and tension in the transition and children can become confused and upset about the divorce (Emery, 2004).”
Children are hyper-aware of the tensions that ricochet between their parents, even if care is taken not to blatantly argue in their presence. When parents engage in mediation a more “collaborative” structure occurs. Collaboration is what mediators encourage and what propels you toward resolution. Counseling and therapy might be necessary too, just to help you separate with less residual anger, but mediation is the first step toward compromise. And yes, you have to compromise when you co-parent after divorce.
There are going to be birthday parties, graduations, and other milestones ahead of you. There could be adolescent issues to handle or a health crisis. Even a diagnosed learning disability will force you to make decisions together as parents. I have personally witnessed parents at their adult children’s wedding sitting tight lipped and tense at separate tables even when both have new spouses. It’s not healthy for any parents to behave this way, yet old grudges die hard, and typically it’s the kids who carry that weight for years often into their own relationships. How parents handle disagreements in life sets an example for dealing with conflict in any challenging life event. Children watch and learn, and what will we show them — fury and vindictiveness or conflict management and resolution? Let’s face it, most marriages that end do not do so with a friendly handshake and a pat on the back, hey, sorry it didn’t work out, better luck next time.
Divorce is generally a crisis, but it needn’t be traumatic. How it unfolds is entirely in your hands.
At the December 14th City Council caucus, Debra Kagan, Executive Director of the New Jersey Bike & Walk Coalition, presented a slide show detailing plans for a bike and pedestrian walkway that would run from Jersey City to Montclair. We’ve transcribed her comments below the slides that went with the presentation. The City Council is scheduled to vote on a resolution supporting the project at its next meeting.
The Essex Hudson Greenway is a proposed Greenway that runs along the old Booton lines, 8.6 miles. And it’s really a project that we’ve been talking about for the area and dreaming about since the railroad stopped using that line for service. And that was around 2002. So this has really been almost 20 years in the making this project. In 2014 the New Jersey Bike and Walk Coalition who had been building support for a number of years, took this on as a major campaign, got resolutions from most of the communities and municipalities along the line. And we negotiated to try to get the railroad to agree to sell the right of way. The Norfolk Southern Railroad, which owns owns the property today, was not interested in selling until fairly recently. A few years ago we brought on the Open Space Institute to negotiate a purchase and sale agreement. That purchase and sale agreement was signed this past July. It was in negotiations from the beginning of the year and we now have this a window of opportunity to keep the corridor intact so that it will not be sold off individually.
This is to give you an overview of the towns that it goes through. It goes through Montclair, Glen Ridge, Bloomfield, Bellevue across Kearny, Northern Newark across the Meadowlands, Secaucus and goes into Jersey City just North of Journal Square and we’ll show you a closeup of that map in a minute. So it’s the two counties and eight towns and cities.
Some basic facts about the proposed Greenway. It would bring approximately 135 acres of new green space to the residents along these two counties. That’s approximately half a million residents, two of the most densely populated counties actually in the country. It would provide biking-walking as transportation alternatives for what’s approximately 300,000 commuters. It can incorporate green infrastructure, environmental design to help mitigate flooding and as part of the purchase and sale agreement. We also have the subterranean rights underneath the right of way, which will allow for the development of internet services of broadband infrastructure. And it links to a number of the through trails in the area, which will also show you a map of in a minute. And most of the right of way is approximately a hundred feet wide, most of the way.
So this project, this potential to have a Greenway in this space really addresses a number of major benefit areas for the region. Certainly recently we have seen an increase where people are walking and biking more and need to get outside for central exercise, both for physical and mental health. And this will provide public open space through, as I said, two of these very dense counties. In many areas there is not easy access to open space or parks for this kind of recreation and exercise. It also would provide a critical and new transportation corridor for biking-walking between the western suburbs and the eastern cities of the area. There is nothing like this in the area. It would be a continuous corridor from Montclair all the way through to Jersey City. And of course, in Jersey city with the potential to connect to New York City. It reduces car usage by providing this alternate transportation and in so it reduces congestion traffic and as a result, it also reduces air pollution for the area. There is a strong environmental benefit. Because it’s intact and continuous it provides a wildlife corridor. It provides space for rain gardens and bio-swales for mitigating flooding and the potential for tree coverage in areas where right now there is no tree coverage, and particularly in parts of Newark and some of the more industrial areas. So being able to plant new trees to have natural plantings, to have bio-swales creates this green open space both for recreation and transportation. A result of the development of these kinds of trails across the country has proven to be a real catalyst for economic development and local business districts. It brings in new people, it brings a new business. People want to go to restaurants, they want to rent bikes. They come into explore the towns and the actual properties that are close to the Greenway all show an increase in value. The estimates are a little all over the place, depending on the location and the trails, but somewhere between about five and 20% increase in property values.
This is a quick overview of the diversity of the communities that this will go through. This particular slide shows language other than English spoken at home. And you can see that there’s large areas where there’s over 50% of other languages than English spoken at home. So it really represents the very diverse communities that we have in the area and would connect these communities where there is not an easy connection for transportation.
This is a map that shows access to schools. The blow up on the left is the area in Jersey City around Journal Square. The little green dots are schools. The medium green area is a quarter mile from the center of the quarter and the lighter green is one mile. So you can see the potential for safe routes to school, for connectivity to the corridor. And I’ll just point out one other feature of this map. So that the white circles with blue around them is where the railroad is at grade level or at street level. And then it obviously goes below grade level and above grade level in a lot of the different places.
As I said before, it’s on the average about a hundred feet, but where it comes into to Jersey City near Journal Square, it’s actually very wide. And one of the things that this is important for is that it gives space for all kinds of amenities. So there’s potential for playgrounds, for restrooms, for bike rent, for all kinds of things along the corridor. And because it’s so wide and in certain areas, it also gives us access to think about doing CSO (Combined Sewer Overflow) storage underneath the Greenway. And they’re having conversations with a number of towns about the potential for space for CSO storage. And I believe Jersey City is one of those. So that’s a major problem in a number of the towns along the way, including Jersey City, Newark and Kearny. So this has the potential to mitigate some of that flooding with some storage underneath.
This is a little closeup of the access point where it comes into Jersey City. So you can get a sense of where it is. It crosses the Hackensack Bridge over the Meadowlands, comes in just past Laurel Park up in Secaucus and across this area near the Creek just meeting at ?.
You can get a sense of the importance of this corridor to a whole network of trails in the area and in particular the trails that go through Jersey City. So we have been in conversation and are aware of the Bergen Arches and the Embankment projects that are proposed and of interest in the city. And recently heard Mayor Fulop talk about that potential for Jersey City. There are also other trails in the area, including the Mill Creek trail, the Hudson River waterfront the East Coast Greenway, the Morris Canal. So the East Coast Greenway and the 9-11 trail are all looking at using the Essex Hudson Greenway as a major corridor to go through this area.
This is a closeup just to give you an idea of how close it would be to the Bergen Arches and to Journal Square.
This is just a small piece of the the proposed Jersey City bicycle network. And again, you can see the potential for connectivity here to your whole bike network.
This is a visual rendering, just an idea of what might be possible. We have no design plans in the making yet. We are just really focused on an acquisition phase, which I’ll talk about in a minute. But you can see here some of the features that we were just talking about, biking and walking pathways, areas to sit and gather, potential for art projects, bio-swales on the left, tree coverage and the potential underneath to have internet infrastructure.
This is another rendering with a vision. This particular rendering is from Newark. You can see the Tiffany Tower in the back. But it’s an idea of what it can look like going through a more urban section of the Greenway and the potential to have new park space, again to have real open space for community gathering, for walking and biking as well.
And here’s another vision rendering as it goes over the Meadowlands. There’s a really beautiful area that it goes over. It’s difficult to get out there right now. The property is still owned by the railroad. So we’re not encouraging people actually to walk on it. But this is to give you another idea of the potential to connect to some of the natural spaces that are so close to Jersey City but difficult for people to actually enjoy. So the connection to trail networks that are in the Meadowlands, to water recreation, as well as to biking and walking. It’s actually a very beautiful space once you’re out there.
So to talk a little bit about the status of where the project’s at. The purchase and sale agreement that was signed with Norfolk Southern this year was for one year with the ability to have an extension going into next year if there’s significant progress shown. There is a price tag that was agreed on with the purchase and sale agreement. And the railroad has since secured official abandonment status. What that means is because railroads are quite complex there’s a lot of regulations, federal regulations in order for them to stop being used as rail line. And that’s the abandonment process. They have gotten permission from the National Surface Transportation Board for abandonment. What that means is they now have the ability to legally sell any part of this corridor. What’s keeping the corridor intact right now is the agreement with the Open Space Institute that this would be bought from the railroad, that it would be turned into a Greenway, a multi-path Greenway, and that it would be owned by the counties together. So by ownership of Essex and Hudson. If the agreement is not completed to purchase it and that the counties do not take on that responsibility, then that agreement would lapse and the railroad would be able to sell off pieces to any kind of development they wanted. And we would basically lose what is a once in a lifetime ability to keep this corridor intact. So there are engineering studies, environmental studies that are going on right now. And you of course know that Essex and Hudson County at least has passed general resolutions of support. That was at the end of September and October. So where we are at now is we are in conversations right now with elected officials and key stakeholders in the region to put together a funding package that will not tap into any COVID related funds, that would be from the state, and that will help the counties to be able to actually complete the acquisition.
We see this as a brief window of opportunity before the Open Space Institute purchase and sale agreement lapses. So we have been working very hard to make sure that the county commissioners and county executive here from constituencies across all of the municipalities, including Jersey City. We’ve been doing presentations and working with different groups and beginning a real campaign of community engagement outreach. There is a letter of support, a digital letter of support, on the Essex Hudson Greenway website, that people have been signing and there have been over 1400 digital letters sent to the commissioners and executives. So at this point we’re also encouraging anybody who supports this project — and we’ve been encouraged by the conversations that have been going on with elected officials. And we are encouraging everyone, including municipal and local officials, to contact not only the county executives and commissioners but also Governor Murphy since this is a major project that impacts the region and the state as a whole, to show support. So basically the letter of support says, we thank them for passing resolutions of support and we’re encouraging them to continue this process. So at the essexhudsongreenway.org website there’s great drone footage of the whole project. You can go look at this lots of information. We encourage you to go to that site in any of the social media from the site for updates on the project and to go to the support sight and show your support.
We’re looking to do further community outreach. We have made some contacts with some of the neighborhood associations in Jersey City that Lauren can give more specifics on. We want to hear which ones. And we’re interested in hearing and working with you to do further outreach in the community in Jersey City. This is both to let people know what the project’s status is and what its potential is, but also very important as we move from acquisition into the planning and design phase, how important it is to hear from you constituencies what they want for this project. This has the potential to have all kinds of amenities, to have opportunities for community identity through cultural programming and art, and it’s really critical that people know about it and have their voices heard so that it actually does reflect what the community wants for the project.
Starting today, cash won’t get you through the Holland Tunnel. But your license plate will.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has announced that a new state-of-the-art electronic tolling system will be activated today. The Holland Tunnel is the first of the agency’s three Hudson River crossings to completely modernize its tolling infrastructure to 21st-century standards following Port Authority Board authorization of the project in July 2019.
The agency completed the transition to all-electronic tolling at the three Staten Island bridges last year. Toll systems at the George Washington Bridge and the Lincoln Tunnel are scheduled to be upgraded to the new modern system within the next 18 months.
“Our customers deserve the world-class service and best-in-class technology which this new upgraded tolling system offers,” said Port Authority Chairman Kevin O’Toole. “With the full implementation of this 21st century technology at our Staten Island crossings and now at the Holland Tunnel, the Port Authority continues to move the region faster, safer, and more efficiently.”
“Contactless, cashless toll collection is the future at all of our crossings,” said Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton. “This new toll collection system upgrades the Holland Tunnel with the most up-to-date cashless technology which will be more resilient and provide the agency faster processing times.”
Cash toll collection at the Holland Tunnel was suspended in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. The transition on December 23 to the state-of-the-art all-electronic tolling technology will not impact drivers at the tunnel.
Motorists are encouraged to sign up for E-ZPass as the Hudson River crossings continue upgrades to this new tolling system. E-ZPass accounts are easy to open online at E-ZPassNY.comor by calling the E-ZPass New York Customer Service Center at 1-800-333-TOLL (8655). E-ZPass remains the most convenient way for customers to pay tolls and provides a discount over the Toll-by-Mail toll rate. Due to the impracticality of continuing the carpool discount plan with cashless tolling, the plan, which had been suspended in March along with cash toll collection, will end at the Holland Tunnel.
Drivers without an E-ZPass account will have images of their license plate captured by overhead cameras, and a bill for the toll amount will then be sent by mail. Additionally, according to the Port Authority, a newly launched Tolls NY smartphone app (for iOS and Android users) provides easy, 24/7 access to customer service for all cashless toll transactions and will eliminate the need to wait for bills in order to pay or access toll and payment history.
The Port Authority’s Board of Commissioners approved the new cashless tolling system for the George Washington Bridge and Lincoln and Holland tunnels in 2019. The Port Authority first implemented the new system at the Bayonne Bridge in February 2017, the Outerbridge Crossing in April 2019, and the Goethals Bridge in September 2019.
Long-term care delayed, pharmacy distribution network planned
This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.
As New Jersey enters the second week of its COVID-19 vaccine rollout, state officials are facing criticism for not moving faster to ensure nursing home residents had the earliest possible access to immunizations.
But New Jersey health commissioner Judy Persichilli said the timeline — which shows vaccinations in nursing homes starting Dec. 28 — reflects the state’s desire to include as many vulnerable individuals as possible in the federal pharmacy partnership to immunize those in long-term care and other congregate living facilities. The rollout has also been complicated by unexplained shipping delays and federal program requirements, she suggested.
Persichilli and Gov. Phil Murphy took much of Monday’s media briefing to provide updates on the pharmacy program, which initially appeared to be targeted to serve just long-term care, and federal plans to ship the vaccine. As of Sunday afternoon, 26 hospitals in New Jersey were immunizing at-risk health care workers and 8,740 people had received the first of the two shots of Pfizer’s vaccine, Murphy said.
Here’s what else we know as of Monday:
Missed deadline
Persichilli said the Department of Health missed a deadline to begin vaccinations one week earlier as a result of the volume of data that needed to be uploaded into a federal computer system. The sizable upload related, in part, to the DOH decision to include not just long-term care residents but also elderly residents in federal housing and individuals with disabilities in state care.
“This was the work the (health) department was engaged in and it was the decision the (health) department made to once again include as many vulnerable individuals as possible that resulted in our start date of December 28th,” Persichilli said. “It was a decision made to give access and hope to those in need, not the least among us, but for those who should be first,” she said, adding, “this proved to be a more complex task than first imagined.”
What the program looks like
As a result, the federal program with CVS and Walgreens will provide vaccines to residents at some 1,800 congregate living sites in New Jersey, officials said. The process will begin at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities; the state is waiting for a detailed schedule:
Long-term care — 91,700 residents and 90,000 staff
Federal senior housing sites — 21,600 residents
Continuing care retirement — 2,440 residents
State-run developmental centers — 1,250 residents and 4,300 staff
Group homes and long-term housing for disabled individuals — 7,600 residents
“All of these individuals are at high risk,” Persichilli said. “Due to the number of individuals involved, this will take some time, but the vaccinations will be rolled out in an orderly manner with vaccinations taking place at sites where the residents reside.”
The state operates five facilities for individuals with significant intellectual or developmental disabilities and 650 group homes through contracts with community-based provider groups; thousands of other residents live in private homes. The DOH has launched rapid testing and provided other resources to assist in the pandemic response, but controlling the spread of infection in these facilities is a challenge.
“Remember, it’s a two-shot deal, so this is a big program,” Persichilli added, noting both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two shots, several weeks apart. “It will take a while.”
Vaccine timeline
Persichilli said the timeline was also complicated by federal rules that required the state to have 50% of the doses needed to vaccinate this entire group of congregate residents in advance of launching the process; this was later reduced to 25% when shipping delays emerged nationwide. Murphy announced last week that New Jersey could receive one-third fewer vaccines initially than expected as a result of these changes.
Persichilli said Pfizer — the first company to receive federal emergency approval — is expected this week to provide 34,125 vaccines for New Jersey’s congregate living program. Another 28,000 Pfizer doses for this program are to be shipped in the weeks to come, she said.
New Jersey is also anticipating fewer doses of the Moderna vaccine, which received emergency authorization last week, than initially expected, but deliveries will began Monday as planned. Persichilli said the first shipments would go to 18 hospitals, two federally funded community clinics and two urgent care centers. These facilities are slated to vaccinate health care workers in the community at risk for contracting the virus.
Long time independent, Ward C Councilman Rich Boggiano, will run on Mayor Steven Fulop’s ticket in next year’s citywide election.
In a press release the mayor said, “I’ve never met another public official who is as tenacious a defender of his neighborhood and what makes it special than Rich Boggiano, and I’m excited to have him officially join our team and strengthen our ticket heading into next year’s election,” said Fulop. “By working together instead of opposing each other Rich and I can do much more to move Ward C forward, like making major improvements to Pershing Field, partnering with the County of Hudson to build a new Journal Square park and working with neighborhood advocates to build a world class performing arts space at the landmark Loews Theater. I’m glad that we were both able to put the past behind us and move forward together.”
“It’s no secret that Mayor Fulop and I haven’t always agreed on everything, but I have gained a lot of respect for him over the course of the last eight years and have come to recognize that Jersey City is in good hands with his leadership in City Hall,” said Councilman Boggiano in the same press release. “We both share a vision for making sure Jersey City is always a great place to live. That means keeping our neighborhoods safe, making sure housing is affordable for middle class families, providing excellent services and always keeping our city moving forward. I know that Mayor Fulop believes in the same values.”
Councilman Boggiano ran as an independent in the last two citywide elections in 2017 and 2013, defeating candidates aligned with Mayor Fulop decisively each time. By joining Team Fulop, Councilman Boggiano is adding new strength to the Mayor’s ticket that will now also include incumbent Council members Joyce Watterman, Daniel Rivera, Denise Ridley, Mira Prinz-Arey, Yousef Saleh and Jermaine Robinson. Fulop expects to announce the final members of his slate in the coming weeks.
For years, Boggiano and the late Ward D Councilman Michael Yun formed an opposition of two on the City Council. With his addition to Fulop’s slate, only two independent councilmen remain, Councilman-at-large Rolando Lavarro and Ward E Councilman James Solomon.
There was no discussion during Thursday’s Jersey City Board of Education meeting about when public schools might reopen for in-person learning. Superintendent Franklin Walker has previously said that schools won’t reopen for live classes before February 2nd.
The subject was touched on obliquely by Trustee Mussab Ali, who noted that the FDA has yet to approve a Covid vaccine for children under 16. Trustee Gerald Lyons questioned whether vaccinations will be a requirement for staff and students. He added that policies will need to be established.
While several large cities including New York, Washington D.C. and Chicago have rolled out in-person learning without a vaccine, a debate over whether it should be suggested or even mandatory has broken out.
In other matters, President Lorenzo Richardson and Superintendent Franklin Walker spared over $35,000 thousand in raises for 12 non-union employees who report directly to the superintendent. Walker first requested the raises in June.
Walker, apparently eager to bring the matter to a close, claimed that the Board was violating district protocol by not pursuing his recommendations. Richardson argued for taking up the issue up in closed session, as did Corporate Counsel Michael Gross who said that Mr. Walker’s public comments put the district in legal jeopardy. Another attorney, General Counsel Bryant Horsely disagreed, saying that Walker’s comments were not a problem. Ultimately, Richardson’s position prevailed and the discussion was put off.
The board will hold its reorganization meeting as a virtual meeting on Tuesday, January 5 at 6 p.m.
The next virtual Jersey City School Board meeting will be held Thursday, January 28, at 6 p. m.
For past coverage of Jersey City School Board meetings, please click here.
Under legislation passed this week in Trenton legalizing recreational use of marijuana, Jersey City will qualify as an “impact zone,” entitling it to additional tax revenue generated from marijuana sales and priority for cannabis licenses. The purpose of impact zones is to address the disproportionate impact that enforcement of marijuana laws has had historically on Black and brown communities.
Governor Murphy is expected to sign the legislation, which would take effect on January 1, 2021.
A “Cannabis Regulatory Commission” will have the responsibility of awarding licenses to growers and retail shops where customers can light up openly.
When it comes to quantity, New Jersey’s law will be the most liberal of the 15 states that have legalized recreational weed. Residents will be allowed to possess up to six ounces, no questions asked.
However, if you were thinking about growing your own, forget it. Unlike many other pot legalizing states, home-grown is strictly verboten in Jersey.
While cities and towns will have the legal right to prohibit marijuana business within their borders, it would be expected that Jersey City will not be one, having enacted a policy to cease or reduce marijuana arrests and prosecutions in 2018.
In October, Ward E Councilman James Solomon and Councilman At-Large Rolando Lavarro called for the city to dedicate any revenues generated by a local marijuana tax to the Jersey City Public Schools.
In addition, criminal convictions for activities which are now being legalized will be automatically expunged. Marijuana use or possession will no longer be grounds for for parole and probation violations.
Last night Councilman-at-Large Rolando Lavarro railed against his colleagues as they voted 6-2 to allow a massive luxury high rise to move ahead in Bergen-Lafayette. The project’s council sponsor, Ward F Councilman Jermaine Robinson, and Lavarro lobbed volleys of personal attacks on one another, at one point prompting Councilman-at-Large Daniel Rivera to intercede.
Known as Morris Canal Park Manor, the 17-story, 361 unit project would include 18 affordable apartments, a recreation center for the community and ten “units” for minority start-up businesses that would move to market rate after 10 years.
For over an hour, residents called in to express their opposition to the project, most often about the lack of community input and the gentrifying effect it would have on the neighborhood.
Brenda Chisolm was typical. “There is not enough affordable housing. Five percent is a slap in the face of the community. Jersey City will soon become a city of transplants.”
Said Uche Akpa, “There has been very vocal opposition which has been ignored.”
Two callers expressed support. Linda West Jackson was one. “I was born, raised and educated in Jersey City. My parents own property on Communipaw Avenue for 60 years. I speak to hundreds of people in that community who are very excited and very much for this new ordinance.”
Robinson spoke passionately in favor of the ordinance, focusing on the need to provide indoor recreation for kids.
“Everybody knows here that I’ve been working and fighting for recreation for the kids. And I want to thank Yousef [Saleh] for pointing out that the kids on the street are dying. On the day I became the council person, the number one thing that we were asked was I need something for the kids. We did a survey and the survey said that 91.5% strongly suggests that Ward F have a recreation facility.”
“I represent the entire Ward F and this project has got support from the entire city. Tonight may seem like it wasn’t support. But if anyone was on a planning meeting, we had a hundred speakers where it was not 50-50, it was way more about 70-30 of people speaking out on it.”
Taking aim at Lavarro, Robinson went on, “then we have the council people whose name was on documents from the JCRA [Jersey City Redevelopment Authority], who was the chair of the JCRA, who was the council president at the same time. And in the three years that that happened in my research, I didn’t see one project brought to the city that bought any community re-investment to us. I remember him coming to me and talking to me about how, how he wanted to put two 30-year abatements at the NJCU campus that we got nothing back for.”
Robinson also singled out the community group leading the effort against the project. “And when we look at the Morris Canal area in general, we have over 2000 units…that has been approved by the Morris Canal CDC. And we have zero affordable units. We have zero community benefits that we can point at.”
Continuing to attack the project’s opponents, he went on. “Whoever didn’t support this, you don’t care about the kids in Ward F.”
Lavarro launched his counter-attack. “I’ll tell you what the councilman from Ward F told me over the past several years. He confided in me at one time that his aspiration is to be Peter Mocco. ‘I want to be [local developer] Peter Mocco who was the North Bergen mayor at one time. And he learned so much about development that when he finished as mayor he was able to make a ton of money.'”
Councilman-at-large Daniel Rivera attempted to tamp down the rhetoric. “Let’s not make a mockery out of this council…you need to take a breather, relax.”
Lavarro responded, “thanks for your concern, I’ve got it handled, no worries.”
Lavarro went on. “So Councilman Robinson told me I want to be like Peter Mocco. I’m going to learn all I can about development and make all the relationships. And when I’m done here, I’m going to make a ton of money. Well you are on your way, on your way to that outcome councilman.”
“All of the council, people who were voting for this should be ashamed, frankly, because you are in fact enabling the disrespect and you’re enabling the gentrification and you’re enabling this this shameful act to go on right now. It’s literally a crime that’s being perpetrated tonight.”
“I mean, talk about selling ourselves on the cheap, talk about not knowing our value for Jersey City. This is an insult to the people of Jersey city. It’s an insult to two generations before them to the people who have struggled and fought for that vision and Morris Canal and the Lafayette area. We’ve now increased the value of this land, such that this property owner who has sat on this dilapidated land and allowed it to fester as an eyesore in the community, you’ve now enriched him to the tune of $11 million.”
Sounding like a possible aspirant for higher office, Lavarro called for the ouster of his former allies and council-members. “I hope that people of Jersey City are watching and I hope you realize what’s going on here in our city. We are being sold on the cheap and the only way it’s going to change, the only way that’s going to change, if we rise up as a city, as a community, and that we oust all of these folks in November, 2021. I know I can’t do it. It’s a powerful machine. But I’m making the call tonight because we can no longer stand by and allow these sort of deals to go by and to sell our city out.”
Mayor Fulop and the Jersey City Health and Human Services Department announced an emergency resolution establishing six vaccination sites to proactively prepare for the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines and the subsequent rollout of the immunization program for residents and essential employees with an eye towards protecting the health, welfare, and safety of the public at large. The 6 Point of Distribution (POD) sites will be located across the city to ensure residents have easy access to the vaccines.
The City of Jersey City is moving forward on a $2 million allocation to establish the POD sites at the next council meeting in the event that the state doesn’t provide such funding.
“We need to have a contingency plan in place to avoid any delays in making these critical vaccines available in the case that the state or federal government doesn’t provide resources. We feel that it is important to take the same approach as we did with testing, that we will use city dollars to get a program running and then fight to get the reimbursement later,” said Mayor Fulop.
An emergency resolution will go before the City Council during tonight’s regularly scheduled meeting to award a contract to Fixtech Medical USA, Inc. to build out the POD sites.
Tonight the City Council is scheduled to vote on ordinance 20-103, amending the Morris Canal Redevelopment Plan to create the “Berry Lane North Zone.” The amendment would allow for the construction of a gargantuan 361-unit luxury-housing complex known as “Morris Canal Park Manor” on three acres of land in Bergen-Lafayette formerly occupied by the defunct Steel Technologies facility. If this ordinance passes, it would constitute one of the most shameful developer giveaways in recent memory. The City Council should reject this ordinance and return the plan to City Planning to craft a project that respects the wishes of the community and attempts to honor the longstanding policy of making this land part of Berry Lane Park.
As we laid out in an article on December 15th, the land in question was slated to become part of Berry Lane Park. The “Acquisition Map” of the 1999 Morris Canal Redevelopment Plan shows the parcel as one “To Be Acquired.” As recently as 2018, plans were afoot to buy the property on the city’s behalf. An appraisal valued the land at approximately $3 million. The city applied for grants to buy it. The grants were approved.
What happened? Bergen-Lafayette became the next hot neighborhood, property values soared and the property owner saw an opportunity to make a killing.
Let’s start with just what a valuable property the “Steel Tech” site became. A back of the envelope calculation tells you why the developer wants to build this project rather than sell it to the city through eminent domain. For argument’s sake let’s assume that each of the 361 units is 750 square feet in size. Realtor.com tells us that upscale apartments in the neighborhood sell for $556 per square foot. That means that each apartment will have a value of approximately $417,000. The apartments – not including any retail and office units – will have a total market value of over $150 million. With help from the city and loans from the bank, investors have turned land they could have only gotten $3 million for two years ago into an extraordinarily valuable asset.
There’s nothing wrong with making money in America. The question is to what degree a municipality should relinquish control over land it has the legal right to use for a public good (like a park) to enrich real estate investors? And if it does so, what should it get in return?
Proponents of the project claim that its “community benefits” more than justify rezoning the land to allow for a 17-story luxury monolith in a low-rise neighborhood.
Let’s start with the “benefit” of affordable housing. According to the plan, 5% of the units would qualify as affordable. That’s a paltry 18 units, the bare minimum under the city’s new inclusionary zoning ordinance and an amount that will do almost nothing to alleviate the affordability crisis besetting Jersey City. It imposes an almost inconsequential cost on the developer of such a large apartment building.
Then, proponents argue, the developer must build a 22,000 square foot recreation center/basketball court to be deeded to the city. So far so good. But the project has been sold has offering much more, including a rock-climbing wall, a sauna, dance studios, music studios, and a food concession. However, the developer isn’t required to pay for or operate any of these. When asked who would, Councilman Jermaine Robinson, the council’s primary booster for the project, pledged to “raise money” for it. Not reassuring.
And then what about the 14,000-square foot “Neighborhood Commercial Facility,” 40% of which will become space for ten minority owned businesses at below market rates? Those only last ten years, after which they become market rate.
Finally, the project includes a 20,000 square foot outdoor public space that can be used for farmers markets and other public and private events. Who can criticize a public space for community events?
The problem is that the public will, in the end, have use of less than a third of the 3.3 acre parcel. The rest will go to the developer, land that was originally meant to be part of Berry Lane Park.
In a statement yesterday to the Jersey Journal, administration spokesperson Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione acknowledged that the city received millions in grants to acquire the property. But, she explained, the city couldn’t do so “without hurting taxpayers” since the asking price for the land was several million dollars above what the city had been awarded in grants.
First, the city has yet to account for all the grants. As JCT reported, the city may have already received more than $2 million for this purpose. The council should get this information before taking any action. Second, for the administration to claim that it is concerned here about “hurting taxpayers” when just a few months ago it rushed through a million dollar program to purchase “vertical gardens” to grow organic greens strikes us as a little rich.
Finally, the Bergen-Lafayette community has spoken up loudly against the project. In a section entitled “Community Empowerment,” the 1999 Morris Canal Redevelopment Plan stated “it is recommended that the Redevelopment Area community establish a single community based development coalition for the purpose of community inclusion and the decision making process of the Redevelopment Plan.” The city needs to live up to these words.
